The Alliance Festival transformed Eldermire into a city of color and thunder.
Bright banners stretched from rooftop to rooftop. Floating lanterns drifted over the streets in slow spirals.Performers juggled enchanted flames or shaped animals from mana-light. Vendors shouted over one another, selling everything from roasted wyvern meat to Vaerithian glow-drinks.
It was beautiful.
It was crowded.
It was the perfect cover for an attack.
But no one believed danger could reach the heart of Kaereth. Not on a day like this.
Not during a celebration of unity.
Liam, Evelyn, and Yuna stepped into the festival square just as musicians began playing a lively tune. Evelyn's eyes went wide with excitement. Liam felt a flutter in his chest—part joy, part nerves… because he knew he'd see Nexi again today.
He wasn't sure whether that made him want to run toward the crowd or away from it.
A Walk Through Wonder
Everywhere they looked, magic wove
through the chaos.
An orc chef breathed fire over sizzling skewers.
A dwarf sold tiny mana-runes that glowed different colors.
Two drow acrobats performed impossible
flips through rings of shadow.
Evelyn clapped her hands. "Liam! Liam!
Look! That one's juggling live embers!"
"I can do that," Liam lied.
"No. You cannot," Yuna and Evelyn said
in unison.
Liam pointed ahead. "Food stall. Let's
try that instead."
They wandered from stall to stall,
Evelyn trying pastries and Liam trying anything that looked remotely spicy or
dangerous. Yuna purchased a carved wooden charm shaped like a phoenix—"for good luck," she said softly.
For the first time since Caelen's
death, she looked… lighter.
Almost at peace.
Liam wanted the moment to last forever.
It didn't.
The Delegates Arrive
The crowd erupted with cheers as a
procession approached the central stage.
Humans in ceremonial armor.
Elves in leaf-patterned robes.
Dwarves carrying runes engraved with their clan crests.
Orcs beating massive drums.
Drow cloaked in elegant shadow-stitched garments.
And among them—
Nexi.
Her silver-blonde hair shone under the
lantern light. She wore a formal Vaerithian gown embroidered with starlit patterns. She walked between her parents with the straight-backed poise of someone raised to represent her people.
Evelyn elbowed Liam. "Close your mouth."
"I— I wasn't—"
"You were."
Liam forced himself to stop staring.
He failed.
Nexi found them in the crowd. Her expression shifted.
Recognition.
Annoyance.
Then something softer.
She raised one hand in the smallest of waves.
Liam waved back so hard he nearly elbowed a man beside him.
A Brief Reunion
After the procession ended, Nexi's
parents allowed her to mingle under the watch of several guards.
She marched straight toward Liam and
Evelyn.
"You're here," she said.
"It's a festival," Liam replied. "Everyone is here."
"I meant—" Nexi huffed. "Never mind."
Her gaze flicked to Evelyn. "And you must be the sister."
Evelyn grinned. "I've heard a lot about you."
Nexi's ears twitched. "What exactly did he say?"
"That you're very—"
"Evelyn, no."
"—good at tripping over nothing."
Liam buried his face in his hands.
Nexi turned bright red. "It was ONE time!"
Evelyn giggled. "Sure it was."
Nexi looked like she wanted to incinerate her with sheer indignation alone.
But then the corner of her mouth twitched.
"…Fine. Maybe it was more than once."
Liam blinked.
Was Nexi laughing?
Before he could comment, the music shifted—deep drums echoing across the square. The master of ceremonies stepped onto the stage, raising his voice.
"People of Vaelora! Today, we celebrate peace—"
He didn't finish the sentence.
Because at that moment…
The sky darkened.
The First Sign
Darkness rolled in unnaturally fast—like a wave swallowing the light. Lanterns flickered. Mana in the air twisted, bending in on itself.
Evelyn gasped. "That's… wrong. Mana isn't supposed to feel like that."
Liam felt it too. Sharp. Heavy. Sickening.
A vibration hummed through the stone
beneath their feet.
Nexi's ears angled backward. "Mother…?"
Her parents had already stepped closer, placing a protective arm in front of her.
Yuna grabbed the twins' shoulders. "Stay close."
The crowd murmured. Some laughed
nervously. Many looked around for the mages responsible for the weather
display.
But no mage would summon this.
The air grew cold.
Sound seemed to dampen.
And the sky split with a low, echoing boom.
At the edge of the square, a figure stepped from the shadows.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Eyes burning with crimson mana.
He wore armor fused to his skin—cracked, blackened plates glowing with red veins. His presence pressed on the air like a crushing weight.
Evelyn whispered:
"Liam… that's a Herald."
No.
Not a Herald.
Something worse.
Something older.
Something chosen.
A Hand of Ostren.
Not the Hand of Slaughter—
but one of his lieutenants.
A Blight-touched warrior bearing the same twisted power.
The air warped around him with every
breath.
Gasps rippled through the square.
The figure raised an arm, pointing toward the stage.
Toward the delegates.
Nexi stiffened.
Liam's heart thundered.
This wasn't a raid.
This wasn't an accident.
This was a message.
Sent with precision.
Sent with purpose.
Sent for blood.
Chaos Ignites
Screams erupted.
Knights rushed forward. Mages threw up
barriers. Civilians scattered in every direction.
The Hand's lieutenant strode through
the chaos like a living storm. Mana twisted around him, corrupting the ground with every step—grass blackening, stone cracking, air rippling with violet haze.
A knight swung a sword at him.
The Hand didn't dodge.
He caught the blade in one hand—metal
warping under his grip—and crushed it like dry clay.
Liam froze.
Evelyn grabbed his hand. "Liam, we need to MOVE!"
But his eyes locked onto Nexi.
Her parents were pulling her back, but
one of the Vaerith guards had been thrown aside—bleeding, unmoving. Nexi's mother struggled to cast a protective spell while her father held a blade of shimmering elven steel.
The Hand's lieutenant saw them.
And smiled.
Instinct Over Fear
Liam didn't think.
He just ran.
"Liam!" Evelyn shouted, reaching toward him.
Yuna grabbed her daughter, holding her
back as Liam sprinted through the crowd.
Nexi's eyes widened as she saw him.
"What are you doing?!"
"I don't know!" Liam yelled back.
A blast of corrupted mana ripped through the space between them, shattering stone. Liam felt the shockwave hurl him sideways, but he rolled to his feet, heart pounding.
The Hand's lieutenant turned toward
him now.
Focused.
Interested.
He spoke for the first time, voice a guttural rasp:
"Lightning."
Liam's blood froze.
The Blighted Gods had noticed him.
And their servant wanted to test him.
The Moment Everything Changes
Garren appeared like a thunderbolt—slamming between Liam and the monstrous figure, sword crackling with blue mana.
"Get back!" Garren roared.
Liam stumbled behind him.
The lieutenant tilted his head, regarding Garren with something like amusement.
"You…" Garren snarled, "are not
touching these children."
The lieutenant raised his hand—and the
ground beneath Garren exploded.
Garren flew backward, crashing into a
vendor stall, wood splintering under the impact.
"GARREN!" Liam screamed.
Nexi's father stepped forward, unleashing a blade of shimmering arcane energy. Nexi's mother cast a barrier of twisting starlight. Mages from both Kaereth and Vaerith raised staffs and swords.
The Hand's lieutenant stepped back, assessing.
Then—
He smiled.
"Enough," he said.
His body dissolved into black smoke.
The darkness that had swallowed the sky lifted at once, vanishing like mist under sunlight.
Silence fell.
Terrified. Trembling. Broken silence.
And the lieutenant's last words echoed
faintly in the dissipating mana:
"The gods have seen you, lightning child."
Liam stood frozen in the square.
Nexi trembling.
Evelyn sobbing in Yuna's arms.
Garren struggling to stand.
And the people of Eldermire beginning
to understand:
The Blight had reached the capital.
It had come for a message.
And next time…
It would come for war.