Episode 8:Welcome to Noctra
675 Words
Episode 8: Welcome to Noctra
Kai had never seen a city like Noctra.
Built into the side of a mountain hollowed out by forgotten gods, the city glowed with pale violet lights. Ghosts drifted between floating towers. Vampires in velvet suits sipped from floating goblets in cafés suspended mid-air. Wolves howled from rooftops and banshees practiced operatic screams from balconies carved into obsidian cliffs.
Above all, one building loomed: a gothic citadel that clawed at the sky like a vengeful cathedral.
“The Council Hall,” Nox whispered as they arrived at the gates. “Hope you wore your fancy claws.”
Kai adjusted the Soul Whistle locket hanging from his neck and swallowed the tight knot in his throat. His heart thudded harder with each step through the city—part nerves, part wolf, part whatever-the-hell-he-was-now.
They were met at the gates by a woman in armor made of shadow-silk. She had three eyes—one in the middle of her forehead—and a smile like a dagger.
“You are Kai Velden?” she asked.
“That depends,” Kai said. “Are you planning to eat me?”
“Not yet.” She turned. “Follow.”
Inside the citadel, the halls were quiet. Too quiet. Even the echoes seemed scared.
The Council chamber was circular, filled with thirteen thrones carved from bone, obsidian, frost, and mist. The Council of Nightkind sat in silence, each member impossibly still.
The center seat, taller than the rest, belonged to a vampire lord with eyes like dried blood and a voice like molasses soaked in menace.
“Speak, child,” he said. “Why did you come?”
Kai stepped into the circle. The Soul Whistle felt hot against his chest.
“I was summoned.”
“A hybrid summoned by prophecy,” said a banshee with hair made of smoke. “A dangerous variable.”
“You could be a mistake,” added a ghost whose form flickered with time. “Or a weapon.”
“I’m neither,” Kai said. “I’m just… trying to figure out who I am.”
A low chuckle. “Identity is a privilege,” said a werewolf elder with silver in his fur. “You don’t get to decide what you are. You are what we deem you to be.”
Kai stepped closer. “Then deem me this: not your pawn.”
Several Council members stirred. One hissed. One smiled. Another blinked, approvingly.
The vampire lord stood. “We offer you a trial.”
Kai tensed. “What kind of trial?”
“You will be sent to the Vale of Echoes. Survive three nights. No aid. No magic. No transformation. Just you.”
“If I refuse?”
“You’ll be declared rogue. And hunted.”
Kai glanced at Nox. Nox gave a shrug that said This sucks but also kind of exciting?
Kai looked up at the Council. “Fine. I accept.”
That night, Kai stood at the edge of the Vale of Echoes, a valley shrouded in fog so thick it swallowed sound. The only light came from the dying embers of ghost-flames lining the cliffs.
A guard handed him a small satchel: flint, a knife, and a single black candle.
“Good luck,” the guard said. “Don’t listen to the voices.”
Kai blinked. “What voices?”
The guard just smiled and vanished into the mist.
The moment Kai stepped into the valley, the air grew colder.
The fog whispered.
Not random murmurs.
Voices he knew.
> “You’re not strong enough.”
“You’ll betray them all.”
“You’ll never be one of us.”
“She will die because of you.”
Lira’s voice. Nox’s. His own.
Kai stumbled forward, clamping his hands over his ears. But the whispers weren’t around him—they were inside him.
His knees buckled. The candle flickered. The cold bit into his bones.
And then...
A howl.
Not his.
Something else was in the Vale.
Watching.
Waiting.
Hunting.
- Writer
