Chapter 15 - CHAPTER 15 — “CHAINS IN THE DARK”

The forest fell eerie and silent—the kind of silence that presses against the skin like a living thing. Leaves paused mid-whisper, birds ceased their songs, even the creek's gurgle stilled, as if the wilderness itself was holding its breath. Veer kept his shield low, muscles coiled tight, every sense flaring in stark awareness.Ashish moved beside him like a stoic oak, shoulders squared, skin shimmering faintly with stone-like hardness—a living fortress. The quiet boy, once a shadow at the camp's edge, now moved with calculated precision, each step weighed as if it might be his last.They had pressed deeper not because the path was clear, but because it felt like the only way forward: a snare laid out in cruel patience. To find the trap's teeth, sometimes you have to step past the edge.Then, the orcs surged—a terrifying wave, twice the size of the scouts they'd broken days before. These weren't wild predators; they fought in disciplined, brutal rhythm. Their leader, a hulking brute with chipped tusks and cruel eyes, cut through their lines like a prow splitting waves, his axe a brutal extension of his will.Blades flashed. Ashish thundered forward, body meeting orc with bone-crushing force. His stone skin soaked the worst hits, sweat mingling with grime as he smashed foes to the earth.Veer's shield caught blows, coiling energy in his arms like spring steel ready to snap. The quiet boy's fingers traced arcs in the air, subtly bending gravity to trip and topple enemies just at the right moment.For fleeting moments, they fought with fire and fury, buying hard-won breathing room.But the orc leader's axe cleaved wider, the orcs pressed harder, and numbers tipped the balance.Veer saw the truth snap clear as bone. They could buy seconds; they could fight desperately for breaths—but not escape. Not all three.Their eyes met—no more empty masks, just raw, honest calculus."One must go," the quiet boy's voice was flat, small—a man who had long been saving every breath.Ashish's jaw clenched, stepping forward to refuse."You won't abandon us," Veer's hand tightened on his shield. "But if you stay, your sacrifice is wasted. We die for nothing."The boy's fingers clenched, pulling the air to slope the ground just slightly beneath the orcs. The change was subtle but perfect—the orc formation snapped open like a torn seam.Energy hummed deep in Veer's arms, unleashed in a thunderous push that threw the nearest brutes to their knees."Go!" The quiet boy's bark carried a new strength, a command Ashish heard as purpose, not abandonment.Hesitant at first, Ashish ran—lungs burning, boots skidding through mud soaked with iron and smoke.He glanced back once at the battered figures left behind: Veer, shield dull and smoking; the quiet boy, blades shining at his feet, face a mask of resolve.The orc leader's roar split the air as the net snapped closed.Chains clattered on iron clamps locking onto Veer and the boy, rough hands dragging them like trophies into the darker woods.Ashish's boots pounded into the shadows, racing toward vengeance and hope.Veer spat soil and hissed at his captor as rough iron bit into his wrists. Pain was sharp but numbing—a reminder of his limits.Beside him, Suriya—the quiet boy—watched, calm and measured. Rage gave way to grim acceptance. Chains bound them not for mercy, but for purpose."Why not kill us?" Veer rasped through clenched teeth.Suriya's voice dropped low, heavy as confession. "They won't kill us yet. They value us… There's something beyond axes and war. Something tied to what I've been searching for." He swallowed, voice inflected with strange gravity. "My name… is Suriya Singh."Veer blinked. No drama, no flourish—just a man's quiet truth and the fragile hope behind it.Suriya's eyes locked with Veer's. "I lost someone long ago. I tracked rumors of an aura—like the one I saw on an orc. I believe it's connected to the person I care for. They bring us to those who answer to it. Perhaps I'll learn more."No promise of rescue—only the thread of something real.Veer felt a kinship born in loss. In a broken world, someone still held tight to what mattered.Farther along, Ashish slid down a fallen tree trunk, burying his face in raw hands.Silence greeted him first, profound and bitter.It became a roaring fury inside."They took them," he whispered to the trees. "They took them... I will tear you all down."Rage and guilt drove his steps—the path ahead was grim, but it was all he understood.The darkness swallowed the prisoners, pulling Veer and Suriya toward a place few dared approach: the blackened foothills of the kingdom's secret.Chains clanked, steps echoed, and the question hung like smoke—If that aura Suriya chased belonged to a person, who was it?They did not know.They were small in a world grown monstrous.