Chapter 7 – Roads to Veln

The land changed as they neared the city.

No longer the endless grey of scorched sand and broken stone here, the world turned strange. Trees rose like twisted sculptures, bark etched with whorls of forgotten language. Thornvines grew in spirals, bleeding light where they cracked. Strange insects with translucent wings buzzed through the branches, singing in tones Kael didn't think belonged in this world.

Tessan called it the Reachwood.

"Old blood in this place," he muttered, sniffing the wind. "Old wards, too. Watch where you step."

Kael stuck close to Elira. Not because he trusted her though he did, a little but because she seemed to understand the world in ways the others didn't. She read the land like a soldier reading battlefield terrain. Quiet. Sharp. Always looking for traps.

"You're walking heavy," she told Kael as they crossed a creekbed choked with obsidian roots.

Kael blinked. "I—what?"

"Your steps. No grace. You're carrying your fear like a flag."

Kael looked down at his feet. "Never had time to walk quiet in chains."

She didn't laugh. Didn't mock him. Just gave him a nod. "You'll learn."

By dusk, they reached the edge of a ridge. Veln lay below.

Kael's breath caught.

It wasn't what he expected.

Massive rings of tiered walls, carved with symbols that shimmered faintly in the dying light. Floating lanterns drifted above the city like captive stars. The outer districts were sprawl and smoke, but the inner sanctums—those gleamed like iron thrones. Rivers of light ran through channels, and towers rose like teeth from the earth. Strange flying machines dipped and turned through the higher levels, wings humming with crystal pulses.

"Looks like something out of a myth," Kael whispered.

Ryall grinned. "Veln is myth. Only place this side of the Reach where the old magic still works."

Drev stood at the edge, silent, as if staring at something none of them could see.

Kael followed his gaze but saw nothing but a flicker of light where the horizon bent.

"Something wrong?" he asked quietly.

Drev didn't answer. Just turned and began walking again.

They passed through the outer gates with little trouble. Ryall flashed a sigil-bound token at the guards, who barely looked up.

Kael kept his hood drawn low.

The streets of Veln were alive. Markets clattered with voices speaking five languages Kael didn't understand. Creatures walked alongside humans some scaled, some feathered, some too strange to name. People in strange robes glided by, faces covered in silken masks. Floating signs shimmered above doorways, shifting language with the viewer's tongue.

Everything smelled of smoke, spice, and magic.

Kael had never felt so small.

Their destination was a crooked building off an alley between the lantern district and the outer barracks. It was called the Copper Wound, a halfway house for adventurers between jobs.

Inside, the air was warm and smoky. Tables full of mercenaries, spellrunners, and beasthunters crowded the space. A bard with too many fingers played a stringed instrument Kael couldn't name.

No one looked twice at him.

That unsettled him more than the stares ever had.

They were shown to a shared room upstairs. Ryall collapsed onto a cot with a sigh. Tessan dropped his pack and immediately began sharpening one of his axes. Drev disappeared into the shadows of the stairwell.

Elira turned to Kael.

"Stay low. Speak only when needed. Don't show the mark. There are eyes in Veln sharper than any blade."

Kael nodded. "Understood."

"And Kael?" she added, pausing in the doorway. "This place has rules. Break the wrong one… and no one here will care how branded or innocent you were."

He met her gaze. "I won't make trouble."

She gave him a hard look. "Good. Because trouble in Veln doesn't leave corpses. It leaves echoes."

Later that night, Kael wandered down to the main hall, pulled by voices and a need to breathe.

He found Ryall seated alone, carving something into the table with a curved dagger.

"Can't sleep?" Ryall asked without looking up.

Kael sat opposite him. "The walls feel too clean."

Ryall chuckled. "You'll get used to clean. Then you'll miss the dirt again."

Kael glanced around. "This place… why help someone like me?"

"You're not the first marked kid to crawl out of a hole," Ryall said, finally meeting his eyes. "And you won't be the last. But you've got something most of them don't."

"What's that?"

"Still figuring that out," Ryall said. "But it scares Tessan."

Kael blinked. "Tessan? He doesn't scare."

Ryall grinned. "Exactly."

Kael lay in the cot that night staring at the ceiling. Whispers tickled the edge of his thoughts again, like something behind a veil pulling closer.

He reached up and touched the mark on his neck.

It didn't burn.

It pulsed.

Softly. Like a second heartbeat.

Tomorrow, they would meet with someone called a Seer a woman who could determine if Kael had the spark of an Echo within him. It was necessary, Elira had said. Without the test, Veln wouldn't let him stay.

Kael didn't know what they'd find.

But something inside him already did.

And it wasn't sure if it wanted to be seen.