The Seeker of Forgotten Names
---
There are those who chase power. And then there are those who are sent to unmake it.
---
The Fractured Marshlands – Eastern Ithrael
The air was thick with fog, the kind that clung to your bones and whispered secrets only the damned could hear. A figure moved through the mire, his silhouette cutting through the gloom like a blade.
His name was Kaelith Varn—once a scholar of the lost academies, now the Seeker sent by the Gathering of Dead Names.
His mission was simple:
> Find Aedric Valtoris. Learn what Names he carries. Decide if he must be destroyed.
Wrapped in dark cerulean robes laced with silver filaments, Kaelith's presence warped the air around him. Runes hovered above his palms like fluttering crows, ancient and volatile.
Each step he took stirred the marsh into silence. Even the beasts of the deep dared not approach.
He paused by a drowned statue, barely visible under a moss-ridden canopy. The stone face was broken, but its inscription remained.
> "Let none tread the path of the Sovereign."
Kaelith touched the words and whispered an invocation. From the stagnant waters, a ghostly figure rose—transparent, twisted, bound by death.
> "Where walks the Flamebearer?" Kaelith asked.
The ghost's head turned toward the west—toward Velmire.
> "Then west I go," Kaelith said coldly. "And if the boy carries what they claim… I will end the Sovereign line myself."
---
Velmire – Days Later
The city was rebuilding slowly.
Beneath the collapsed spires, voices rang with hope again. Children helped gather stone. Masons whispered of miracles. Soldiers told tales of a warrior with burning eyes who stood alone at the gates.
Aedric Valtoris stood at the edge of the ruined Temple of Elarion, arms folded, watching a new wall rise. Behind him, the relic-bound tome—the Chronicle of Sovereigns—lay open, studied by Lyara, Selene, and Myrin.
Selene ran her fingers over the glyphs.
> "There's no denying it. This book predates even the Age of Binding. And here—see this passage—it claims the Nine True Names are fragments of the First Flame's soul."
Lyara's brow furrowed. "Which would make Aedric…"
> "More than a vessel. A key. Or a weapon."
> "Depending on who holds him," Myrin added, coughing softly. "And who dares try."
Aedric didn't look back. "You're all missing the point."
They turned to him.
> "This isn't about what I am. It's about what I must do."
He stepped forward, lifting the Chronicle. The pages fluttered.
A single word blazed across the center fold: AL'TERAN.
Lyara blinked. "The First Name."
> "The one even the gods feared," Selene whispered.
Aedric nodded. "It's in the Shrouded Expanse. That's where I must go next."
Myrin paled. "That place… is cursed. Voidstorms, shifting paths, illusions that prey on the soul. No one who enters returns the same. Or at all."
> "Then I'll come back different." Aedric's voice was steel. "I need that Name."
---
That Night – A Dream of Fire and Chains
Aedric dreamed of a burning sky.
A tower taller than mountains.
A figure in chains—blindfolded, bound in gold that wept blood.
> "Who are you?" he asked the prisoner.
The figure raised his head. His voice was sorrow and fury.
> "I am what you will become if you fail to choose. I am the Sovereign without name."
The chains tightened.
> "And I am what waits at the end of your path, Aedric Valtoris."
A scream tore through the dream—
And Aedric awoke, drenched in sweat, the glyphs on his arms glowing violently.
---
Elsewhere – Kaelith Draws Closer
Kaelith stood at the gates of Velmire.
Not a soul saw him arrive.
His eyes—one silver, one a void—studied the broken city with a scholar's precision.
He extended a hand.
A trail of dust lifted from the ground—then rewound time.
Flashes of the battle. Of Aedric. Of flame.
> "He holds three Names already," Kaelith murmured. "And still he walks unbroken."
He turned to the wind.
> "Then I will test him. And if he is unworthy…"
The sky above Kaelith shivered. Stormclouds responded to his whisper.
> "…I will return him to ash."
---