
Latest Chapter
CHAPTER 6B – THE SERPENT’S DREAM (Part Two)
At first, there was no pain, only stillness. Then the world began to breathe. Raymond opened his eyes to find himself lying on water that didn’t ripple.The surface reflected a sky of cracked mirrors, and beneath the translucent waves, he could see his own face, hundreds of versions of it, each one whispering something he couldn’t quite hear.He tried to move. His body obeyed, but it felt slow, heavy, as if gravity itself was trying to pull him deeper. Where am I…? Inside yourself, the voice replied, soft as silk. Where you buried me.The water darkened. The reflection smiled back at him, not kindly. “You,” Raymond breathed. “You’re the thing inside the scars.”Not a thing. A memory. The first healer. The last serpent. The line blurs, doesn’t it?The reflection’s mouth moved perfectly in time with his own. Its eyes bled gold. Do you even know why you were chosen, Raymond Miller?He clenched his fists. “I wasn’t chosen. I was unlucky.”The reflection laughed, a brittle sound like break
CHAPTER SIX A– THE SERPENT’S DREAM
The wind carried the smell of wet stone and iron. By the time Raymond and Elysia reached the safehouse, a crumbling monastery half-swallowed by vines, the sun had already vanished behind the Veil’s rim.The structure crouched against a cliff, its stained-glass windows black with centuries of dust. Elysia pushed open the warped door; it groaned like something waking from a nightmare.“Used to belong to the Order of the White Sigil,” she said. “They were healers before the Empire hunted them down. The Flow here is thin but steady, we can rest, for a few hours at least.”Raymond nodded, lowering himself onto a stone bench. His body ached; every breath felt like pulling shards of glass through his lungs. “I didn’t think healers could get hunted,” he muttered.Elysia shrugged out of her cloak, lighting a dim blue flame in her palm. “Anything that can undo death frightens rulers. They want control, not compassion.”The flame’s light painted her face in fractured hues, tired, haunted, but un
CHAPTER 5C– ASH AND WHISPERS
For a long while, neither of them spoke. The Core’s glow had softened, bathing the chamber in pale light.Dust floated through the air like ash, the only sound the slow drip of liquid magic falling from the ceiling into a shattered basin. The silence felt sacred, heavy with things unsaid.Raymond pressed a hand to his chest. The second scar had gone cold again, but he could still feel something lurking beneath it, a pulse that wasn’t his.Elysia knelt beside one of the fallen guardians, her fingers brushing the cracked scales that lined its face. It was part human, part serpent, its mouth frozen in a silent scream.“They were my ancestors,” she whispered. “Bound to protect the Core until death… but they were betrayed by their own kind.”Raymond looked at her, unsure how to respond. “The Empire?”She shook her head slowly. “No. The betrayal began long before. The High Seers, our leaders, tried to ascend beyond mortality. When the ritual failed, it consumed them. Seraph’s purge only fin
CHAPTER 5B – ASH AND WHISPERS
The corridors of the Citadel twisted as if alive, walls shifting, light bending through cracks in the glass. Raymond’s boots slid on shattered crystal, his breath shallow.Every tremor sent ripples through the floor, and beneath the noise he could hear it, the whisper of the Flow, bleeding like a wound. Elysia’s voice echoed ahead. “This way!”He followed her through an archway that opened into a vast chamber, the Heart of the Vale. It was beautiful and terrible all at once.A sphere of liquid light hovered in the center of the room, pulsing with every heartbeat. Chains of glowing script bound it in place, their links cracking one by one.Around the chamber, the bodies of ancient guardians, half-human, half-serpent, hung frozen in the walls, their eyes weeping silver tears. Raymond stopped, awe and horror warring inside him. “What… is that?”Elysia’s voice trembled. “The Core. The Flow’s anchor. It’s where my ancestors tied our souls to magic itself. When the Empire burned the Vale, i
CHAPTER 5A – ASH AND WHISPERS
The air above the Vale shimmered like glass under strain. The mist that once cloaked the Citadel had thinned to threads of silver smoke, torn apart by the vibration of war horns echoing through the valley.Elysia stood on the bridge of light, her blade drawn. Behind her, the ruins of the Citadel glowed faintly, veins of crystal pulsing as if the fortress itself had awoken from a long slumber.Raymond tightened the straps of his cloak, heart pounding. The echo of his second scar still hummed in his chest, a low, unsettling rhythm that seemed to sync with the rumble of distant drums.“They’re early,” Elysia murmured, eyes scanning the horizon. “Seraph never wastes time.”“Who’s Seraph?” Raymond asked.She didn’t answer immediately. Her grip tightened on her sword hilt. “The Empire’s Blade. The one who burned the Vale the first time.”Raymond froze. “You mean, your mother’s killer?”Elysia’s eyes flicked toward him, glacial and bright. “He doesn’t kill. He purges. There’s a difference.”
CHAPTER 4C – THE SHADOW OF THE VALE
The Citadel of the Vale rose from the fog like a monument carved from moonlight. Spires of translucent stone pierced the night sky, glowing faintly from within as if the walls remembered the fires that once consumed them.Raymond stopped at the threshold, breath caught. “This place… it’s alive.”Elysia’s expression softened. “It dreams. The Flow never truly left it.”She stepped forward, and the gates responded, a deep hum rolling through the earth. The massive doors of woven crystal and steel parted slowly, revealing a courtyard choked with silver vines and glowing roots.Raymond’s eyes darted from one surreal shape to another. The roots pulsed with faint light, spreading like veins into every archway. “This was your home?”“It still is,” she said quietly. “In ways I wish it weren’t.”They entered the main hall, a cathedral of glass pillars and whispering shadows. At its center stood a throne grown from the roots themselves, empty but for a single wisp of silver flame hovering above
You may also like
Divine Cultivator: Rebirth of the God Emperor
Dragonix Loki38.2K viewsVINCENT MILES: AND THE FIST OF FIRE
Kurt Dp.16.2K viewsProgrammer in Another World
AmeronWerschrux_16.2K viewsLife as A Servant
TheCrow378.1K viewsSupreme Alchemist
Know Micro38.7K viewsCombat Evaluation
Victor1.5K viewsThe Tragedy of Ravan the Great: A Rose Tree Chronicles Story
J. D. Buchmiller2.5K viewsSilver Skeletons: Book 3 The Rose Tree Chronicles
J. D. Buchmiller2.7K views
