When the Hunger Wakes

The silence after Kael's words was colder than steel.

Veyrion didn't speak. Not right away. He just stood there, still as a statue carved by war and regret, his face unreadable.

Behind his golden eye, something ancient stirred.

Kael didn't flinch. Didn't look away. He stood there like a soldier before judgment. But Veyrion wasn't his commander right now. He was his father. And that made it worse.

Finally, Veyrion moved.

He turned back to the scroll, hands steady. The flickering candlelight etched shadows across the deep scars on his wrist—reminders of the past. Of the price paid.

"You think power makes you ready," he said, voice low. "But you don't understand what it costs."

"I'm not afraid of pain," Kael said.

"No," Veyrion muttered. "But you should be afraid of what comes after."

A heartbeat passed.

Then another.

And then the room shook.

Just a tremor, barely enough to make the ink pot rattle against the wood—but it was there. Felt through the bones more than the floor. Mana vibrated in the air like a distant scream.

Veyrion's gaze snapped to the window. His left eye flickered, and the runes across his arm pulsed once, faint gold beneath skin.

From the east—from the Undercity.

He felt her.

She was moving.

Undercity – Depths

The shadows bled around Aelira as she walked.

Stone arches curved above her, black with rot. The walls wept. The air reeked of old metal and older blood.

She didn't mind.

Behind her, two figures followed, their faces hidden beneath dark hoods, their auras coiled like venom. Even they kept their distance.

The rusted gate before them was ancient. A relic older than the kingdom above. Older than any written record. But Aelira traced its carvings like a lover's skin, her fingers slow, reverent.

The runes on her arm—mirror twins to those on Kael—began to glow.

"The seal is weakening," one of the figures rasped.

Aelira smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "It has to. The gate won't open without the bloodline."

"Veyrion won't give you the boy."

"He won't have a choice."

She stepped closer to the gate. Pressed her palm against the cold metal.

It drank from her.

And somewhere far above, Kael gasped and fell to his knees.

Veyrion's Quarters

Kael hit the stone hard.

One second, he'd been standing there, staring his father down.

The next—he was drowning.

Mana. Raw. Violent. Ancient. It poured through his veins like molten ice, burning and freezing at once. The runes on his arm flared to life, not with light, but with sound. A deep, resonant hum that filled the room.

He screamed.

Veyrion was on him instantly.

"KAE—!"

But the moment his hand touched Kael's shoulder—

The seal cracked.

Not Kael's.

His own.

It was like a sword had been driven into his soul. His vision blackened. His back arched. A golden wave of mana erupted from his chest, warping the air, making the stone beneath them bleed. The AI stirred. No longer a whisper.

A voice now. A command.

"Mana seal destabilizing. Host integrity compromised."

Kael writhed beneath him, teeth clenched, body spasming. His runes shifted—changing. No longer dormant. No longer passive. They were alive.

"What the hell did she do to you…" Veyrion breathed.

Then the whisper came again, but this time, it was not the AI.

It was her.

"You should've let me burn."

Elsewhere – The Council Chambers

Lady Sylria paused mid-sentence.

The others didn't notice. Too busy arguing over border security and containment protocols.

But she felt it.

Like the world had hiccuped.

Like something deep beneath their feet had woken up.

She slowly curled her fingers, the ring on her hand flickering faint violet.

The signal had come.

The time was near.

To Be Continued…