Free Web NovelChapter 388: Balinar’s Sin
Balinar {Flash Back};
The cave does not welcome us.
It sits like an arrogant beast that looks down on any and everything that dares to venture into it. It’s the kind of place that holds no room for living things. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
The kind of place that whispers and screams at the same time for you to turn around.
The deeper I walk, the more it feels like I am forcing my way into something that has no interest in being entered— something that would rather collapse in on itself than host what I bring into it.
But I don’t mind. I did not come here to be welcomed.
The cold chain in my hand drags loudly across the stone as I pull him behind me. Each step he takes is unnecessarily slow and uneven.
His strength had long been spent before we crossed the borders of Nagari. But I was kind enough to leave him the strength to move.
He stumbles repeatedly but catches himself, only for him to stumble again. His breath is wet. I can hear how damaged his lungs are from each breath, but it’s okay... I’ll put him out of his misery soon.
I do not soften my pace for him. He needs to understand that there is no turning back now. Not for him. Not for me. And certainly not for what’s about to happen.
He slows again, and I yank at the chain. He grunts and falls. This time fully.
His body hits the stone hard, and the sound is instantly swallowed by the thick darkness around us, and then thrown back at us.
I turn to look at him in irritation, and his pathetic form just lies there. Wasting my time.
He lies curled into himself. His chest rises in shallow, difficult pulls as he tries to breathe through pain that certainly doesn’t care whether he survives it or not.
His face is ruined in ways that would have made anyone else unrecognisable, but I still know him. Of course I do.
He is my twin. My parents’ mistake. My offering.
His eyes find me through the mess of blood and fear, wide and pleading in a way that should mean something... but never has.
"Please..." he whispers, with his voice barely coming out.
I stare at him for a moment, and my head tilts. Not because I am considering it, but because I still can’t understand how that mind of his works.
All these years with me. All these years under my thumb and still... still he doesn’t know me? He doesn’t know better than to beg?
I have shown him so much hate that some people believe he’s dead. And still... he thinks his Pela could mean something to me?
Then I pull the chain hard, and the collar snaps tight against his throat, dragging him forward as a broken gasp leaves him.
His body scrapes against the stone, and he claws at the ground— nails tearing uselessly against the rocky ground until he manages to get his knees under him.
"That word has no value here," I whisper to him, with my voice calm and untouched by the state he is in. The state I put him in.
He shakes his head weakly, still trying, still clinging to something that does not exist.
"We are the same," he says, forcing the words out through pain.
"You can’t do this to me." He begs further, and I hold his gaze. Unmoved.
"You are nothing like me."I spit, and I watch in real time as horror floods his eyes when he realises that there’s no bargaining. Not now. Not ever.
I turn away from him and continue moving, dragging him with me as the cave deepens, and the air grows heavier with each step.
The torches my men hold behind us turn low and unstable, with their light struggling to exist in a place that seems to reject it.
The shadows do not move away from the flames... they lean into them, thick and poignant, as though they are waiting for the lights to fail...
I can sense their fear. But it doesn’t move me. I’m more eager to get this done than afraid of what I might lose on the way.
We reach the final chamber. The place where my answers lie, and it opens without warning.
Opening into a vast space that feels older than the world outside it. The altar stands at the centre, carved from a black stone that does not reflect light so much as consume it. It’s not smooth. And neither is it clean.
It is marked, stained, and worn by something repeated too many times to count.
The men are already there. Three of them.
Exactly as I instructed.
They stand in silence when I enter, their heads lowering in acknowledgement. They do not look at my twin. They do not question why I have brought him here. They do not need to.
Because they know. He may not... He may be clueless about the danger that awaits him... but these men aren’t.
They understand what this place is. They understand what is required.
That is why they are here.
I release the chain, and my twin collapses again, too weak now to hold himself upright. He tries to crawl away, with slow, heavy movements that would almost be pitiful if they meant anything.
They do not.
"Put him on the altar," I order, and the cloaked men move immediately.
My twin tries to scream, but it’s useless.
They lift him effortlessly— ignoring his weak struggle, as they force him onto the stone. He tries to twist away, tries to push against them, but his strength is gone. Whatever resistance he had left in him, I beat out of him long before we entered this cave.
This needs to be clean. As clean as something like this can possibly be. I didn’t need him ruining it.
I step forward, reaching into my cloak and pulling out the blade.
It is not ceremonial. It is not adorned. It does not need to be.
It’s just sharp. Exactly what I need it to be.
The moment the blade catches the dim torchlights, the air shifts. Almost like they can tell what’s coming. Their freedom.
The shadows along the walls deepen, shifting in a way that is too slow to be movement and too deliberate to be imagined. The torches flicker, their flames bending towards the altar as though something unseen is pulling at them— Watching. Waiting.
I place my hand on the altar, feeling the cold seep into my skin, and roothing me in the moment. In this meaningful, beautiful moment.
"This is the offering," I say, my voice carrying across the space with that echo that soothes something dark and deep inside me.
"Blood of my blood. Flesh of my flesh." I continue, and my twin starts trembling beneath their grip, his breath breaking completely now.
"Balinar, don’t—please—" He pleads, but I do not look at him.
He has already served his purpose.
"Balinar..." He cries weakly and for once... I look at him.
Past the blood, past the bruises, past the pain. Then I see him. That little big I grew up with. The favourite twin. The one I was sidelined for. The one I was always beaten for. The one I kept having to sacrifice for. The twin whom my parents loved more because he was an omega. Because he was weaker... more delicate.
A smile crawls onto my face as the memories die down and I return to the present.
"You can finally be reunited with them, Valinar..." I whisper, and his eyes hold mine.
I watch sorrow flood his eyes, and he shuts his eyes as he looks away from me.
"You will die. You will hurt. You will pay for all you’ve done, Balinar. It’s not a curse. It’s a promise." He whispers, and my smile deepens.
That’s enough of that. I raise the blade. And with no further hesitation or pause, I let it come down.
The sound is thick, final, and immediately swallowed by the cave before it returns... distorted and stretched.
Blood spills across the altar in a dark rush, spreading into the grooves carved into the stone as though it knows exactly where it belongs.
For a moment, nothing happens, and then...everything does.
The torches flare violently, then dim to a dangerous low as the three men begin to chant.
The shadows around stretch unnaturally... Like something inside them is tearing its way free.
The air grows heavier, filling my lungs with a weight that does not belong to the natural world. The men behind me stiffen, but they do not move. They do not speak. They do not dare.
Shapes begin to form in the darkness. Not fully... Not clearly. But enough to be seen... Enough to be felt.
The figures do not step forward. They bleed forward, stretching out from the walls, from the cracks... from the spaces where light fails to exist.
The space is no longer just a place. It is occupied now. By entities I can not see but feel.
Darkness fills the place— consuming Valinar’s body and swallowing all within reach.
A sound fills the space.
Not one voice. But many... Layered. Low... Wrong.
"You have broken the seal..."
The words do not come from a single direction. They surround me, press against me, crawl through my pores and settle into my bones.
I do not move. I do not bow. I do not lower my gaze. Because they may be monsters. But I set them free. So they answer to me.
"You are free," I say, and the response is immediate.
A shift.
A presence pressing closer, colder, heavier than the rest.
"What do you seek, Balinar Of Elkhorn?"
The question I’ve been anticipating finally comes, and I relish the moment.
"I have performed the ritual and given you what you require. Freedom." I say—keeping my voice steady despite the pressure building in the air.
"Now, you will give me what I want," I add, and silence follows.
Judging... Weighing. And finally...
"Speak."
I lift my chin slightly as I make the request that brought me here.
"Give me Elien. And wipe out all those who dared to take him from me." I speak. freёwebnovel.com
The name settles into the space like something that does not belong there, something that draws attention in a way nothing else has yet.
The darkness shifts. Closer now. More focused.
"The redeemer..." the voices murmur, almost thoughtful, and my brows knot.
Redeemer??
The presence tightens around me, cold seeping deeper, pressing harder.
Then they answer.
"The redeemer will be yours. But to get to one, you must separate the two. And the light in his womb will be ours."
