Part 5: Blood of the Architect
Darkness seeped into Salvaria.
The lavender skies turned rust-colored. The floating lights that had guided them flickered, then vanished one by one. The Archive, once glowing and alive, now stood cold. Kael sat beside Lireen, whose eyes were closed, her breathing uneven.
But she was no longer asleep.
Her lips moved. Words whispered in a language Kael didn't recognize, full of vowels and echoes, like voices rippling through still water.
He held her hand. It was warm again. But too still.
"Lireen," he said.
She opened her eyes.
And they weren't hers.
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"Where am I?"
Her voice was layered her own, and something beneath. Ancient. Tired.
Kael leaned closer. "You're safe. We're in Salvaria. But something's happening to you."
Lireen blinked slowly. "I remember. Not everything… just fragments. A tower of feathers. A man who wore my face. A gate of mirrors."
Kael's breath hitched. "That sounds like what I saw in the visions."
She touched her temple. "I think I was part of the first Architect's bloodline."
Kael stared. "You mean—?"
"I wasn't meant to survive. But something rewrote my fate."
The crown pulsed in Kael's pack.
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They descended deeper into the city. The Crown guided Kael toward a sealed passage hidden beneath the Temple of Whispers. The entrance was marked by a symbol he had seen before in the Archive's book:
Two feathers crossed, bound in red string.
Lireen touched the door. It opened with a hiss.
Inside was a chamber untouched by time.
At its center: a circular basin filled with liquid starlight.
Kael approached it. The air grew heavier.
A voice rose from the basin.
"Blood answers blood."
Kael looked at his hand. A cut opened on his palm, clean and painless. Blood dripped into the light.
The room shook.
A projection appeared three figures:
The first Architect, his face veiled.
A girl with Lireen's eyes.
A boy with Kael's mark across his chest.
They spoke as one:
"Fate is not written. It is remembered."
"To break the chain, you must sacrifice a name."
Kael clenched his fists. "What does that mean?"
The projection faded.
Lireen stepped toward him. Her expression was blank.
"I think they want you to choose," she whispered.
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The basin lit up again.
Two names floated above it.
Kael Althir
Lireen Velastra
A whisper followed:
"One must be forgotten, for the world to remember peace."
Kael staggered back.
"No. There has to be another way."
Lireen looked calm. "If it has to be me—"
"Don't," Kael snapped.
She touched his face. "You were never meant to carry this alone."
Kael raised the crown.
"No one has to vanish. Not anymore."
The Crown glowed fiercely.
A storm of voices burst into the room. Memories real, false, possible rushed through them.
Kael saw Lireen as a child. As a queen. As a monster. As a martyr.
He saw himself ruling, wandering, dying, returning.
Then silence.
The basin went dark.
The names vanished.
A final voice echoed:
"You have broken the ritual. Prepare for the cost."
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Lireen collapsed.
Kael held her tightly.
The chamber trembled. Cracks formed above them.
Suddenly, a doorway appeared in the far wall. Lit by soft blue light.
Lireen stirred. Her voice returned.
"You chose me."
Kael smiled, despite the fear.
"No. I chose us."
They walked together through the new door.
And the city behind them began to collapse not in ruin, but in renewal.
Salvaria was rewriting itself.
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📣 Chapter 15 – Part 6 Teaser:
Kael and Lireen emerge in the heart of the Temple of Stars
The last feather appears but it's corrupted
A voice calls from the edge of the void: "The Mirror is awake. And it remembers you."
Kael must decide whether to wear the Crown… or destroy it forever
📢 Don't forget to vote ♥, comment 💬, and follow our journey because the end of Chapter 15 marks the true beginning of everything that comes next. 🌌🕯️
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📌 Highlight :
Lireen awakens changed possessed by fragments of the First Architect
Kael discovers a hidden chamber sealed with his bloodline
A ritual demands that either Kael or Lireen be erased from existence
Kael breaks the cycle by refusing the choice
The Crown warns: "Prepare for the cost of disobedience"
Salvaria begins to reshape… but something awakens with it
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