The Feather and The Fang
The Hollow War II
---
"The wind speaks, but only the fanged understand. The feathered listen in silence."
Whispers from the Vault of Breathless Echoes
---
Vale of Thorns – Nightfall
The wind was sharp.
It sliced through the broken stone arches of the Vale, lifting dust and secrets. Lireen pulled her cloak tighter, while Kael knelt, brushing his fingers against a half-buried emblem.
A feather. No, not carved. Real.
And beside it a fang embedded in the stone, humming faintly.
> "We're not the first to come here," Kael muttered.
Lireen crouched beside him. "Then who left the mark?"
Kael: "Not who. What. This was a trial ground."
---
Beneath the Vale – Entrance to the Vault of Breathless Echoes
They found it by blood.
A small altar, cracked with time, but when Kael's blood touched the grooves, the stone shivered. The hidden door breathed open like lungs inhaling for the first time in centuries.
Lireen's voice was barely audible. "You're sure we should do this?"
Kael nodded. "Whatever the Feather and the Fang meant, it's part of the Architect's chain. And we have to break it."
They stepped into the dark.
---
Vault Interior – Spiral of Echoes
The air was thick, not with dust, but with presence.
Every step they took echoed strangely, like the walls remembered each sound and whispered them back, warped and ghostly.
> "Welcome."
Kael froze. Lireen grabbed his arm.
A figure appeared, draped in fur and feathers, eyes gleaming like twin moons.
> "You wear the blood of hollow truth. You seek the Fang?"
Kael: "We seek the end of lies."
The figure chuckled. "Then bleed for it."
And the chamber shifted.
Walls twisted, the floor vanished, and Kael found himself standing on a narrow platform above an endless void.
Before him: the Fang-Bearer.
---
Trial of the Fang
> "You will not fight to kill. You will fight to remember."
The Fang-Bearer drew a blade curved like a crescent moon. Kael summoned his will he had no sword, only the binding spell etched into his palm.
Their battle was not just metal against metal it was memory.
Each strike Kael received showed him a vision:
Lireen at age ten, crying over a broken music box.
His own mother's final breath.
The first time he saw Arcanhelm burn.
> "Your past is your blade, boy. Will you wield it or fall to it?"
Kael roared, unleashing the echo spell. It collided with the Fang-Bearer's laughter.
And then silence.
---
Chamber of Feathers – Moments Later
Kael gasped on the floor. Blood dripped from his brow.
Lireen knelt beside him. "You did it. The trial… it's over."
He sat up slowly. In his hand was a new mark a feather entwined with a fang.
The Fang-Bearer knelt before them both.
> "You are not the heir. You are the reminder. The one who must awaken those who forgot."
Kael: "Awaken what?"
> "The Architect's children. You are not his first… nor his last."
Lightning cracked above them. The Vault trembled.
> "Go. You have little time. The Court has sent a hunter."
---
Meanwhile – Inner Court, Arcanhelm
Calven Velmire was restless. He watched the flames flicker in the throne room hearth. A cloaked figure entered without knocking.
> "Report."
> "They've entered the Vault."
> "And the Fang?"
> "He let them live."
The prince slammed his fist into the throne's arm.
> "Then it's time. Call the Watchers of the Seventh Vein. And release the Hound of Hollow Glass."
---
Outside the Vault – As Dawn Rises
Kael and Lireen emerged into the pale light.
Lireen: "You think they know what we found?"
Kael: "They knew before we stepped in. They're always watching."
He glanced at the feather-fang mark on his hand. It pulsed.
Lireen: "Then what now?"
Kael: "Now we go to the Garden of Silence. That's where the first child of the Architect was buried. And maybe, where we'll find the next key."
The wind howled.
Far off, something began to scream.
Not human.
Not beast.
But something that remembered everything.
---
📌 Highlight Teaser :
> Kael survives the Trial of the Fang and earns a mark that may awaken a long-forgotten legacy. Lireen begins to question the truth behind her family's power. As the Vault of Breathless Echoes closes, the Court releases its most feared hunter: The Hound of Hollow Glass. The chase begins.
Next: Chapter 29 – "The Garden of Silence" 🌫️🌿