Chapter 2: The Knight's First Lesson
Kael´s POV
Five years. That's how long we've been hiding in this mountain's belly.
The air down here always smells the same like old books and lightning right before it strikes. Mom says it's the throne-energy, whatever that means. To me, it just smells like home.
"Kael, pay attention." Mom's voice pulls me from my thoughts. She's drawing in the air again, her fingers leaving glowing trails that hang between us like golden spiderwebs. "An empire isn't built with swords alone. A king who only knows fighting builds a throne of blood. It'll crack beneath him when he needs it most."
I try to watch closely, but my eyes keep drifting to the way the light dances across the stone walls. Everything down here glows—the crystals in the ceiling, the symbols carved around the doors, even the water in the basin has a soft shimmer. Old Lorian says it's protection. To me, it just looks pretty.
"This is the Foundation Rune," Mom says, her voice getting that serious tone she uses for important things. The glowing lines form a complicated pattern that reminds me of snowflakes, but sharper. "It's the first thing every Architect in our family has learned for a thousand years."
I reach out, not to touch the light I learned that doesn't work after burning my fingers last month,but to feel the hum in my chest get louder when I get close. The Echo Core always knows when Mom's teaching me something important. Sometimes, when I'm really concentrating, I see double the thing Mom's showing me now, and memories of other people learning the same thing a long, long time ago.
"Feel how the energy moves," Mom says, her hand warm on my shoulder. "From the middle out, like ripples in water. This is what order feels like, Kael. This is what we protect."
I try drawing it myself. My first attempts are messy the lines wobble, and the corners aren't sharp like Mom's. But then the Core hums louder, and my hands seem to remember what my brain doesn't. The fourth try looks almost right.
"Your blood remembers," Mom says, smiling in that way that doesn't quite reach her eyes. She's been doing that a lot lately. "The Echo Core isn't just a thing inside you, Kael. It's everyone who came before us all their knowledge, all their skills. They're all part of you now."
The morning stretches on, filled with more drawing and concentrating until my head hurts. I'm about to ask if we can take a break when Lorian shuffles in. He moves slower than he used to, and his robes seem to swallow him whole these days.
"My Sovereign," he says, bowing that little bow he always does. "The eastern sensors are failing. The corruption's spread faster than we thought."
Mom's smile vanishes completely now. "Then we have today's real lesson. Come on, Kael."
We follow Lorian to the east wall, where the stone looks... tired. That's the only way I can describe it. While everywhere else glows healthy and bright, this patch just sits there, dull and crumbling at the edges.
"Demonic taint," Lorian mutters, shaking his head. "They poison the world itself."
Mom kneels down so we're eye to eye. "This is why we learn all this, Kael. The real battles start here," she taps my forehead, "long before any fighting begins. Now show me what you feel. Use the Core, not your hands."
I close my eyes like she taught me, reaching for that familiar hum in my chest. At first, all I feel is the usual the bright pulse from the big crystal in the main room, the steady thrum of the protection symbols, the mountain's deep, slow heartbeat.
Then I find it a wrongness in the wall, like a sour note in a song I've heard all my life.
"It feels hungry," I whisper, my nose wrinkling. "The light can't move right there. Something's... drinking it."
Mom and Lorian share one of those looks adults use when they don't want kids to understand. I hate those looks.
We spend the rest of the morning mapping the sick spot. Mom shows me how to trace energy lines, how to tell new corruption from old. My head starts throbbing from all the concentrating, but then I feel something else—a whisper of the same sickness near where our water comes through.
"It's over there too," I say, pointing. "Not as strong, but the same."
Lorian goes to check while Mom teaches me cleaning techniques, how to push good energy through symbols to make the sick spots better. I try, but after a few attempts, my whole body shakes, and I nearly fall over.
"You're trying to stop a flood with your bare hands," Mom says, catching me. "You have to be clever, not just strong."
Later, when I'm supposed to be resting, I sneak into the library chamber. It's my favorite room full of scrolls and shiny crystals that hold building plans and stories from before we had to hide. That's where I find the locket.
It's tucked away in a small wooden box, all tarnished and black. When I open it, the picture inside has faded so much I can barely tell there were ever people in it. Curious, I pick it up.
Suddenly, I'm not me anymore.
I'm taller, older, standing in a garden with stars overhead. Someone's holding my hand, and I've never been happier in my life. The feeling swells in my chest until I think I might burst. I turn to see her face, to.
The world snaps back. I'm on the floor, gasping, tears streaming down my face for no reason I understand. The locket lies a few feet away, glowing faintly.
"Kael!" Mom's there in seconds, gathering me up. She picks up the locket, her face doing that worried-understanding thing. "You are Kael Vireon," she whispers, holding me tight. "The memory is past. You are here. The Echo Core holds countless lives, but they're not yours. You have to learn to visit without staying."
She makes me repeat the words until they feel solid in my mouth: "I am Kael Vireon. The memory is past. I am here."
In the weeks that follow, I get better at feeling the energy around us. The Core makes me notice things even Mom and Lorian miss. One afternoon, while practicing, I feel that same wrongness from the east wall, but stronger, right near where we sleep.
"Mom," I say, my voice cutting through the quiet. "The sickness is here too."
She follows my finger to a part of the wall that looks perfectly normal. But when she touches it, her face goes grim. "Lorian!"
The old priest comes running, using one of his crystal devices on the spot. It makes an awful screeching sound. "By the thrones... he's right. The corruption's behind the stone. We wouldn't have known until the wall collapsed."
I look from Mom's worried face to the wall that isn't what it appears. The Core hums, not scared but determined. It remembers other walls, other dangers, other times people had to see what wasn't obvious.
And I understand, in that moment, what being an Architect really means.
It means seeing the cracks before everything falls apart.
What did you think about Kael's first proper Echo experience? Was it what you expected, or more emotional than you thought it would be?
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What's Next:
That corruption Kael found isn't just sitting still—it's growing. Next chapter, their water supply comes under direct threat, and Kael will have to use everything he's learned to find a solution. But the Echo Core might have answers he's not ready to face yet...
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