CHAPTER 55: THE BURIED OATH
With Lila standing openly beside us, we gained more than a skilled rider and a keeper of old secrets. We gained access to the hidden records of the Unseen Keepers — documents that had been carried in secret for three generations, never shown even to the High Keepers, holding the full, unedited history of how the order had shifted from guardians to masters. We spread them out across the longest table in Black Rock’s great hall, working by lantern light, sorting through brittle pages and faded maps until our eyes burned with fatigue.
It was Lila who found the reference we had all missed. Tucked inside a sealed leather case marked only with a small star was a single sheet of parchment, written in the same hand as the First Charter, but dated five years later.
“T
