Chapter 25: The Rootbearer’s Circle
Chapter 25: The Rootbearer's Circle
The Bastion did not sleep that night.
At the heart of its roots, the Codex itself pulsed.
No flames. No banners. Only a signal—a rhythm deeper than war. As if the ground itself had chosen to breathe differently.
Kael stood at the center of the newly grown Verdict Circle, a living sanctum coiled with Codex tendrils and fire-veined roots. Each seat spiraled from the ground—grown, not built. The chamber pulsed with warmth, not command.
This was no war table.
This was where legacy would decide its shape.
One by one, they arrived.
Thyrn Vaelspire descended from the rafters, wings folding behind him like gravecloth. Whisper-Vow emerged from a shaded corridor, her footsteps inaudible. Ironwrought stomped forward, dragging heat from his armored spine. Raazhk arrived last, soaked in salt, barnacles clinging to his helm, bearing a Codex fragment from the drowned east.
Others followed:
Maelith, obsidian-clad, with smoke trailing from her pauldrons.
Dreadmaw, silent, eyes lit with echo-pulse.
Serrin, seated before any others, unmoving, watching.
Talym, Codex nodes rotating above his wrist like spinning logic halos.
Zhaer, hands folded, leaning forward like a mountain waiting to rise.
Morrowseed's envoy, cloaked in root-fiber, a memory-tender.
Whisperroot's artisan, stone-skinned and vine-eyed.
The Highlander youth, speaking not with rank, but as the voice of the Rootborn Shelter. Her tattoos glowed green under the chamber light.
Thirteen chairs. Thirteen banners. But Kael stood.
He would not sit.
Not yet.
"You weren't called here to follow," Kael began. "You were called because we no longer lead through fear. We move through choice. Through root."
Whisper-Vow spoke first.
"I saw him again. Etuun's glyph burned into the east wall last night. It didn't scar. It grew."
Ironwrought growled.
"Symbols don't win sieges."
The Morrowseed envoy lifted a hand.
"Neither do unrooted flames."
Thyrn's voice cut across them all—sharp, distant.
"The skies see farther than your trenches. Ashvault clouds rise near the spine cliffs. They are moving. They no longer fear Bastion."
Zhaer stood.
"Then let's remind them."
Maelith's gaze drifted toward Kael.
"Before we ignite, you must answer: is this still a fortress… or is it a cradle?"
The chamber went quiet.
Kael stepped into the circle's center.
"We've burned long enough."
"Now, we take root. We remember. And if they come for us—"
He raised his hand. The Codex core flared.
A map of Luzon, glowing in red and gold, bloomed above them.
Flame-points pulsed across the south.
Ashvault movement.
"We answer together. No banner alone. No kin forgotten. Thirteen as one."
He looked at the final seat.
Empty.
Etched into the stone was one word:
REMEMBERED
Kael turned back.
"This circle is not for dominance. It is not for obedience. It is for answering."
He placed his palm on the Codex root at the center.
"I am not your sovereign. I am your fire. And your fire is mine."
All around him, the banners ignited—not with flame, but with resonance.
One by one, they spoke their vow:
"By root and by burn. We move together."
Outside, Bastion rumbled.
Vines thickened across the trench walls. Glyphs rewrote themselves across the main gates. Children whispered names beneath blooming torches.
The flame did not command.
It remembered.
Next: Chapter 26 – Glyphstorm at Hollow Spine