CHAPTER 6 : The keeper
1200 Words
No ordinary eyes could see where the road ended.It stretched past the rolling hills of Elaris Vale and vanished into forests veiled in silver mist, toward mountains crowned in snow. Time moved strangely on its ancient stones. Every footstep echoed, as if countless travelers from forgotten ages still walked beside those who journeyed there now.
Amaris Vaelora looked back once. The rooftops of Elaris Vale had already slipped behind the hills. Home was gone. Ahead lay nothing but uncertainty.
Lucian Aerion Valcrest walked a few paces ahead, his silver cloak stirring with each measured stride. He rarely glanced back, yet nothing escaped him the rustle of leaves, the snap of a distant branch, the smallest shift in the wind.
Tavian finally broke the silence.
"Are you always this serious?"
Lucian said nothing.
"I mean," Tavian pressed, "do you ever smile?"
Still nothing. Amaris bit back a laugh.
"I think he's broken," Tavian sighed.
Without turning, Lucian answered, "I smiled once."
Tavian brightened. "Really?"
"It was disappointing."
Amaris laughed outright, and even Lucian's mouth curved, just slightly, the tension eased for a moment.
By noon they reached a valley unlike anything Amaris had seen. The air shimmered with tiny golden lights drifting among the wildflowers. Crystal streams crossed the old road, their water so clear it reflected not the sky above, but stars that had no business appearing in daylight.
Amaris knelt at the water's edge. "The water..."
Lucian stopped beside her. "This is the Valley of Reflections."
"Why?"
"Because it remembers."
She looked down instead of her own face, she saw herself as a little girl, laughing beside her mother. The image was gone before she could hold onto it.
"I saw..." Her breath caught.
"The valley shows the memories the heart keeps hidden," Lucian said.
Tavian leaned over the water eagerly. "What do you see?" Amaris asked.
He stared for a long moment, then groaned. "Myself. Falling out of a tree."
She smiled. "Important memory?"
"I thought no one saw that."
"Apparently the valley did," Lucian said, one eyebrow raised.
The peace didn't last. A bell rang out across the valley one clear note, then another. Lucian's expression sharpened at once.
"We're not alone."
Ahead, a small wooden bridge crossed the stream. An old man stood at its center, dressed in faded blue robes, his beard reaching nearly to his waist. A weathered staff rested in one hand, and dozens of tiny bronze keys hung around his neck. He smiled as they approached.
"I wondered how long it would take."
Lucian bowed. "Master Orien."
"It has been many years, silver knight."
Tavian leaned toward Amaris. "You know everyone is mysterious?"
Lucian ignored him. Master Orien's gaze settled on Amaris.
"So. The road has remembered you."
"We've never met," she said, frowning.
"No. But the road has." At her confusion, he tapped his staff against one of the ancient stones, and golden lines spread across the road like veins of light. "These roads were built before the first kingdoms. They remember every soul destined to walk them." His eyes stayed on her. "They have waited a very long time for your footsteps."
---
Master Orien led them to a stone cottage tucked beneath towering white oaks. Books lined every wall. Maps covered the tables, cracked hourglasses, ancient compasses, and weathered scrolls filled the shelves in careful disorder.
Tavian looked around, stunned. "Do you own a library, or did a library swallow your house?"
The old man chuckled. "I collect stories."
"You protect them," Lucian corrected.
Orien's smile faded. "That too." He waved them to their seats; a kettle already hung over the fire. "I imagine you have questions."
"Hundreds," Amaris said.
"Good. The worst travelers are the ones who stop asking." He poured warm herbal tea into four clay cups. "The Temple of Dawn is not merely a place. It is a promise."
"A promise made by whom?"
"The First Guardians."
"Who were they?"
"The first men and women entrusted to protect the Eternal Flame."
"Were they powerful?"
"Not because of magic," Orien said. "Because they chose compassion over power."
Amaris lowered her eyes. "Can anyone become that strong?"
"No," he said gently. "They must first become that kind."
The afternoon slipped by in stories kingdoms swallowed by the sea, dragons who once served as judges instead of warriors, libraries carved into living mountains, bridges built from moonlight. The more Amaris listened, the more she understood how much of Eternia's history had been lost.
"So much has been forgotten," she murmured.
Orien's gaze drifted to the window, his voice heavy with something unspoken. "Forgotten... or deliberately erased."
Before she could ask what he meant, a loud c***k split the air outside. Lucian was already on his feet, sword drawn. The birds had gone silent again.
Orien sighed. "I was hoping we had until tomorrow."
The door burst open, and a young messenger stumbled in, gasping for breath. "Master the black mist. It's crossing the northern pass."
Orien closed his eyes. "So soon."
"It shouldn't have reached this valley," Lucian said.
"It didn't," Orien replied. "It followed them."
The room went still. Guilt twisted in Amaris's chest. "Because of me."
"No," the old scholar said firmly. "Because darkness fears what you may become."
---
They climbed the hill above the valley, in the distance, the horizon had vanished beneath a wall of black mist moving with purpose, not drifting with the wind. Everything it touched withered. The grass turned gray. Flowers crumbled to dust. Trees blackened as though centuries of decay had passed over them in seconds.
"I've never seen anything like that," Tavian whispered.
Orien's grip tightened on his staff. "Few have."
"What is it?"
"The Breath of Oblivion," Lucian said.
"It destroys everything?"
"No." His voice was grim. "It makes the world forget."
They watched a deer wander into the mist's edge and walk back out, unharmed but confused, its fawn approached, the deer looked at it turned and walked away. It no longer knew its own child.
Amaris's heart broke. "It steals memories."
"Eventually," Orien said quietly, "it steals identities."
The truth settled over her like cold water. If that darkness reached the kingdoms, families would forget one another. Friends would become strangers. History itself would disappear. Malverion wasn't simply waging war he was erasing the meaning of life.
Lucian turned to her. "We leave now."
She nodded. There was no more room for doubt. The Temple of Dawn was no longer just her destination. It was the world's last hope.
As dusk settled over the valley, Orien pressed a small bronze key into her hand. Its teeth were shaped like flame.
"What does it unlock?" she asked.
"You'll know when the time comes."
Before she could ask anything else, the wind shifted, from somewhere beyond the advancing mist, a horn sounded low, ancient, unmistakable.
Lucian's face hardened. "They've sent hunters."
Orien looked toward the darkening horizon. "No. Worse." His voice fell to a whisper. "They've sent someone who knows her name."
Amaris closed her hand around the key. For the first time since leaving home, she no longer felt as though destiny were following her.
It was waiting beyond the darkness and drawing closer with every heartbeat.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD