The torches flickered along the marble arches, each flame burning a little colder than the last. Deep in the Hall of Whispers, King Tharion waited in silence, his jaw clenched, eyes dark with suspicion.
Moments later, the double doors creaked open. First entered High Priest Cazien, robed in midnight black, his silver beard reaching his chest. Behind him, five others followed each in different colored robes, their footsteps silent on the marble floor.
Priest Vanya of the Red Cloak, keeper of war and bloodlines.
Priest Aldros in Blue, the scholar of water and truth.
Sister Elithe in Green, the voice of nature and healing.
Priest Marn of Gold, master of light and the stars.
And Sage Truvien, cloaked in gray silent observer of fate.
They bowed as one. Tharion didn't move.
"I asked for you alone, Cazien," he said coldly.
Cazien met his eyes. "Where prophecy stirs, the council must be present. You do not command the winds of the old world, Your Majesty."
Tharion sneered. "I command everything in this kingdom. Including what's left of the old world." Elithe's voice was gentle. "You've silenced the mages, yes. But not the magic itself."
Truvien added softly, "Magic is not a voice, but a heartbeat. And this kingdom is starting to feel it again." Tharion's fist slammed against the arm of his throne.
"Enough. Tell me what you've all hidden from me." Cazien obeyed, lowering himself across the table that held only a single ancient book, its cover bound in cracked dragonhide.
"What is this am hearing?," Tharion said.
"The wind carries strange whispers, Your Majesty, The prophesy....."
"What prophecy" Tharion cuts in fiercely.
Cazien stepped forward, pulling from his robes the Book of the First Fire, the oldest known scripture of the world before the purge. Its pages were thick, stitched from ash leaves and dragonhide, humming softly with ancient magic.
Cazien placed the book on the stone table before the throne.
"You've ruled by fear," Cazien said, "and by the power of that ring. But your rule was never meant to last forever."
"What nonsense!, Need I remind you who you're all talking to" Angry Tharion laments.
"Am sorry your Majesty, but are you ready for the truth?" Sister Elithe, the voice of nature and healing says as they all form a circle around the palace. Cazien opened the book to a sealed page marked with blood, time, and shadow.
Vanya stepped forward, reciting the old tongue as her eyes beams with green rays of light.
"When fire sleeps and darkness rules the land,
A child of silence shall rise from ash and sand.
Born not of crown, but of olden flame,
He shall bring magic back, and end the tyrant's name.
He will command without teaching,
Speak without sound, and burn without grace.
The world will name him the Returner.
His hands shall rule without sword but spell.
A beast shall fall, and the sky shall swell.
In his shadow, kingdoms will break and bend.
Beware the orphan boy he marks the end."
Vanya falls to the ground after reciting the spell as other priest help her get on her feet. Sage Truvien added, "This is not a warning, Your Majesty. It is a certainty."
"How do we stop this" Tharion asked. Stop what your Majesty? High priest Tharion asked curiously
"This damn prophecy, don't act all dumb".
"Your Majesty, the prophecy must be fulfilled" Vanya said. But she just triggered king Tharion. "Lock her up".
"your Majesty" Cazien calls out.
"I am the one and only King, the immortal, any one who stands on my way must fall, I don't give a damn about any prophecy, I am the god and only King Tharion, you all belong to me. every single one of you" Tharion says as he blood boils
He walks up to vanya, grab her by the chin and looked into her eyes as the guards hold her ready for exile. "The next time you oppose me, I'll feed you to the dust".
"I am sorry your Majesty". Vanya pleads in fear.
Tharion stared at them, the firelight dancing off his gold crown. His jaw clenched as he walked up and down the room.
"You knew this… all of you. You knew, and you waited."
Aldros stepped forward. "The child was hidden. Not even we knew if he had survived." Elithe nodded. "But now... the signs are returning. Animals dying without wounds, Books whispering open, Children dreaming of fire."
Cazien closed the book.
"We believe the child is alive. And you've given him reason to rise your highness" Tharion stood, towering over the priests.
"Then you've doomed us all."
He stepped toward the map carved into the table, pointing at a small speck near the forests.
"dellwyn. That's where the rumors started. That's where the Black Flame will begin." Tharion turned to his royal guard Commander who had been silently watching from the shadows Maelrik the Hollow, of the Black Flame, a pale man with a scorched scar across his left eye chief General of the army of Oz.
"You will take two hundred men," the king ordered. "Raid every village between Dellwyn and Gallow's Pass. I want every boy inspected. Every house searched. If he resists... burn the town."
Cazien spoke up, voice low but calm. "If you force his hand now, he will rise in fire." Tharion glared at him.
"Let him rise. I will crush him like the rest of his kind. All of you get out. GET OUTT..." Tharion groans.
Outside the Hall
As the priests left the hall one by one, Sister Elithe turned to Cazien.
"Do you truly believe the boy can stop him?"
Cazien looked up at the sky through the high windows of the castle.
"Not just stop him," he said quietly.
"He may be the only one who can save us all."
Later that night, Cazien returns to Dellwyn Ozile and lights a single candle within the Temple of Silence, the spiritual center of the old magic.
He kneels beneath a giant mural of the "Black Flame Prophecy." and whispers,
"Let the boy's heart remain pure… may rage not consume what hope begins."
He places an amulet, a white obsidian pendant on the altar.
"For Lucas… if he ever finds us."
Unknown to him, the pendant glows faintly as if Lucas's energy resonates miles away.