A Road Carved from Shadows
Seraphina took her first step onto the path, her breath steady despite the unease tightening her chest. The ground beneath her was not truly solid—it rippled like liquid darkness, shifting with each step she took. Yet it held her weight, guiding her forward.
Her son remained silent in her arms, his small hand resting against her shoulder. Though his face was calm, his eyes glowed faintly in the darkness.
The Abyss whispered around them, voices layered and countless. Some were mere echoes, remnants of forgotten souls. Others were watching.
"They walk where none should tread."
"It is not her we fear. It is the child."
"The Abyss does not forget."
Seraphina ignored them, keeping her focus ahead. The path stretched forward, disappearing into the black unknown.
Then, the hooded man's voice echoed in her memory.
"The Abyss does not grant passage freely. It demands a price."
She clenched her jaw.
She had already paid more than enough.
---
Malagar's Calculations
Back in the mortal world, Malagar stood in the grand hall of the Inquisition's fortress, staring at the ancient scripture laid before him.
It was an account of the first recorded Abysswalkers—those who had dared enter the void and return.
"None survived unchanged," the text warned.
But Malagar was not interested in the warnings. His gaze flicked to the final passage:
"One among them was not devoured. He did not bow to the Abyss. He became something more."
Malagar's lips curled into a knowing smile.
"Let us see which fate awaits you, Seraphina."
---
The Watchers Stir
As Seraphina walked deeper, the darkness around her moved.
At first, she thought it was just the Abyss shifting, but then she felt them.
Eyes. Watching. Waiting.
And then, without warning—they stepped forward.
Figures emerged from the blackness.
They were not human. Their bodies were elongated, their limbs too long, too thin. Their faces were featureless save for hollow indentations where eyes should be.
They moved without sound.
Seraphina instinctively tightened her grip on her son, her heartbeat steady despite the rising tension.
One of the creatures tilted its head, as if studying them.
Then, a voice—not from its mouth, but from everywhere.
"A child… of the in-between."
The other figures whispered in unison.
"What will he become?"
"Will he take? Or will he be taken?"
"The Abyss calls to him."
Seraphina's stance did not waver. "He belongs to no one but himself."
The watchers were silent. Then, slowly, they stepped back.
The path ahead shifted.
The way forward had changed.
The Abyss was watching, but it would not stop them… yet.
Seraphina exhaled and kept moving.
---
A Name Lost to Time
The further she walked, the more the Abyss changed.
The formless dark began to take shape.
She saw ruins—structures swallowed by time. Some were barely more than crumbling pillars, while others still had walls, doors, even inscriptions that pulsed with strange energy.
They were remnants of something long forgotten.
Then, her son spoke for the first time since they entered the Abyss.
In a voice far too knowing for a child, he whispered a name.
A name that had not been spoken in thousands of years.
"Xel'thorin."
The very air shuddered.
Seraphina froze. "What did you say?"
Her son looked up at her, blinking. "I don't know."
But he had known.
And so had the Abyss.
The watchers in the darkness bowed their heads.
For the first time, the Abyss did not whisper.
It listened.
And far beyond the unseen, something that had been waiting for an eternity…
Opened its eyes.
---
The Name That Should Not Be Spoken
The Abyss Trembles
The moment the name left her son's lips, the Abyss shifted.
The ever-present whispers ceased. The formless dark that surrounded them froze, as though the very essence of the Abyss itself had been disturbed.
Seraphina felt it—a pulse. A deep, resonating tremor that traveled through the shadows, like an awakening heartbeat.
"Xel'thorin."
The name echoed in the silence.
Seraphina knelt, gripping her son by the shoulders. "Where did you hear that name?"
The child looked at her, his expression blank. "I don't know."
But she could see something lurking behind his golden eyes.
A memory not his own. A knowledge buried in something far older than his short existence.
She gritted her teeth. What was happening to him?
The Abyss answered before she could.
A sound. Distant. Growing.
Not a voice—something deeper. Something alive.
And then, far in the distance, the ruins began to move.
---
The Awakening of the Lost
Seraphina stepped back as the ground shifted beneath her.
The ruins—the forgotten remnants of civilizations long erased—stirred. Walls cracked, towers crumbled, and out of the wreckage, figures emerged.
Not the watchers from before.
These were different.
Their bodies were wrapped in tattered remnants of time, their forms barely held together by sheer will. Their eyes—if they had any—burned with faint golden light.
And as one, they knelt.
Not to Seraphina.
Not to the Abyss.
To her son.
"He has spoken the name."
"He remembers."
"He calls… and so we rise."
The air vibrated, and Seraphina could feel it—a power she did not understand stirring deep within the Abyss.
She gripped her son's hand. "We have to keep moving."
But the figures did not stop them.
Instead, they began to chant.
A language that had not been spoken in thousands of years.
A language her son seemed to understand.
And he whispered back.
Word for word.
Seraphina's blood ran cold.
---
Malagar's Growing Suspicion
Back in the mortal realm, Malagar stood before the ancient texts, his golden eyes narrowing.
His scholars had uncovered something new. Something even he had not expected.
A lost name. Xel'thorin.
A being that should not exist.
And yet, in the depths of the Abyss, it had been spoken.
A slow smile spread across Malagar's lips.
"So," he murmured, "it begins."
He turned to his knights, his voice firm. "Summon the council. The hunt is not yet over."
If Seraphina's son had truly spoken that name…
Then he was no longer just an exile.
He was something far more dangerous.
And Malagar would ensure that the world would never see what he could become.
---
The Door Opens
Back in the Abyss, the chanting reached its peak.
And before Seraphina's eyes, the path ahead split apart.
A great stone door, hidden beneath the ruins, began to rise. Symbols ignited along its surface, ancient and unreadable.
But her son understood.
He stepped forward, his small hand reaching out.
Seraphina grabbed his arm. "Wait!"
But it was too late.
The door opened.
And on the other side…
Something waited.
Something that had been waiting for a very, very long time.
---
End of Chapter 11
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