Solmara’s First Mistake

Kael – The Missing Warrior

The proclamation spread like wildfire across Solmara's cobblestone streets and beyond its towering walls.

"Kael, the Rift's Executioner, is missing."

Not dead. Not captured. Simply… vanished.

The words echoed through taverns, marketplaces, and shadowed alleys where the fearful whispered their theories. Messengers carried the news on horseback, their voices hoarse from shouting it to every village within a day's ride. The kingdom buzzed with unease, a hive stirred by the absence of its most lethal sting.

The wording was deliberate, crafted by King Aldric himself. He wanted control over the narrative, to leash the chaos that Kael's disappearance might unleash. If Solmara's most feared warrior had simply disappeared, it left room for doubt—room for the people to wonder if he would return, his blade dripping with the blood of their enemies once more.

A dead hero was a martyr.

A captured one, a rallying cry.