Valens watched with faint interest the intensity clouding the Covenmother's face. The weight of it was palpable through the room, the drain of it too hard to bear. Yet Valens found himself scoffing at those words. Some twisted joke, it was, surely, if this woman thought he was an omen of destruction.

"Your world is already broken," he said simply. "It's not my responsibility to remind you of that fact if you're too ignorant to see it. But then, I suppose, it's easy to blame a man for all the troubles rather than admitting the inevitability of your own foolishness. You think ignoring the signs will do you good? You think it was me who caused all of this?"

"Your forefathers—"

"Enough!" Valens scowled when the Covenmother opened her mouth, jabbing with one thick finger into her face. "I don't carry the sins of my forefathers on my shoulders. Their mistakes or deeds are not my own. I refuse to take any share in a past that I'm in no knowledge of. I'm here to search for my truth, and when I find it, I'll be the judge of it."

A weight settled on the Covenmother's face, her sisters across the room looking greatly disturbed as they backed off. The frequencies were restless over the Resonance as the Ancient's Domain tugged at Valens's thoughts.

He pushed it away, seeing no reason to back his words with that skill. It granted him a momentary control across the space similar to his room, impressing his authority upon the lower entities that stood in its range. But against a woman like the Covenmother, the most he could get was a second.

You could do a lot in a second.

He hoped things wouldn't decline in a way that would propel him to make use of it right here.

"Perhaps it's a good thing," the Covenmother said after the long silence, glancing at him with a faint smile. "That you're claiming you're a free man. A new man, unrelated to our shared past. Or perhaps it's you who is being foolish, trying to separate yourself from flesh that is intricately a part of you. That is not for today's to judge, however, for we have come here for the girl."

"It's her decision," Valens repeated. As much as Selin searched his eyes for an answer, he kept to himself and left the matter to her judgment. It was no easy life that awaited them in the Broken Lands, nor would it ever be in the search of truth.

Valens learned that much during the short time he had in this world. Dark things were ahead, and forcing Selin to confront them by their side would be selfish of him. He didn't want that.

"How long?" she asked, turning slowly to face the Covenmother, fingers balled into fists with dedication. "How long will I have to study before I can return to Mr. Kosthal's side?"

The question troubled the Covenmother, but she seemed to understand that it was a part of Selin that she couldn't ignore. Perhaps, for the very first time, Valens felt they shared something common with the witch. The look in Selin's eyes, the weight of her gratitude, the sheer need she felt to pay this debt of life she had to Valens was too heavy.

"A year," the Covenmother said finally, her sisters to the back taken aback by the response. "A year will suffice for you to stand your ground against the dwellers of the Shadow, to learn our ways and complete your first two trials if you're adamant about returning to his side."

"I will do it," Selin said, nodding with conviction, turning slowly to Valens with a smile blooming on her lips. "If it means that I can prove myself useful, I will do it."

"You don't have to…" Valens tried to say, but the words died on his lips when he saw the tears glistening in Selin's eyes.

She thinks she'll be a burden for us as she is. Have I ever done anything to make her think of us this way?

"I need this, Mr. Kosthal," Selin said, smiling up at the three of them with her eyes wet with tears. "I can see it now. Remember the things you've told me. To let go of my past and become a woman of my own. I will do it. Then I will come back to your side."

The plumes of smoke churned across the room as if disturbed, and the Covenmother's face gained a hint of urgency at their sudden movement. Tendrils of it stretched toward the sisters. A pair broke and reached for Selin.

This time, Valens watched gravely the fog slowly wrapping around Selin's body. Celme bid her farewells, and Nomad remained stoic. There was little room for the words, the ones that remained unspoken.

It was, in the end, her decision.

"I will be waiting," Valens said as smoke swallowed her face, and the rest of the others. And in the last moment, the Covenmother brought a scroll from the wavering fog and placed it gently on the ground.

Within moments they were gone, leaving the room heavy with silence.

…

They walked back to the inn as the crimson sun of the Broken Lands dipped low across the horizon, drawing its light back from Ashen City and leaving it in a grim dreariness that its namesake suggested. The streets were vacant of commotion, and what little eyes there were, they scrutinized from afar, eyeing each step as they trudged through the streets.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

It was heavy during the night. The air of the Broken Lands was full of insidious venom trying to seep through the skin but was repelled by invisible boundaries draped over the city. These were, in the basic sense, an archaic imitation of the grand spellwork Resni had weaved over the Haven's Reach during the Carving, providing just enough protection against the air, and not much else.

Still, picking their frequencies apart gave Valens something else to focus on than the quarrel between reason and doubt that stormed in his thoughts. A part of him knew with clarity that Selin wasn't fit for the life that awaited them. That she had pulled herself through all the mess that happened to her was enough of a miracle. First the Wailborn, then the falling of Belgrave.

He didn't want to put her through more but couldn't leave her alone either. But now, she had her own fate to realize, a new path for her to walk across. The end of it was barely in sight, and yet it would ultimately be a far safer environment for her than the treacherous acres of the Broken Lands.

"She was a good lad," Nomad broke the silence along the way. "Best for her to stay away from this."

"This?" Celme questioned, looking crestfallen and relieved at the same time. "This is nothing. We have a long way ahead."

Valens unfolded the scroll the Covenmother left behind her one more time, taking a look at the marked place in the grand map of Dark Stretch. The Ashen City was a little dot in the corner, with bigger dots belonging to other city-states scattered across the map. To the far north was a giant mountain range spanning nearly the length of the map, and beyond it were the simple words:

The City of Magisters.

There was little detail of the ancient city, little depiction and not much to work with. Just that the way through was somewhere inside the middle of the mountain range, deep beneath the ground.

He would have to go there. The visions he saw after completing the First Trial made it clear that something was waiting for him there. Perhaps it was his Second Trial, or perhaps something else. Whatever it was, Valens had no intention to leave it to fate. He would see it through, but not before he made sure he had ample preparations.

"We'll start with Celme's trial," he said, drawing the gazes of the two. "Then we'll take a detour and see about this Mourning King."

"Think it's wise to challenge a creature that killed a dozen Proven with ease?" Celme asked doubtfully.

"It's not wise, but it's necessary," Valens said. "Void is intricately related to this world, and I don't have the time to go around from one city to another, hoping to chance across some Cursed Artifact I can afford."

"We'll deal with that thing, alright," Nomad said, nodding. "Get a few levels, as well. You'll need it after you complete your First Trial. Can't go around the Dead Lands looking like a broken stick."

"At least I have my skin and guts," Celme said, wrinkling her nose at him. "You stink, you know that?"

"The skin of a lesser man lasts only for so long," Nomad said, shaking his head. "I need to find something useful."

While the two went at each other, Valens considered the road ahead. He had about fifty levels he could gain before his Second Trial started. That meant more than two hundred stats. That could give him a great boost of mana and a vigor to his spells, but the stats alone wouldn't be enough.

That was why he needed that Void Artifact. The ability to blink through the space was not only a precious gift, but he hoped it would also be a gateway through which he could begin to understand the Void itself. Then, he could conjure his own spells, or a way back home.

To ask the real questions.

Master Eldras knew more than he let on. He was a Surgemaster. Valens wasn't sure of the reason why he hadn't told him anything. Perhaps something was weighing on his mind. The Surgemasters were not all glory and honor, after all. Quite the opposite, the more Valens learned about them, the more he was becoming sure the corruption ran deep in their ranks.

If even the Shadow was their doing, then what the hell did that mean for him? And why had Master Eldras agreed with that ritual to send him across the space to this world?

The truth stalked further away, and chasing it seemed the only way to get some answers.

.....

The next day saw him visiting Seris's shop to iron out the details. She spoke with begrudged acceptance, telling him about the traits and the eerie liking the creature entertained for humans, reminding occasionally the danger of the mission, telling him more than once to stop and reconsider this madness.

Valens watched her through a hazy Cloud, his mind still occupied by a face being drawn into the fog. Felt like Selin was still here, somewhere in this city, just gone to a different street with the flowers he bought for her the other day. Her scent remained in his nose, and there in his heart a big enough hole to fit her memory.

"Is it alone?" he asked after what felt like an hour.

"You…" Seris paused, blinking up at him, her upper lip quivering in shock. Then, slowly her shoulders sagged, and acceptance returned. "It has an army of minions tending to the mountain. Bug-like creatures, weak in power, but enough of them to swarm even a Proven should they falter. Watch out for the holes you see through the walls."

"Dealing with creatures in bulk is something of a specialty of mine," Valens nodded. "Duly noted. About the Mourning King… Anything else?"

Seris shook her head tiredly. "Don't let him have his way. Trap him if you could, inside the mountain. Get some walls around you. If you give him enough space, he'll blink through with ease. You can't deal with him when he's free."

"I'll figure something out," Valens nodded. If there were no walls, he could make his own. If there were enough air, he could burn it off. He had a variety of spells in his arsenal that could be enough to build a little cage for that so-called king.

"I hope your arrogance won't be the end of you," Seris said, eyeing him once again. "You'll cost your friends their lives at this—"

"Let's say I have earned my right to be arrogant about this matter," Valens cut her off. "But you're mistaken about one thing. I'll see to it that creature sleeps, and sleeps well in the hole that I will send him, if any of it remains in the end of it, that is."

"How?" Seris asked. "How can you be so sure about… this?"

A swarm of Hollows and Shriekers screaming in front of him, creatures bigger than the tallest of towers in the Ashen City rising from the depths of the earth. Hundreds of thousands of undead and men scattered across a giant square. A fog so insidious it seeps through one's skin, taking away one's reason and control.

Valens didn't tell any of this to Seris. There was no need to. He kept those nightmares to himself and brisked off out of the shop and into the street, feet pounding on the ground, chest swelling with expectation.

All this frustration and anger.

Good that he would soon find a place to vent them out.

.....

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.