Chapter 27: The broadcast
423 Words
That evening, as Lumaria's citizens settled in for dinner, every magical display screen in the realm activated simultaneously. Shops, homes, public squares, even the Supreme Leaders' palace. All showed the same images.
Tenebris.
Not as a dark wasteland. Not as a realm of monsters. But as a place where people lived.
Shadow Born children playing in gardens. Families sharing meals. Healers tending to the sick. Teachers instructing students. Artists creating beauty. Musicians playing songs. People laughing, crying, living.
And then, faces. Freed prisoners speaking directly to Lumaria.
Silas spoke first, his voice weak but clear. "I am Master Silas, historian, father, citizen of Lumaria. For five years, I was held in cells beneath the Supreme Leaders' palace. My crime? I questioned the official narrative. I found evidence of treaty manipulation. I spoke truth. For that, they tried to erase me. But I survived. And now I testify. The Supreme Leaders have lied to you about everything."
Other prisoners followed. An elf woman who'd been captured for refusing to attack Shadow Born civilians. A human man imprisoned for smuggling food to Tenebris. An angel who'd discovered the fake treaty and been silenced. A fairy who'd witnessed Supreme Leader Magnus murder a peace envoy.
One by one, they testified. Real people. Real stories. Real crimes.
Lumaria watched, stunned.
In the Supreme Leaders' palace, Magnus Ironhart screamed for the broadcast to be shut down. Technicians scrambled, trying to trace the signal, but it came from everywhere and nowhere. Twelve sources, constantly shifting.
"Find them!" Magnus roared. "Find the source and destroy it!"
But by the time they located the first broadcasting point, Blue Banner had already moved. By the time they reached the second, it had been abandoned.
Across Lumaria, citizens watched and questioned. Some dismissed it as Shadow Born propaganda. Others felt doubt creeping in. And a few, a crucial few, began to wonder if they'd been wrong about everything.
In White Banner's tower, guards whispered. In Green Banner's healing halls, doctors compared notes about resource shortages. In Yellow Banner's libraries, scholars pulled out old texts and started fact checking.
The seed was planted. Now it needed time to grow.
"We did it," Elara said, exhausted after twelve hours of maintaining the broadcast. "The whole realm saw."
"Seeing isn't believing," Leonard cautioned. "But it's a start."
Alexis felt her time magic pulse, a warning she'd learned to recognize. Something was coming. Something dangerous. "We need to get back to the settlement. Now."
They shadow walked back to find chaos.
The Supreme Leaders had struck back.
- Writer
