Kael left the ruins before dawn.
The Hollow Fortress, once a place of loyalty, was now just another corpse. He didn't look back. There was no past to reclaim there—only a trail of betrayal buried in snow.
He had a new target now.
Veylan.
The man who had stood beside him in battle. The man who had lifted his daughter in laughter. The man who vanished the night she died.
---
The Road to Blackpoint Village
Kael followed rumors like blood trails—sightings of silver-cloaked figures, whispers of masked operatives recruiting in the shadows. Every road curved back to one place:
Blackpoint—a crumbling mining town clinging to life on the edge of the southern marsh.
It was where Veylan had grown up. Where Kael once drank with him beneath old stars. Where they had once sworn an oath:
"If either of us turns dark, the other ends him."
Kael smiled grimly.
"I intend to keep my word."
---
Blackpoint — Midnight
Kael slipped through alleyways thick with fog. A bar called The Last Coal pulsed with noise and sweat. Inside, men gambled with stolen coin and dead eyes.
But Kael was here for one man.
Torrin Veylan, younger brother of the traitor.
Kael found him at the back, hunched and drunk.
"You shouldn't be here," Torrin rasped as Kael sat across from him.
"You owe me."
"I owe you nothing."
Kael slammed a silver dagger into the table. "That blade belonged to your brother. The night my family died, he disappeared with it. Start talking."
Torrin stared at the blade, fear rising like bile.
"He's not the same, Kael. He's not even a man anymore."
Kael leaned in. "Then what is he?"
Torrin whispered:
"They call him The Warden now. And he's building a court of ghosts."
---
Outside – Moments Later
Kael left the tavern with a fire rekindled inside him.
A court of ghosts.
The name chilled him. It was once just a tale told to scare deserters—a secret council of killers trained to erase entire bloodlines.
Now it was real.
And Veylan—The Warden—was at its center.
---
Final Scene – A Hidden Temple, Deep Underground
Veylan stood before a circle of masked figures.
One stepped forward. "He's coming."
Veylan looked at the flame-lit chamber, symbols etched into every wall.
"Good," he said calmly. "Let him come. He deserves to see how far we've fallen."
He turned, walking into the dark.
"Let him remember what he did before he blames us."
To be continue...