Stormfall
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The first sign wasn't thunder.
It was silence.
---
Nyren's Hollow—usually thick with insects, wind, the groan of ancient trees—fell utterly still. Even the shadows seemed to pause.
Kael was the first to draw steel.
"They're close."
Liora whispered a binding ward into the soil. Her fingers glowed, but the magic shivered.
"Something's suppressing the leyline. We're not alone anymore."
Lyssa rose from where she knelt beside her brother.
"They're here for the Fifth Seal."
Riven stood beside her.
"No. They're here for you."
---
Above the treeline, lightning forked in jagged spirals.
But it wasn't natural.
Each bolt followed a pattern.
Each flash formed a sigil.
Lyra gasped. "Skyweaving… they're rewriting the weather."
"They're announcing their arrival," Liora muttered.
Kael scoffed. "Showy bastards."
---
Then came the tremor.
Ground, not sky.
Drums—low and pulsing—echoed through the forest.
And from between the trees came the Sanctum Guard.
Clad in robes of crimson and bone-white steel.
Helmets shaped like serpent skulls.
Eyes glowing with the Eclipse's fire.
---
Riven stepped forward, cloak billowing in the wind that now howled through the Hollow.
Behind him, Lyssa joined, fingers wrapped around the mirrored Seal now embedded in a silver circlet at her brow.
They didn't run.
They waited.
---
One of the Eclipse advanced.
He didn't walk.
He glided.
Clad in layers of ink-black chains, each inscribed with forbidden glyphs.
His voice echoed in every ear—not spoken, but felt.
> "The Fifth Seal must not exist."
> "The Crown was never meant to reunite."
> "Step aside."
---
Riven's eyes burned silver.
His voice was low.
Steady.
> "No."
---
Then the storm broke.
---
Kael moved first.
Blade flashing.
He struck down one guard before they could cast.
Lyra loosed arrows tipped with frost runes, pinning two more through the trees.
Liora knelt and drove her hands into the earth, forcing the leyline into obedience. The ground exploded in a ring of blue fire, forcing back the advance.
But the High Sanctum didn't fight like soldiers.
They fought like doctrine.
---
Each movement was a ritual.
Each spell a sermon.
They advanced without urgency, yet with unshakable inevitability.
Lyssa spun, catching a strike with a mirrored barrier.
The Seal responded—not with offense, but memory.
Her attacker staggered.
Eyes flooding with visions not his own.
---
Riven surged forward.
One hand to his chest.
The Seals pulsed.
And from them came his will.
Flame. Frost. Shadow. And now—truth.
He struck down the lead Sanctum caster with a blade formed of silver fire.
Not a sword.
A memory.
His father's.
---
But it wasn't enough.
There were too many.
And the Sanctum wasn't here to win—they were here to delay.
To trap.
---
A second figure appeared in the sky above—hovering in robes that shimmered with Eclipse markings.
Seris.
Eyes aglow.
Hands bound in crimson cords.
She didn't speak.
She only raised one palm.
And the air collapsed.
---
Everyone dropped.
Even Riven.
His Seals flared, trying to protect him—but this wasn't a spell.
It was a command.
From one who knew the Seals' creation.
Seris descended slowly, landing between Riven and Lyssa.
"Look at what you've become," she whispered.
"No longer a tool."
"No longer a lie."
"But still not ready."
---
Riven gasped, trying to rise.
Lyssa forced herself upright, blood on her lips.
Seris looked at her gently.
"My dear. You're not the Crown."
"You're the mirror of it."
---
Then she raised a black blade.
Forged of Silence.
Etched with a name Riven didn't know.
But his blood recognized it.
The sword that killed their mother.
---
Riven roared—forcing himself to his feet.
The Seals shattered the suppression field.
He launched forward—but Seris met him effortlessly.
They clashed once.
Twice.
Then—
She whispered something in a tongue that wasn't Eclipse.
And time stopped.
---
Everyone froze.
Only Seris and Riven could move.
She leaned in close.
Whispered into his ear:
> "The Sixth Seal was never meant to break."
> "But if you seek it…"
> "Then your sister must die."
---
The time-bubble shattered.
Seris vanished.
The Sanctum with her.
Leaving the forest scarred.
Burning.
And silent.
---
Riven collapsed beside Lyssa.
She was barely conscious.
The Seal between them flickered.
For the first time… unstable.
Kael limped over, bleeding.
Liora was on her knees, exhausted.
Lyra helped brace Riven upright.
---
He looked around.
Then toward the eastern horizon.
Where the mountains rose.
Where an ancient prison waited.
Where the Sixth Seal had once awakened, centuries ago.
---
He whispered through bloodied teeth:
> "Then we go where they fear."
> "We go to the Ashlock."
---