Chapter Seven: The Screaming Hall
975 Words
The palace alarms echoed through Lumenaris like the beginning of war.
Deep silver bells rang across the Sunspire Palace while golden ward-light flared suddenly along the ceilings and corridors. Servants screamed somewhere beyond the Ember wing as armored guards rushed through the halls toward the source of the disturbance.
Azrael was already moving before the second alarm sounded.
The war chamber doors burst open as Ember soldiers flooded into the corridor beside him.
“What happened?” Kael demanded sharply.
A Dawn guard skidded to a stop before them, pale-faced and breathless. “The western archive hall—”
A scream cut through the corridor. Not human. Something twisted and inhuman echoed through the palace walls, followed by the sound of shattering stone.
Every soldier in the hall froze.
Then came the whispers. Azrael felt them instantly.
Not through his ears. Inside his mind. Soft. Broken. Hungry.
The shadowfire beneath his skin stirred violently. “Veilborn,” he said quietly.
Kael swore.
Malrec drew the massive blacksteel sword strapped across his back. “Move.”
The Ember delegation surged through the palace corridors toward the western archive halls while guards from the Dawn Court converged from the opposite direction. The palace shook again beneath another explosion somewhere ahead.
Golden light flickered wildly across the walls. The wards were failing. That should not have been possible inside the Sunspire Palace. This place had been protected for centuries.
As they rounded the final corridor, the source of the chaos became visible. The western archive doors had been torn open from the inside. Not outward. Inside.
Bodies lay scattered across the marble floors outside the chamber—guards, scribes, servants.
Some were dead. Others simply stared upward, whispering incoherently to themselves while black veins spread beneath their skin.
Corruption.
Kael immediately crouched beside one surviving Dawn soldier. The man grabbed his arm instantly. “They’re in the walls,” he whispered frantically.
Kael frowned. “What’s in the walls?”
The guard’s terrified eyes shifted toward the shadows lining the corridor. “The whispers.”
Then he started screaming. Black Veil-light erupted from his mouth.
The soldier’s body twisted violently as corruption spread across his veins like living darkness. Ember guards raised weapons instantly.
Too slow. The man’s spine snapped backward unnaturally. And something crawled out of him.
Several soldiers recoiled immediately. The creature resembled a human only vaguely. Its limbs were too long. Its mouth split too wide. Silver eyes glowed beneath skin cracked with shadow.
A Veilborn. Inside the palace. The creature shrieked and lunged.
Azrael moved first. Shadowfire exploded along his blade as he drove the weapon directly through the creature’s chest. Black flame erupted through corrupted flesh instantly.
The Veilborn screamed. Not in pain. Recognition.
Its silver eyes locked onto Azrael. “The Guardian…” The creature dissolved into ash.
Silence fell heavily across the corridor.
Several Dawn guards stared at Azrael’s burning sword uneasily.
Kael rose slowly. “That thing came out of him.”
“No,” Azrael said quietly.
He looked toward the ruined archive hall. “It was already inside him.”
A cold silence followed those words. Because everyone understood what that meant. The corruption was spreading faster now. Far faster.
Malrec stepped into the destroyed archive chamber first.
And stopped. The room had been obliterated.
Ancient shelves burned beneath black Veil-fire while thousands of scrolls and books lay scattered across the floor like fallen leaves. The center of the chamber had collapsed inward entirely, revealing a massive circular symbol carved deep beneath the archive foundations.
A seal. Glowing faintly gold beneath layers of dust and broken stone.
Queen Seraphine stood near the center of the destruction with several Dawn mages surrounding her. Her face had gone pale.
Solara stood beside her mother.
The moment Azrael entered the chamber—the seal beneath the floor ignited. Blinding celestial light exploded through the ruins.
Every person in the chamber staggered backward.
The symbol carved beneath the archives awakened fully now, revealing an enormous circular crest unlike any modern court sigil.
Two wings. A crown. And a divided sun.
The room went silent.
Orion Lunareth stepped forward slowly from the shadows near the back of the chamber.
The Moon Prince looked horrified. “No…” he whispered.
Queen Seraphine closed her eyes briefly. Like someone watching their worst fear finally arrive.
Kael stared at the glowing seal. “What is this?”
No one answered immediately.
Then Solara spoke softly. “The crest of the First Kings.”
The words chilled the room.
Impossible. The symbol of the lost rulers had been erased from history after the First War.
Yet here it was— hidden beneath the palace itself.
Azrael couldn’t stop staring at the glowing seal. Because the moment he stepped near it—the symbol reacted.
The ancient light beneath the floor pulsed once. Then again. Responding to him. To both of them.
Solara noticed too. Their eyes met across the ruined chamber. And suddenly—the whispers returned.
Not corruption this time. Memories.
Azrael saw fragments: a throne beneath burning stars, white wings covered in blood, Solara standing beside him wearing a crown of celestial fire.
Then the vision shifted violently.
He saw her dying. Saw darkness swallowing the world around her while the Veil cracked across the heavens. And somewhere beyond reality—something enormous opened its eyes.
Azrael staggered backward sharply.
Solara nearly collapsed at the exact same moment.
The chamber erupted into alarm. “Princess!” Queen Seraphine caught Solara before she hit the floor.
Kael grabbed Azrael’s shoulder hard. “What did you see?”
Azrael couldn’t answer. Because Solara was staring directly at him now. Terrified. Like she had seen the exact same thing.
Then Orion spoke the words no one in the chamber wanted to hear. “The bond has awakened.”
- Writer
