Chapter 7: The Blood of Thirteen
Chapter 7: The Blood of Thirteen
The Hollow Spire had never seen this many gathered warriors since the Great Rift War.
Now, under its violet sky and atop the cracked marble of the Spire's Gathering Hall, Kael stood with five other known Sightbearers. Six Oculiths pulsed with veiled resonance beneath their brows each shape alien, each hue unnatural. Kael's eye shimmered a subdued crimson-black, while Nysera's remained silvered and reflective, dancing with her mirrored clone. Tyros' burned gold-orange like magma. Lira's spiral glowed with oceanic green, and Cehn's spiral eye showed no clear pupil just rotating sigils of voidscript.
None of them trusted the others.
None of them could afford to.
"I thought the Archive would bring us answers," Kael said to Nysera in hushed tones. "But it only raised more questions."
She nodded, then looked toward Maeryn as he began to speak.
"This is the first formal Gathering of the Sightbearers since the Fracturing," the Elder said, his voice echoing unnaturally through the hall. "In that cycle, there were only ten."
Cehn's head tilted at that. "History obscured. Records imply thirteen existed then too."
"That's... impossible," Lira said.
Maeryn gave no expression.
"There are thirteen now," Kael said. "Maybe there always have been. Maybe some just... hide."
Before an answer could be offered, the chamber began to tremble.
From below.
From far, far beneath the Hollow Spire's roots.
---
The Hollow Vault had not opened in three thousand years. Not since the last Sightbearer awakened all seven Seals.
And now it cracked.
Chains of blood-gold snapped like silk.
A sigil long buried in Obsidian Flame came to life the Eye of Godless Sight, etched into the stone.
> [System Alert: Forbidden Object Breach — Codename: Seed of Paradox. All active Oculiths affected.]
The Sightbearers screamed.
Kael dropped to his knees as a wave of chaotic memory slammed into his mind. Not memories of his life, but fragments of all lives future deaths, past glories, unborn fates.
> [Oculith: Seal II Reaction Triggered. Mental Resistance Check... Failed. Synaptic Burn Active.]
Blood poured from his nose.
Tyros convulsed, flames erupting from his skin. "Make it stop!" he roared.
Nysera's clone screamed and shattered like glass.
Only Cehn remained upright, eyes pulsing with slow, methodical voidlight.
Lira was silent, floating half a meter above the floor, skin covered in serpentine markings.
Maeryn raised a trembling hand and struck the Hall's core rune with his staff.
> [Emergency Seal Protocol: Chamber Stabilized. Mental Load Rebalanced. Low Realm Threat Level Raised to Tier III.]
The pain stopped.
But the damage remained.
Kael's vision returned slowly. "What... was that?"
Maeryn looked older than ever. "A forgotten Seed. From a time before the Realms were divided."
"And now it's awake," Lira muttered.
"And it will call to the others," Cehn added. "We must leave Hollow Spire. Scatter. Survive."
---
The Sightbearers did not part as friends.
Within an hour, Cehn disappeared into the Riftshade Jungle.
Tyros returned to the Wyrmblood Peaks to rally his kin.
Lira took to the skies aboard a spirit-winged leviathan.
Nysera and Kael remained.
Together, they descended deeper into the ruin.
"What are we looking for?" she asked.
Kael tightened the wrappings around his gloves. "Answers. Anything about the next Seal... before it consumes us."
---
They discovered it three days later.
An obsidian monolith covered in thirteen bloodstains.
Each stain shaped like a different Oculith.
Each one pulsing.
> [Oculith Directive: Synchronization Trial Optional. Warning: Premature entry risks seal rupture and identity erosion.]
Kael hesitated.
Nysera placed a hand on his shoulder. "We don't need to rush."
He shook his head. "No. But we need to know what's waiting."
Behind them, the monolith's surface opened.
And the thirteenth voice finally spoke.
> "Child of Sight. You stand at the edge of our pact. The Pact of Forbidden Eyes. Choose."
Kael stepped forward.
And the monolith swallowed him whole