Chapter 14: Ghosts and Oaths
The silence in the quarry shelter was a living thing, thick and heavy with unspoken histories. Thorne returned as the sun began to dip below the rim of the quarry, casting long, deep shadows across the stone floor. He carried a string of fresh caught fish and a pouch of wild tubers. He moved to the fire pit, his movements economical and sure, and began preparing the meal without a word.
I watched him, this mountain of a boy who carried the weight of a fallen order on his shoulders. Seraphine sat beside me, sharpening her dagger, the rhythmic shhhk-shhhk of stone on metal the only sound breaking the quiet. Fenra was asleep, her flank rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
It was Seraphine who finally broke the stalemate. "You've been waiting for him," she stated, her voice cutting through the quiet. It wasn't an accusation, just a fact.
Thorne didn't look up from the fish he was cleaning. "I am the last sworn squire of the Astral Vanguard. My duty was to wait for my Sovereign." His voice was flat, but I could hear the undercurrent of something raw beneath the surface. "I trained. I built. I listened. I heard rumors. A silver-haired boy. An Echo in the mountains. I hoped."
He skewered a fish on a sharpened stick and propped it over the low flames he'd kindled. "I didn't expect you to bring a Lunaris shadow with you."
"And I didn't expect the last bastion of the Vanguard to be a kid hiding in a hole in the ground," Seraphine shot back, her eyes flashing.
"Seraphine," I said, a quiet warning in my tone. I turned to Thorne. "She's the reason I'm alive. The only reason."
Thorne's grey eyes finally lifted from the fire, meeting mine. The anger had faded, replaced by a profound, weary sadness. "Tell me," he said, the words a soft command. "Tell me what happened. All of it."
So I did.
The words came slowly at first, then in a rush. I told him of the Great Rupture, of my birth, of the Echo Core bonding to my chest. I spoke of my mother's lessons, of learning to be an Architect, of drawing sigils in the dust. I described the creeping corruption in the sanctuary walls, my first, desperate attempt to contain it, and the Throne Beast it attracted.
Then I came to the part I dreaded.
"My mother... she fought. But she was still weak from... from me." I swallowed hard, my throat tight. "I tried to help. I used... the other part of my bloodline. The Ruin." I couldn't look at him. "It felt powerful. It felt good. And she saw it in my eyes. She saw the demon."
I felt Seraphine go still beside me.
"To save me from the Beast, and from myself," I whispered, the memory a physical pain in my chest, "she used a Sacred Sealing. She used her own life force. She gave me her ring and told me to find you. To find the Echo Guardians. And then she was just... gone."
The confession hung in the air, the only sound the crackle of the fire and the sizzle of fish fat dripping into the flames.
Thorne was silent for a long time, his face a mask of stone. When he spoke, his voice was rough with emotion. "She was a great Sovereign. A true Architect. She believed in building, not breaking." He looked at me, and for the first time, I saw a flicker of understanding in his granite eyes. "She would be proud that you used her teachings to survive. That you contained the corruption. That is her legacy, not the moment of fear that followed."
His words were a balm on a wound I thought would never heal. He didn't condemn me for my darkness. He honored the light my mother had planted in me.
"My turn," Seraphine said, her voice quiet but firm. She told her story next. Of a Lunaris family that held to the old vows. Of a purge by the rising Demon God Cult. Of being the only survivor, trained as a weapon by the very people who killed her own. Of her mission to retrieve the "anomaly," and finding not a weapon, but a boy fighting a wolf.
"I saw the heir my grandmother told stories about," she said, her gaze steady on Thorne. "But more than that, I saw someone who had lost everything, just like I had. My order forgot its purpose. I chose to remember mine."
The last of the tension bled from the room. We were just three kids, sitting around a fire, bound together by shared loss and a legacy we never asked for.
Thorne pulled the fish from the fire and handed us each one. It was the most food I'd had in days, and it tasted like a new beginning.
As we ate, Thorne reached into a leather satchel and pulled out a worn, hand drawn map. "I haven't just been waiting," he said, spreading it on the stone floor between us. It showed the Riverlands in remarkable detail, with small, precise notes scribbled in the margins. "I've been listening. Gathering information from traders, travelers... anyone who passes by."
He pointed a thick finger to a town a few days' journey to the east. "Windhaven. There are rumors. Strange weather patterns. Unseasonal lightning strikes that don't start fires. A girl who can predict storms." He looked from me to Seraphine. "The descriptions, they match Elira of the Throne of Storms."
Hope, sharp and bright, flared in my chest. Another one. Another Echo Guardian.
"We have to go," I said immediately.
Thorne nodded. "We will. But we go together. As a unit." He stood up, his massive frame blocking out the firelight. He walked to the entrance of the shelter and picked up a large, flat stone he used as a whetstone. He carried it back and placed it in the center of our circle.
Then, to my astonishment, he drew a dagger and sliced it across his palm. He let the blood drip onto the stone.
"I am Thorne, Squire of the Astral Vanguard, heir to the Throne of Stone." His voice echoed in the small space, filled with a formal gravity that belied his age. "My shield is your shield. My strength is your strength. My life for the Echo Throne. This I swear."
He looked at me, his gaze unwavering. It was an ancient Vanguard oath. One I knew from the Core's memories.
Seraphine stood next. Without hesitation, she drew her own dagger and cut her palm, adding her blood to his on the stone. "I am Seraphine. My blades are your blades. My sight is your sight. My life for the Echoborn. This I swear."
They both looked at me.
My heart hammered. This was it. No more running. No more hiding. This was the beginning.
I stood, taking the dagger Seraphine offered me. The edge was sharp. I drew it across my palm, wincing at the sting. My blood, a dark crimson, mingled with theirs on the stone.
"I am Kael Vireon, heir to the Throne of Echoes." My voice shook, but it grew stronger as I spoke the words my ancestors had spoken. "My memory is your memory. My legacy is your legacy. M
y life... for all of us. This I swear."
The three pools of blood met and merged on the stone, a dark, solemn seal.
The oath was sworn. The first three Echo Guardians were bound.
Not by a king's command, but by the shared blood of orphans, warriors, and survivors.
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ADD TO LIBRARY: Make sure to add to your library! The hunt for Elira begins next, and it will be their first test as a united front.
What's Next:
The journey to Windhaven and their first mission as a team: finding and recruiting the brilliant, chaotic storm mage, Elira. But the Lunaris are still hunting, and the town of Windhaven holds dangers of its own.
Thank you for reading. This chapter felt like a culmination, and I'm so glad to have shared it with you.