The Fourth Bearer

The royal archives

THE FOURTH BEARER

Chapter Eighteen

The palace was quieter than Elara expected.

They had spent the last hour moving through the capital without being stopped again.

No Hunters.

No guards.

No mysterious strangers appearing from shadows.

Somehow, that made Elara more nervous.

She walked beside Caelan through a narrow corridor beneath the palace.

“How do you know where you're going?”

“I've been here before.”

Kael, walking behind them, gave a quiet laugh.

“Of course you have.”

Caelan ignored him.

Evren glanced at Kael.

“Not now.”

Kael raised his hands.

“I said nothing.”

“You were about to.”

“I usually am.”

Elara almost smiled.

Almost.

Her thoughts were still fixed on what they had learned.

The previous Bearers hadn't simply disappeared.

Someone had erased them.

And somewhere ahead of them were the records that could prove it.

Caelan stopped in front of an old stone door.

There was no handle.

No lock.

Only a symbol carved into the centre.

Eight circles surrounding a single point.

Elara's palm began to burn.

She pulled her hand from her sleeve.

The mark was glowing.

Caelan looked at it.

“This is it.”

“The archives?”

He nodded.

“How do we open it?”

Caelan took out the parchment.

Elara watched him unfold it.

For the first time, she saw that the parchment wasn't completely blank.

Faint silver writing had appeared across the surface.

Lines of symbols slowly emerged.

Kael stepped closer.

“You never said it did that.”

Caelan looked at him.

“You never asked.”

Kael's expression darkened.

“I shouldn't have to.”

“Enough,” Evren said.

Caelan placed the parchment against the stone door.

Nothing happened.

Then Elara stepped forward.

The mark on her palm pulsed.

The door opened.

Cold air rushed past them.

Elara stared into the darkness.

“How long has this been here?”

Caelan looked at the ancient corridor beyond.

“Longer than the kingdoms.”

They entered.

The door closed behind them.

The archives were enormous.

Shelves stretched higher than Elara could see.

Thousands of books and scrolls filled the walls.

Some were bound in leather.

Others were carved into thin pieces of stone.

Silver symbols floated above several shelves, illuminating the darkness.

Elara slowly turned in a circle.

“This is a library.”

Caelan shook his head.

“No.”

He looked toward the endless shelves.

“This is where Aurevane buried its history.”

Elara's stomach tightened.

They walked deeper.

Caelan stopped before a sealed section.

A black metal gate blocked the entrance.

At its centre was the same symbol from Elara's palm.

Eight points.

One circle.

Kael studied it.

“This isn't the same symbol.”

Elara frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“Look.”

He pointed.

There were eight small marks surrounding the centre.

But beneath them was a ninth.

Almost invisible.

Elara's breath caught.

“The ninth symbol.”

Caelan looked at Kael.

“You've seen it before?”

Kael didn't answer.

Elara looked at him.

“Kael?”

He finally nodded.

“Once.”

“Where?”

“Underground.”

Elara remembered the First Kingdom.

The ancient chamber.

The strange carving.

She looked at Caelan.

“And you?”

Caelan stared at the gate.

“I've seen references to it.”

“References to what?”

“The thing that existed before the Eight Kingdoms.”

The words settled heavily between them.

Evren stepped forward.

“Open it.”

Caelan placed his hand against the gate.

Nothing happened.

Elara stepped beside him.

The mark on her palm began glowing.

The gate unlocked.

A deep metallic sound echoed through the archives.

The doors opened.

Inside was a much smaller room.

At its centre stood a stone table.

Three books rested upon it.

Elara approached slowly.

Each book had a name carved into its cover.

FIRST.

SECOND.

THIRD.

She stopped.

Her heart began pounding.

“The Bearers.”

Caelan nodded.

“They were never destroyed.”

Elara touched the first book.

The moment her fingers brushed the cover, the room changed.

Images flashed through her mind.

A young woman standing before thousands of people.

A silver mark glowing on her palm.

The same eight-pointed symbol.

She saw ancient towers.

The Eight Kingdoms were not eight separate realms yet.

They were one kingdom.

One crown.

One people.

Then the vision changed.

The woman stood before a massive sealed doorway.

Something dark moved behind it.

She heard voices.

Fear.

Screaming.

Then the vision vanished.

Elara stumbled backward.

Evren caught her.

“Elara.”

She looked at him.

“I saw her.”

“Who?”

“The First Bearer.”

Caelan opened the first book.

The pages were filled with writing.

But half of it had been scratched away.

Elara leaned closer.

“She was erased.”

Caelan nodded.

“Not completely.”

He turned the page.

A surviving passage remained.

The First Bearer appeared during the final years of the Aurevane Empire.

She was not a queen.

She was not a ruler.

She was chosen to carry the power of the ancient bloodline and maintain the seal beneath the First Kingdom.

Elara's eyes widened.

“The seal.”

Kael moved closer.

“What happened to her?”

Caelan continued reading.

“She disappeared after the division of Aurevane.”

“Disappeared where?”

The next pages had been torn out.

Kael swore quietly.

Elara looked at the second book.

“Maybe hers tells us more.”

Caelan opened it.

The Second Bearer had appeared almost two hundred years later.

Her story was different.

She had travelled between the Eight Kingdoms.

She tried to unite the rulers.

She failed.

The final surviving entry described her returning to the First Kingdom.

Then nothing.

Elara looked at the third book.

“And the Third?”

Caelan opened it.

The room became silent.

The Third Bearer's story was the longest.

She had apparently discovered something the others hadn't.

Something about the original bloodline.

Something about the seal.

Then, near the end of the record, Elara found a sentence that hadn't been scratched out.

She read it aloud.

“The Bearer does not awaken the seal.”

Everyone went still.

Elara continued.

“She awakens what lies beyond it.”

Silence.

Evren looked toward Caelan.

“What does that mean?”

“I don't know.”

Kael stared at the page.

“Keep reading.”

Elara turned the page.

A drawing appeared.

It showed the eight kingdoms surrounding a dark circle.

At the centre stood the Bearer.

Behind her was something enormous.

Not a creature.

Not a person.

A shadow.

Beneath the drawing was a single word.

VAELOR.

Elara's blood ran cold.

“That's him.”

Caelan's expression changed.

“You know that name?”

“We've heard it before.”

Evren looked at her.

“Where?”

“In the First Kingdom.”

Kael nodded.

“The name was carved beneath the city.”

Caelan slowly closed his eyes.

“That explains the seal.”

Elara looked at him.

“Explain.”

He opened the parchment he'd been carrying.

The faded writing had changed.

A new line had appeared.

Caelan read it silently.

Then his face went pale.

“What?”

He handed the parchment to Elara.

She looked down.

The writing was clear now.

THE FOURTH WILL NOT REPEAT THE FIRST.

THE FOURTH WILL OPEN WHAT THE FIRST SEALED.

Elara stared at the words.

“No.”

Evren stepped closer.

“What does it mean?”

Elara shook her head.

“I don't know.”

Kael looked at the parchment.

“That's not all.”

He pointed to the bottom.

There was another line.

Almost completely faded.

Elara leaned closer.

“Read it.”

Kael did.

“Unless she remembers.”

The room went silent.

Elara felt something inside her chest twist.

“Remembers what?”

No one answered.

Then the mark on her palm flared.

The books on the stone table opened by themselves.

Pages turned rapidly.

The air filled with silver light.

Elara stumbled backward.

A woman's voice whispered through the room.

Not the same voice she'd heard when she first crossed into Aurevane.

This one was closer.

Almost familiar.

“Elara.”

She froze.

The voice whispered again.

“Do not trust the history they gave you.”

The silver light disappeared.

Every book slammed shut.

Elara stood perfectly still.

Evren moved toward her.

“Did you hear that?”

She looked at him.

“Yes.”

“What did it say?”

Elara hesitated.

Then she remembered the words.

Do not trust the history they gave you.

She looked at the three books.

At the erased names.

At the missing pages.

At the parchment.

And suddenly she understood something.

The archives hadn't been built to preserve the truth.

They had been built to control it.

Someone had spent centuries deciding what Aurevane was allowed to remember.

And now Elara had found the part they had failed to erase.

The truth about the Bearers.

The truth about Vaelor.

And the possibility that her own memories might not belong entirely to the life she remembered.

Kael looked at her.

“What did the voice say?”

Elara met his eyes.

For once, she didn't hide it.

“It told me not to trust the history they've given us.”

Caelan looked toward the sealed door.

“Then we're in more danger than I thought.”

A sound echoed from outside the room.

Footsteps.

Several people.

Evren drew his sword.

Kael reached for his dagger.

Caelan folded the parchment and slipped it inside his coat.

Elara looked at the three of them.

“We have the truth now.”

Kael shook his head.

“No.”

He looked toward the approaching footsteps.

“We have the beginning of it.”

The footsteps stopped outside the archive.

A voice spoke through the door.

“Open the archives.”

Elara's mark began glowing again.

Evren stepped in front of her.

Kael moved to her other side.

Caelan stood behind them, one hand resting over the hidden parchment.

The voice came again.

“This is your final warning.”

Elara tightened her grip around her sword.

She looked at the three ancient books.

Then toward the door.

“Good.”

Her eyes hardened.

“Because I'm done running.”

The door began to open.