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Chapter 401
Caster staggered into the center of the SRC evaluation chamber, the iron and stone of the room pressing against him with a weight he didn’t immediately recognize. The wards along the walls shimmered faintly, each glyph suspended in midair like a captive insect. He could see the soul-stabilization anchors flickering in the corners, the oath-dampeners humming faintly along the floor. Nothing about this was routine.Lysane stood across the room, her posture formal, arms crossed, but her eyes betrayed tension. Kael Dorn hovered beside her, his fingers twitching as if he wanted to draw a purifying sigil but restrained himself. Caster’s eyes swept the space, noting the circle drawn around him, every line and curve precise, every intersection reinforced with double-layered containment wards.“Start,” Lysane said, her voice steady, measured.Kael’s hands twitched, the air around him brimming with suppressed force. “You’ve left us no choice, Caster. We can’t.”“You’ve already made the choi
Chapter 400
The chamber was quiet when Caster arrived. Too quiet. The SRC messenger had been insistent but polite: “Archmage Spellbound, your presence is requested for an evaluation. No exceptions.” The note was sealed with multiple waxes and sigils. He had followed the instructions without hesitation, curiosity tickling behind his practiced calm.But now, standing at the chamber threshold, Caster felt the subtle hum of tension in the air. The walls, polished obsidian framed by latticed brass, shimmered faintly with stabilizing runes. Nothing about this room was casual. Even the chairs seemed weighted, carved with soul-thread anchors and layered with oath-dampeners.Caster stepped inside. He counted silently, noting each ward, each anchor. The SRC rarely overprepared for a meeting; their tools were subtle, surgical. But this? This was an armory disguised as an evaluation chamber.Lysane stood at the center of the room, arms folded. Her eyes tracked his every movement, not with hostility, but wi
Chapter 399
Caster woke to silence. The kind of silence that presses against your ears until you think you might shatter. He opened his eyes to the gray wash of morning light spilling through the high, narrow windows of his quarters. The curtains were drawn back unevenly, one side pulled clean, the other hanging at a crooked angle. Dust motes floated lazily, suspended as though time itself had slowed in the room.His throat was raw. Each breath scraped like stone against his vocal cords. He tried to speak, even a whisper, and found only rasping silence.His hands came up first, almost by habit, and froze midair. Ink-black runes traced across his fingers, the backs of his hands, even curling up onto his wrists. The patterns were sharp, precise, deliberate, too precise to be a tremor of panic or sleepwalking. Every line was a careful, intentional mark, yet he could not remember placing a single one.Caster’s chest tightened. A sudden, familiar pulse ran through him, the tether. He had felt i
Chapter 398
Caster lingered at the edge of the Subterranean Archive, his boots crunching softly over ash-stained stone. The torchlight flickered across layered glyphs pressed into the walls, their subtle pulses echoing faintly beneath the floor.Every step drew him closer to the fragmentary text that had been waiting centuries for him, or someone like him. The sealed tome lay open on a pedestal carved from obsidian, pages floating in suspended motion, refusing to settle as if they were resisting gravity itself.Kael Dorn stood behind him, arms folded, eyes sharp beneath heavy brows. He had not spoken since they descended, only watching, a silent sentinel. The tension between them was a tangible thing, unspoken, coiled around the chamber like a living thing.Caster’s hands hovered over the first page. The script was layered: multiple eras superimposed over one another, a palimpsest of warnings, instructions, and omens. The letters shifted slightly under his gaze, rearranging themselves in resp
Chapter 397
Caster Spellbound adjusted the folds of his dark robes as he followed Kael Dorn down the narrow stairwell that led beneath the Tower. Each step echoed in the stone, a muted drumbeat swallowed by the oppressive weight of the underground. The air grew colder with every descent, carrying a metallic tang that clung to his nostrils. It wasn’t simply cold, it was dense with the inertia of suppressed knowledge, a silence so deliberate it pressed against his chest.The Subterranean Archive was not meant for casual inspection. SRC clearance wasn’t simply a matter of rank, it was a statement of trust. Those admitted were expected to walk carefully, to disturb nothing, and to read only what was intended to be read. Caster’s hand hovered near his belt, fingers brushing the edge of a sigil-inscribed ward that glimmered faintly beneath his skin. The wards here were older, woven with intent as much as with magic. They weren’t merely barriers, they were reminders that curiosity had consequence
Chapter 396
Caster stepped into the lower lab with Kael Dorn already at work, the room lit by suspended warded lamps that hummed faintly. The ash residue from the recent Ashfall incidents was spread across multiple stone tables, collected in fine sheets, vials, and pressed into shallow basins. Every particle seemed to hold a memory. Caster knelt beside one of the larger trays, fingers hovering above the floating motes, feeling the faint pull of resonance even before touching them.Kael didn’t look up. “We’ve got ash from three separate incidents: the Sixth Ring archive collapse, the old Starlight Observatory, and the new containment wing. They’re all behaving the same.” His hands moved in precise, almost ritualistic gestures, tracing sigils in the air to isolate residual contamination. “If this were just dust, we’d have seen decay patterns by now. But it’s alive, in a sense.”Caster flexed his own fingers, fingertips brushing the ash lightly. The particles shifted instantly, flowing along invi
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