2025-12-12 18:46:15The frantic journey down the mountain road ended just as the sun broke fully over the distant peaks. They reached a regional hospital on the outskirts of Cluj-Napoca.
After hours of tense waiting, the doctor confirmed Leo’s prognosis: a deep, ragged laceration, severe blood loss, and a clear need for heavy antibiotics. He was stable, but he would be grounded for weeks.
In the hospital cafeteria, the remnants of the team Isolde, Maya, and Ben stared into their lukewarm coffees.
Isolde broke the silence, the road to the clinic took us three hours.
That’s six hours round trip on those roads. We’d be traveling well into the night to get back, and we know what happens after dark.”
Maya, still shaken from the attack, stared down at her hands. “The Zimbrul Fomist. He called it the Hungry Auroch.”
“It’s tied to the castle, Maya. That means this entire valley is a perimeter,” Isolde explained, drawing strength from the cold logic she was imposing on the situation.
“Marius has organized a rotation among the village elders. One of them will stay at the hospital to look after Leo. An old woman named Ana, agreed to sit watch. She’s the only one Marius trusts.”
Leo, struggling to speak, managed a raspy, “Go. Finish. Don’t waste the grant.” before he was wheeled into surgery earlier.
His pragmatism, even in pain, was the final push Isolde needed. The decision was brutal but made. They would proceed with the mission, and the moment they had the key information, the structural scans, the architectural data they would retreat.
At noon they set out.....
The road back to the inn was quiet
Maya, staring out the window as Ben drove. The headlights cut through the fog in narrow slices, revealing empty trees, empty road, empty everything.
Isolde with her eyes closed, head swung backwards, hugging her coat.
They reached the village quicker than any of them expected.
Ben parked in the small gravel lot.
Maya opened the door but didn’t step out immediately.
“You return late… and without one.” The innkeeper questioned.
Maya brushed past her, "We noticed she said bluntly" she wasn't in the mood for riddles
Isolde gave the innkeeper a fake smile
He had business to take care of, he will be here soon
She turned to Marius, you know well they shouldn't wander at night. She said and went on her way
Ben, Isolde glanced at Marius
The team and Marius gathered in Isolde’s room
Maya dropped into a chair, rubbing both hands over her face.
Ben pulled a folding map from his jacket and pinned it to the wall.
“We go at sunrise. The castle is an hour away. Gear is packed. Fuel is topped.”
Isolde flipped through her field journal. Any weapons??
Whatever weapons that works on a dark beast, we don't have it. Ben replied
Do not worry, Marius assured them, the Zimbrul Fomist won't be around during the day
The three shared a silent look of fear, determination.
Ben walked up to Maya
“You’re sure you want to come with us tomorrow?”
She sighed deeply and nodded once.
Marius bid them goodnight, Ben went back to his room.
Maya still on the chair feeling disturbed, the image keep flashing in her head, she didn't know if she actually saw the figure or if it was her mind playing tricks
She couldn’t tell her teammates, because everyone is already playing pity party for her, since she's freaking out too much. But is it not enough to freak out??
You should sleep.... Isolde voice brought her out of her trouble mind
I.... I can't....
“I keep hearing it… that sound it made.
It..... it keeps playing in my head and..... she stopped.
And..... she stopped again
Shhhhhh Isolde pulled her to a hug, patting her like an infant
It's okay to be scared..... it's fine baby
Maya buried her face into Isolde’s shoulder and sobbed.
*********
The next morning
The minivan was packed and silent. Isolde, Maya, and Ben stood waiting by the vehicle, their technical gear the LiDAR scanner, the thermal cameras, the heavy battery packs suddenly feeling pathetic against the primal threat they now knew existed.
Marius appeared, wearing a heavy, oilskin coat and carrying not just his knife, but a short-barreled shotgun slung over his shoulder. He did not ask if they were ready; he merely gave a brief nod toward the driver's seat.
“The drive is shorter now, but the path is not a road,” Marius said, settling in. “It is the old King’s road. It is broken in places, guarded in others.”
The old King’s road was a ribbon of shattered cobblestones that wound its way up the sheer cliffs. The ascent was dizzying. The air grew thinner and colder, and the dense pine forest began to give way to a landscape of scrub brush and twisted, leafless oak. It was a place where winter never truly relented.
As they gained altitude, Isolde noticed the subtle, sinister changes Marius had alluded to. The moss on the rocks was not green, but a strange, fungal black. The earth was pallid, and no birds sang. The silence was absolute, a massive, unnatural hush that pressed in on their ears.
“The border of the curse,” Marius murmured,
The land is poisoned.
"There," Marius pointed, his voice harsh.
They had rounded a massive, gray slab of rock. In the muddy churn just off the path lay the grisly evidence of last night’s attack: the partially devoured carcass of a mountain goat, its ribs exposed, the mud around it thick and dark. The smell was sharp, coppery, and foul.
Maya let out a muffled sound of distress from the back seat, and even Ben looked visibly ill.
Marius drove right past it. "It feeds only on what is close. It guards the door. It makes sure no one grows too comfortable here."
But not during the day
The drive felt endless, but finally, the ground leveled onto a vast, desolate plain of ash and shale. And there, dominating the entire world, stood the Castle of Aethelred.
It was larger up close, its towering bastions seeming to scrape the low, bruised clouds.
The stone absorbed all light, making it look less like architecture and more like a massive, obsidian shard jutting from the earth.
Isolde felt the anxiety of the journey fall away, replaced by an overwhelming, electric awe. This was it, the endpoint of her research, the centerpiece of her thesis, the ruin that contained the entire tragic history of Aurelius.
Marius killed the engine. "We walk from here. I stay by the castle entrance. You have two hours. The weather turns fast on this mountain."
Isolde was already unbuckling her seatbelt, grabbing the thermal scanner. She didn't look at the gates. Her eyes were drawn, as they had been in her dreams, to the highest point the central, jagged tower where the large, vacant eye of a window stared out.
The window was dark, a black hole in the gray stone. But for one heart-stopping second, as a gust of wind howled down the rampart, Isolde thought she saw a flicker of movement a shape, tall and impossibly still, silhouetted against the inner shadow. It was gone instantly, maybe a trick of the light or the adrenaline-fueled exhaustion.
She shivered, but the cold was irrelevant.
Standing at the gates of Aethelred, and the castle, she realized, was far from empty.
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Chapter 13: The Trial of Silver
The silence in Maya’s room was absolute, broken only by the rhythmic, heavy breathing of her drugged sleep. Ben didn't move. He stood by the frost-covered window, his shadow long and jagged against the floorboards. He wasn't looking at Maya anymore, his eyes were locked on the shimmering, impossible silver of Isolde’s gown."The dress, Isolde," Ben said, his voice dangerously quiet. "I’ve seen every piece of equipment we brought. I’ve seen every stitch of clothing in your suitcase. That... that is a museum piece.Isolde felt the weight of the gown suddenly become unbearable, like a suit of lead armor. "I found it, Ben. In the archives. I thought... I thought it would help me understand the period.""Don't lie to me!" Ben’s voice cracked like a whip. He stepped toward her, his face illuminated by the pale moonlight. "Leo is half-dead from a beast attack. Maya is turning into a statue of ice in front of our eyes. And you? You disappear and come back looking like you’ve stepped out o
Chapter 12: The Shattered Mirror
The Prince and the PredatorThe third night at Aethelred began with the same ethereal promise as the others, but the air in the Great Hall felt thick, charged with an electric tension that made the hair on Isolde’s arms stand up. She was dressed in a gown of shimmering silver, trailing like moonlight across the floor, but Aurelius did not move to greet her.He stood by the massive hearth, his back turned, his fingers digging so deeply into the stone mantle that it began to crumble.The fire in the hearth wasn't orange, it burned a low, spectral blue, casting long, distorted shadows against the tapestries."Aurelius?" Isolde whispered, stepping closer, her voice echoing in the vast, hollow space.He turned, and for the first time, she saw the cracks in the mask. His golden eyes were gone, replaced by a swirling, predatory obsidian that seemed to swallow what little light remained.His skin looked tighter across his cheekbones, and his breathing was a jagged, wet sound. The romantic
Chapter 11: The Waltz of the Damned
The chariot ride was faster tonight, or perhaps Isolde’s perception of time was simply dissolving. Marius drove the obsidian stallions with a reckless grace, the carriage swaying as they ascended the hidden paths to Aethelred. Inside, Isolde sat in a daze, her hand tracing the velvet upholstery. She felt like a bride being delivered to a temple.When the doors opened, she didn't wait for Marius. she ran up the stairs to the "Chamber of Relics."The green fire was already roaring. On the mannequin sat a new gown, this one of heavy, blood-red velvet with sleeves that trailed like wings. It was lined with ermine and cinched with a belt of solid gold.She dressed with a feverish haste, her fingers fumbling with the laces. She didn't look in the mirror this time. She didn't want to see another memories fondling her brain this time.*************Aurelius was waiting in the Music Room, a circular chamber walled with mirrors and dark mahogany. A single instrument sat in the center, a harp
Chapter 10: The Silk Labyrinth
The return to the Corbul Negru felt like falling from a dream into a gutter. Marius dropped Isolde at the edge of the village just as the sky began to bleed a pale, sickly gray.She walked toward the inn with her head down, her fingers curled tightly around the sapphire necklace hidden beneath her heavy wool scarf. The stones were freezing, a jagged reminder of the waltz, the starlight, and the way Aurelius had looked at her as if she were a resurrected goddess.She slipped through the front door, the floorboards groaning under her boots. The air in the inn smelled of stale tobacco and woodsmoke, mundane and suffocating.In the safety of her room, Isolde carefully removed the necklace. She pressed the cold gems to her lips, her eyes closing as she tried to summon the phantom scent of incense and roses. She hid the jewelry deep in the lining of her suitcase, burying it under her field notes. As she lay in bed, the coarse linen sheets felt like sandpaper against skin that had spent th
Chapter Nine: The Ghost of the Bride
Isolde waited for the entire team to go to bed, then she slipped outside, the entire village was quiet.But why would she actually agree to meet this mysterious man, what if the Zimbrul Fomist attacked her? But curiosity already gotten the better of her.Nothing will stop her, and even though she wants to, there's something pulling her towards the castle.The mountain air was a razor against Isolde’s skin as she walked, but the cold couldn't stop the fire burning in her veins.She reached the trailhead, expecting the lonely silence of the woods. Instead, she found a scene pulled from a nightmare of royalty.In the center of the path stood a massive, high-backed chariot. It was carved from wood so dark it seemed to absorb the moonlight, adorned with silver filigree shaped like weeping vines.Two obsidian-black stallions stood at the front, their eyes glowing with a faint, milky luminescence, their hooves striking the frozen earth with a sound like muffled thunder.Standing by the
Chapter Eight: The Archaeologist Obsession
The near-death encounter with the wolves failed to scare Isolde out of the High Carpathians, instead, it solidified her strange, dangerous obsession.She spent the morning of the attack narrating to Ben, Leo and Maya, insisting the man she saw was the same man she saw in the castle, the night of the bonfire as well.Leo, however, was thrilled. "A physical encounter! She was saved by something real. This is not a ghost story anymore!"The person you have been seeing was actually a real person?? Alive and breathing!! Ben howledMarius brought this, earlier this morning, Leo pointed to a large, brittle map he had spread out on the Corbul Negru’s table, pointing at a small structure half a mile from the main castle ruin.“This is the only auxiliary structure labeled in the 17th-century texts, the Watcher’s Tower. It was supposedly the private archive and observation post for the Von Caerstein family, sealed after the catastrophe. If there’s uncensored history, it’s there.”Ben was liv
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