Watching Closely
Author: Cindy Chen
last update2025-03-21 18:59:10

Calen made his way toward the washing area, carefully balancing the large pile of military garments in his arms. This was a menial task, but in reality, it was his best chance to observe the palace’s inner workings. If he could track which servants moved between the Queen’s Pavilion and the laundry station, he might uncover a pattern—a way in.

The washing station was a large open-air structure, covered with wooden beams and lined with long stone basins. Water flowed continuously through the carved channels, providing an efficient system for scrubbing clothes clean. The scent of soap and damp fabric filled the air, mixed with the occasional herbal fragrance of perfumed oils used for the Queen’s linens.

He set the pile down near one of the basins, rolling up his sleeves as his eyes discreetly scanned the workers.

Most of them were women, bustling around with practiced efficiency. Some were scrubbing, others were rinsing and wringing out the garments before hanging them on wooden racks.
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  • The Fire Before the Fall

    Darkness cradled her.Carmen drifted through layers of silence, heavier than sleep, deeper than dreams. And then—light. Faint at first, then blazing like memory returned.A vision bloomed before her.She stood not as herself, but within someone else—eyes she did not own, heart pounding to a rhythm not hers.A grand hall shimmered beneath her feet, draped in silver banners and carved obsidian pillars. Torches flickered with blue fire. The air was warm, filled with the scent of myrrh and ember-scorched silk. And on the dais ahead, a woman stood tall—regal, proud, yet with sorrow carved into the lines of her brow.The Queen.No name came to Carmen’s lips, but she knew. She felt it. This was the flameborne sovereign of old—ruler of Drakhtarion during its golden age. Her crimson gown billowed like fire itself, and in her arms she cradled a newborn, wrapped in scalesilk and light.A child.The Queen pressed her lips to the infant’s brow, her voice a tremor in the quiet. “You were born from

  • The Archives

    Shadowmere – The Observatory TowerThe air was thick with dust and candle wax. Ancient tomes lined the circular chamber of the High Archives—some so old their bindings had fused with the shelves. It had been years since anyone had stepped this far into the forbidden tier of Drakhtarion records.But Serenya Draeven moved with purpose.In her hand was a scroll of ancient items of the royals. And one word had haunted her since:Pendant. Calen talked about it before he left Shadowmere. He mentioned about the vision, about a girl named Carmen, about Aldric Storm. What is it?Serenya’s fingers brushed along the rows of weathered spines until she found what she was looking for: “Relics of Flame: The Oathbound Artifacts of Drakhtarion.”She opened it with care.The pages crackled. And there, inked in faded crimson and gold, was the sketch of a sigil—a stylized flame wrapped in a spiral of light, embedded into a teardrop-shaped pendant.Her heart skipped.“The Heartfire Sigil: a relic forged d

  • The Whispers Beneath

    The mist thickened with every step.What had once drifted in harmless tendrils now writhed like living things—coiling up the walls, creeping along the floor, slick and sentient. Carmen’s boots splashed into a shallow puddle. She froze.“There wasn’t water here before…” she whispered.Calen crouched, touching the ground. A smear of dark, viscous liquid clung to his fingertips.“Shadow ichor,” he said grimly. “Residual essence from old magic. The seal is bleeding.”“Wonderful,” Liora muttered. “So now the temple’s leaking ancient demon juice. Perfect.”Then the air shifted. Not visibly—but Carmen felt it. A tug in her chest. The corridor didn’t twist, and yet… something was off. The stone felt farther. The air, heavier. Time slowed.Calen stopped. “Wait.”“What now?” Liora said, low and sharp.His eyes narrowed. “The corridor—it’s longer. Too long.”They turned. The archway behind them had vanished into shadow. And the exit ahead... gone.“We’re not in the same space anymore, are we?” C

  • The Echo and the Warning

    The corridor behind the containment chamber grew colder with every step. The walls no longer merely loomed—they pressed, as if the ancient stone itself wished to push them back, to choke out the trespassers that dared awaken what lay beneath. The air felt dense and old, steeped in centuries of silence and dust.Each footfall echoed unnaturally, as though the sound traveled further than it should, returning distorted, like memories with too many teeth.Calen’s palm shimmered faintly with stormlight, the golden crackle casting trembling shadows across the damp stone. It barely held the darkness at bay.Carmen walked close behind him, her breath clouding faintly now. “This place feels… wrong,” she whispered, her voice soft but tense. Her hand brushed along the wall, fingertips finding grooves that felt like claw marks.“It felt wrong three hallways ago,” Liora muttered behind them, her fingers resting on the hilt of her dagger, eyes scanning every corner. “Now it feels cursed. Like the w

  • A Coffin

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  • Kill Him

    Shadowmere — The War CouncilThe great obsidian hall of Shadowmere was filled with the murmurs of power.Blue fire crackled in suspended braziers along the walls, casting dancing shadows over the ancient symbols etched into the black stone. Around the round table of dragonbone, the Elders of Drakhtarion had gathered—hooded figures, old and powerful, some scarred by war, others untouched by time.Aelion Draeven stood at the head of the chamber, his silver eyes sharp with tension. Beside him, Serenya's fingers glowed faintly from a residual tracing spell, her brow furrowed.“We all felt the disturbance,” Aelion began, voice echoing across the stone chamber. “The seal on Tharstan’s prison is fracturing. And Calen Storm… he is the cause.”A murmur rippled through the room.One of the elders—Maevin Thorne, lean and hawk-eyed—spoke first. “Then we must act. If Tharstan still festers in that prison, and Calen carries his blood, it is only a matter of time before the darkness finds him. And u

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