Chapter 158: The Echo of Shadows
The celebration in the lower halls was a low, cautious murmur. People were still afraid to laugh too loudly, as if the High King might reappear at any moment from the corners of the room. But while the halls were filled with the scent of fresh bread and healing herbs, the Alpha felt a strange, cold prickle at the back of his neck.
He stood on the balcony, overlooking the reconstruction of the Iron Citadel. Beside him, the Omega watched the horizon, her brow furrowed in concentration.
"Do you feel it?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
The Alpha nodded slowly. "The void is gone, but something... something small remains. Like a splinter that wasn't pulled out."
They descended into the dungeons, a place they had hoped never to visit again. Most of the High King's loyalists had fled or surrendered, but one cell remained occupied by a figure cloaked in tattered grey. It was the High King's former Seer—a man who had traded his sight for the ability to see the threads of fate.
As they approached, the Seer let out a dry, hacking laugh. "You think you won because the crown is broken?" he croaked, turning his milky-white eyes toward them. "The High King was merely a jailer. He wasn't the darkness; he was the only thing keeping the true hunger at bay."
The Omega stepped forward, her light pulsing instinctively. "What hunger? The King is dead."
"Dead? No," the Seer grinned, revealing blackened teeth. "He was a vessel. And when a vessel breaks, whatever was inside... it spills out. Look to the Northern Barrens, Alpha. The silence there isn't peace. It's the sound of something waking up."
The Alpha gripped the hilt of his sword, his jaw tightening. Just when they thought the world was safe, a new, perhaps older threat was beginning to stir in the shadows.