All Chapters of The Forsaken Heir of Ten Thousand Realms: Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
45 chapters
Chapter 21 — Panic and Hatred
Fear spread faster than fire.By morning, the slums were no longer whispering. They were shouting.Arin felt it the moment he stepped outside—the way conversations stopped, the way eyes followed him with a mix of terror and anger. Doors slammed shut. Children were pulled indoors. People who once begged him for help now backed away as if he carried plague in his veins.Lyra stayed behind him, her fingers knotted into the fabric of his shirt.“Arin…” Her voice trembled. “They’re looking at me.”He tightened his grip on her hand. “Don’t look at them. Look at me.”But the crowd gathered anyway.It started with one voice.“She burned them.”Then another.“She’s cursed.”A man stepped forward, holding a broken pipe like a weapon. His eyes were red with fear. “That girl isn’t human.”A woman screamed from behind him. “She’s a demon! Fire doesn’t touch demons!”Arin moved instinctively, placing his body between Lyra and the crowd. “She saved a child from a burning hut.”“That’s how demons tri
Chapter 22 — Tobin’s Jealousy Grows
Tobin had never liked silence.In the slums, silence meant trouble. It meant someone was watching. It meant something bad was coming. But this silence was different. This one pressed down on his chest, heavy and suffocating, filling the space where his thoughts should have been.He sat on the edge of the narrow cot in his family’s shack, hands clenched between his knees, staring at the dirt floor.Outside, the slums buzzed with restless energy. Whispers drifted through thin walls like poison carried on the wind.The demon girl.The shadow boy.The fire and the darkness.Every word twisted deeper into Tobin’s gut.His mother stood near the doorway, arms folded tightly across her chest. Her face was pale, eyes darting every time someone passed outside.“You are not going near them anymore,” she said firmly.Tobin flinched. “Mother, Arin didn’t do anything wrong.”His father, a broad man with tired eyes and permanently hunched shoulders, slammed a hand against the wall. “Enough.”The sou
Chapter 23 — Mira’s Confession
Night settled uneasily over the slums, thick with smoke and suspicion. The fires from earlier had burned low, leaving behind a dull orange glow that painted broken walls and wary faces. Arin stood at the edge of the abandoned courtyard, practicing controlled strikes against a cracked stone pillar. Each movement was precise, restrained, as if he were holding something dangerous just beneath the surface.Mira watched him from a short distance away.She leaned against a broken cart, arms folded, jaw tight. She had seen him fight. She had seen him stand alone against a crowd and refuse to bend. She had also seen the weight in his eyes afterward, the way his shoulders carried more than one boy should ever bear.“Your stance is off,” she said finally.Arin paused, breathing evenly. “I know.”“You’re overthinking it,” she replied, pushing off the cart. “Again.”He turned to face her. “Thinking keeps people alive.”Mira snorted. “So does hitting first.”She stepped forward and adjusted his foo
Chapter 24 — Elira’s Secret
The night after Mira’s confession passed without sleep.Arin sat with his back against the shelter wall, eyes half-lidded, listening to the city breathe. Every sound felt sharpened. Footsteps too even. Wind too deliberate. The slums had learned their scent, and something beyond the slums had learned it too.Elira stood watch on the roof.She had been there for hours, unmoving, a silhouette against the dark sky. Too still for a girl raised in alley chaos. Too controlled.Arin noticed.When the watch rotation changed, he rose quietly and climbed the broken ladder to the roof. Elira did not turn when he reached her. She already knew he was there.“You should be resting,” she said.“So should you,” Arin replied.She exhaled slowly. “Sleep is a luxury.”They stood in silence, looking out over the maze of rooftops. Lanterns flickered far away. Somewhere, a dog barked and went silent.“Elira,” Arin said at last. “You’ve been tense since yesterday.”She didn’t deny it.“People are afraid,” sh
Chapter 25 — Mysterious Elder Appears Again
The night held its breath.Arin felt it before anything else changed. The wind stopped moving. The distant sounds of the slums faded as if swallowed by thick cloth. Even the crackle of dying fires froze mid-spark.Time stalled.Arin stood abruptly, hand already reaching for Lyra, instincts screaming. Mira had been sharpening her club nearby. Elira had been watching the rooftops. Tobin hovered at the edge of the shelter, restless and uncertain.All of them froze.All of them except Arin.The world around him had stopped, but his heart still beat. His breath still moved. The shadows at his feet trembled, restless and alert.And then the old beggar stepped out of nothing.He appeared three paces away, staff tapping once against the ground. The sound echoed far too loudly in the frozen world.“You react faster than last time,” the old man said calmly.Arin’s jaw tightened. “What did you do.”The beggar smiled faintly. “I borrowed a moment.”Arin scanned the slums. People were frozen mid-s
Chapter 26 — Arrival of Spirit-Seeking Cult
The slums woke to chanting.Not the rough shouts of vendors or the familiar curses of hunger, but low, measured voices that rolled through the alleys like a funeral hymn. The sound did not belong here. It was too calm. Too confident.Arin felt it crawl along his spine the moment the first note reached him.He rose from the shelter quietly, signaling Mira and Elira with a subtle gesture. Lyra slept fitfully, her brow creased, breath shallow. Tobin hovered nearby, pretending to organize scraps while watching the street with wide, anxious eyes.“Do you hear that,” Tobin whispered.“Yes,” Elira said. Her hand rested near the hidden blade at her wrist. “It is ritual cadence.”Mira frowned. “Great. Another group of lunatics.”The chanting grew louder.Figures emerged from the main thoroughfare, moving in pairs. They wore pale robes stitched with concentric symbols that caught the light strangely, as if the fabric itself remembered other skies. Their heads were shaved clean. Their feet were
Chapter 27 — Kidnapping Attempt
The night fractured without warning.Arin had barely finished barricading the abandoned tannery when the air tightened, as if the world itself had drawn a sharp breath. The lantern flame guttered and leaned sideways, stretched thin by an unseen pull. Lyra shivered in his arms.“Arin,” she whispered. “Something is wrong.”Elira was already moving, blade half-drawn. “They followed.”Mira cursed under her breath and took position by the shattered doorway. Tobin hovered near the back wall, eyes wide, hands shaking.Then the chanting returned.It rose from all directions at once, layered and deliberate, threading through cracks in stone and bone alike. The sound crawled beneath skin and settled in the chest, steady and patient.The Spirit Priest stepped into view as if the darkness had parted for him.His robes were torn now, the crystal atop his staff cracked and bound with fresh sigils that pulsed faintly. His eyes burned with a fevered certainty.“Child,” he called gently. “Do not resis
Chapter 28 — Pure Spirit Appears
The night did not recover from Arin’s outburst.Even after the cult scattered and the shadows withdrew, the air remained tight, charged with something unseen. Dust hovered too long before settling. Sound traveled strangely, muffled and distant, as if the world itself was listening.Arin leaned against the tannery wall, breathing slowly, forcing his heartbeat into obedience. Lyra sat close, arms wrapped around her knees, eyes fixed on the place where the Spirit Priest had fallen.Mira wiped blood from her knuckles. “If this keeps escalating, we won’t last another night.”Elira did not argue. Her gaze was locked on the ceiling beams, tracking movement that had not yet happened.Tobin hugged himself, shaking. “That thing said others would come.”“They always do,” Arin replied.The words had barely left his mouth when the temperature changed.Not colder.Cleaner.The oppressive weight left behind by the cult peeled away, replaced by a calm so absolute it felt unnatural. The cracks in the
Chapter 29 — The Spirit’s Warning
Sleep did not come easily after the spirit departed.Arin sat with his back against the cold stone wall, eyes open, listening to the fragile rhythm of breathing around him. Lyra slept fitfully nearby, murmuring half-formed dreams. Mira dozed in short bursts, club within reach. Elira stood watch near the doorway, posture relaxed but senses razor-sharp. Tobin lay curled near the corner, pretending to sleep while fear kept him awake.The night pressed in.Arin felt it in his bones. A tightening. A sense that the world had leaned closer, curious and hungry.He closed his eyes for a moment.That was when the whisper came.Not aloud.Inside.Soft as breath against the ear, yet heavy enough to make his chest ache.Your blood is forbidden.Arin’s eyes snapped open.The world around him had not frozen this time. The fire still crackled faintly. Mira shifted in her sleep. Lyra breathed.But the whisper remained.Both realms will hunt you.Arin stood slowly, careful not to wake anyone, and stepp
Chapter 30 — The Slum Burns
The first scream tore through the slums just before dawn.Arin was already awake. He felt the shift in the air seconds before the sound reached them—the sudden rush of heat, the crackle of something igniting too fast to be accidental. He was on his feet instantly, pulling Lyra up with him.“Mira,” he said sharply.“I smell it,” Mira replied, already grabbing her club.Elira was at the doorway, eyes narrowed. “Fire. Not random.”The scream came again, closer this time. Then another. And another.The slums erupted.Flames burst from three directions at once, racing along dry wood and oil-soaked cloth. The fire moved with intent, leaping rooftops, curling unnaturally around stone. It was not ordinary flame. It burned too clean. Too hot.The Spirit-Seeking Cult.“They’re burning everything,” Mira snarled. “They don’t care who dies.”Arin felt the shadow coil violently inside him, responding to the heat. “They want us exposed.”Lyra clutched his sleeve, eyes wide. “Arin… people are trapped