Underground Passage, Sahrak – Day 41, Afternoon
The ground cracked beneath their feet.
Three figures moved into the darkness: Valerian, Helvar, and Talia.
When the torches flared to life, the first thing revealed was...
a seal carved into stone.
A three-headed serpent.
Talia's voice echoed:
"This symbol… it belongs to the ancient Althern Order.
Vanished for centuries."
Helvar examined the old engravings on the walls.
Some words had survived the erosion of time:
> "The blood of the future rises from the fire of the past."
When Valerian stepped on a stone slab beneath him,
the floor slowly sank.
A new chamber opened.
Inside, it was cold.
Bones were chained to the stone walls.
But at the center stood
a sealed chest.
Valerian approached.
One word was carved on the lid:
"Inirath."
Talia gasped:
"The legend was true.
This is the legacy of Emperor Inirath."
Helvar asked:
"But why did your father come here?"
Valerian opened the chest.
Inside were an ancient armor, a rusted sword, and a filled journal.
The first page of the journal read:
> "If you are reading this…
then you may be of my blood.
You will not rule with this sword.
You will not shield yourself with this armor.
You will try to understand with this journal.
For a true emperor
conquers himself first."
Valerian took the journal and closed his eyes.
One thought echoed within him:
"I am no longer just a king."
Helvar asked:
"What now?"
Valerian opened his eyes, firm and resolute:
"We return to the surface.
And choose our first target.
Because now…
we begin taking what is ours."
When they emerged into the sunlight,
Valerian's eyes gleamed not with desert dust—
but with the dawn of a new era.
Outskirts of Sahrak – Day 42, Sunrise
Valerian hadn't slept through the night.
His eyes were lost in the pages of the journal.
The words of Emperor Inirath…
felt less like history, more like prophecy.
At first light, Helvar approached:
"Movement in the western lands.
The Sandthrone Kingdom
is mobilizing troops toward its borders."
Valerian didn't lift his gaze:
"Who is their king?"
"Vuraneth.
Ruthless, but dim-witted."
Talia entered holding an old map.
A narrow pass was marked just west of Sandthrone:
"If we take this pass,
we'll control both east and north.
And Sandthrone's defenses are weakest here."
Valerian stood.
His voice rang out like a commander for the first time:
"That pass… will be our first gate to a throne."
In a stone lodge by the lake,
Valerian and his men gathered.
Boran, the spear commander, spoke:
"We lack numbers."
Talia countered:
"But no fortress is immune to strategy."
Valerian pressed his hand on the center of the map:
"Our target is the 'Salt Pass' of Sandthrone.
First night, we infiltrate.
Second day, we strike.
Third day… we raise our banner."
As night fell,
Valerian and fifty elite warriors
moved in silence.
The guards of Salt Pass
were drunk and drowsy.
Helvar silently neutralized three.
Talia picked the locks.
Valerian entered with a faint smile.
"This is not just a pass…
this is a beginning."
With the first light of dawn,
a new banner flew above the towers of the Salt Pass:
On a black field,
a golden three-headed serpent.
Valerian was no longer just a king.
To his enemies,
he had become a harbinger of dread.