Recap – Chapter 4:
After escaping the city guards and entering a forgotten ruin deep in the forest, Kael encountered a mysterious voice—Umbra, the lingering will of an ancient god of darkness. The entity offered Kael power in exchange for loyalty to the path of the Shadowblood. At the end of the chapter, Kael accepted, awakening a latent mark on his chest under the moonlight.
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The night was still. A heavy silence hung over the crumbling ruins. Faint whispers of wind brushed against broken stone, but Kael heard something deeper—something alive within the shadows.
Sitting cross-legged in the heart of the temple ruins, Kael's breath was steady. Purple-black mist coiled around his body. The mark on his chest, shaped like a crescent moon, pulsed with eerie light.
> "You've taken your first step,"
Umbra's voice echoed in his mind.
"But power always attracts predators... and ghosts of your past."
Kael clenched his fists.
"I have no past left to haunt me," he muttered.
But that wasn't entirely true.
A name rose from the dark recesses of his memory—Lyria.
The girl who once nursed him back from death. A noble's daughter who defied her family's cruelty. She had seen him at his weakest, and still stayed. Even when Kael pushed her away.
> "You still think of her,"
Umbra hissed.
"She walks a path darker than you realize. If you wish to find her, return to the city. But beware... her soul may not be hers anymore."
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Two nights later – City of Elyndra
Kael walked the alleys cloaked in shadows, a hood masking his face. The city buzzed with life, oblivious to the darkness beneath.
He was hunting a name: Ardyn Blacktongue.
An information broker, said to know things even the nobles feared to whisper.
The trail led Kael into the underground—a forbidden bar where blood contracts were signed with knives instead of pens. There, a man with a snake-like tongue and glowing yellow eyes waited.
"You seek the girl," Ardyn said, sniffing the air. "She was taken. Chosen."
Kael's voice was cold. "By who?"
Ardyn leaned closer, licking his fangs. "The Eclipsed Court. A cult of moon worshippers. They need a Vessel. And she was... perfect."
Kael's blood froze.
> "They awaken her under the twin moons. If they succeed... she will no longer be Lyria. She will be something else."
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That night, under the pale light of the twin moons, Kael stood on the edge of a tower ruin overlooking the city.
> "Lyria... if there's even a part of you still left inside... I'll find you. I'll bring you back."
Then, like a wind brushing against his soul, he heard it—her voice.
> "Kael..."
His breath caught. He turned sharply. No one was there.
But it was real.
Somewhere, Lyria still remembered.
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To be continued...