The vault began to quake.
Kael's hand still rested on the obelisk bearing his wife's memory. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface as the energy stored inside began to leak. Around him, the other memory stones flickered, humming louder and louder as if awakening from a centuries-long sleep.
Merek stumbled backward. "You're triggering a full release. All the sealed memories—Kael, if you keep going, there'll be no turning back."
"I know," Kael said. "But I won't leave her here. Not again."
Lyra stepped up beside him, nodding silently. She had seen what the Order did—how they rewrote the truth, buried the innocent with their silence.
Thorn growled, readying his axe. "Then let's make sure we're not buried with them."
The Unraveling Vault
With a deafening crack, the first obelisk exploded.
Red smoke billowed outward, forming ghostly shapes—faces screaming, laughing, crying. Dozens of memories, souls, fragments of lives long forgotten began to flood the chamber.
Kael fell to one knee, clutching his head. The force of their pain, their rage, overwhelmed him like a tidal wave.
But one memory called out clearer than the rest.
Elena.
He saw her again—bound, but breathing. Hidden away deep in a sanctum, guarded by an executioner of the Order. Her soul trapped, her body preserved.
"She's alive," Kael whispered. "Somewhere north of the Blackwind Peaks."
Lyra's eyes narrowed. "That's across the Order's stronghold line."
Merek cursed under his breath. "That place is a fortress. If she's there, they never intended to let her go."
The Vault Collapses
The rest of the obelisks began to rupture, releasing memories of betrayal, revolutions, and forgotten truths. Among them, Kael glimpsed one name again and again: Vaelrik.
Not just a traitor.
A founder.
One of the creators of the Order itself.
Merek's face went pale. "He was never just a rogue. He built the system."
Kael clenched his fists. "Then I'll be the one to burn it down."
A final surge of energy blasted through the vault. The petrified tree above split down the middle. The mountain rumbled with thunder as the entrance to the Whispering Vault collapsed behind them.
They emerged from the fog-covered valley, changed.
Behind them, silence returned to the mountain.
But ahead—war was beginning.
Across the Realm
In the citadel of the Order, a robed figure watched the disturbance ripple across a pool of still water. His golden mask glinted in the torchlight as he turned to the council behind him.
"The vault has been broken."
Another masked figure stepped forward. "Release the Seeker. Inform the Black Circle. Kael Straven has gone too far."
The High Arbiter's voice echoed across the chamber:
"It's time to erase the last name… permanently."
To be continue...