Masked Sovereign: Lord of Fallen Aether

Chapter 20: Dravetians

Far beyond the six kingdoms of the Astern Empire, past the borders where human land ended and The Korvath began.

It wasn’t a place humans saw and came back from. A craggy valley split the terrain, rising from the center of it was a fortress, black stone spires stretching upward until their tips disappeared into cloud, past the point where moonlight followed.

A figure landed on the highest balcony without a sound.

He stood for a moment with his shoulders tight and his jaw set, then started walking.

Moonlight fell across him as he moved — jagged curved horns, dark armor still carrying the dust of a long journey, the particular tension in his frame of someone who had come back without what he’d gone for.

Magnorus, lieutenant under the Alynkarnate Lords, pulled the obsidian sword from his side and dropped it.

It hit the stone floor and sank an inch without effort, the dense mana running through its core doing that on its own. He looked at it for a moment. The frustration needed somewhere to go.

’Damn that bastard.’

Sentries appeared below, hurrying up. "Welcome back, Sir Magnorus—"

"What are you doing here?" He didn’t turn. "I ordered guards to the gateways."

"P-Pardon us, Lieutenant — we were summoned. Lord Ulvakor is here."

Magnorus paused. His expression shifted from irritation into something more careful. "Is he." He glanced at them once. "Get out of my sight."

"Yes, sir."

They were already moving. freewebnøvel.coɱ

The interior of the spire opened into a hall with pillars stretching ten meters high, dark stone that pulled the light from the torches set between them. Magnorus walked the length of it and stopped.

"I see you’ve returned."

Ulvakor Veydrath was leaning against the dais at the far end of the hall with his arms loosely folded, watching.

One of the six Alynkarnate Lords.

Crimson eyes, visibly brighter than him. His curved horns caught the torchlight slowly as he straightened.

"My lord." Magnorus dipped his head.

"Well?" Ulvakor looked at him steadily. "The stone."

Magnorus held the pause for exactly a second. "Forgive me, my lord. I found Zenith and confirmed the betrayal. He refused to return the stone even at the end." He kept his head level. "After I killed him, I searched everything. He didn’t have the Aetherstone on him."

Ulvakor was quiet. Then he pressed two fingers slowly against his temple, tilting his head. "Tch." The word was soft. "The Xarveth Stone of all of them. And taken by one of our own." freewebnøvel.com

"My lord — whoever tries to consume the stone dies," Magnorus offered carefully. "No being has ever survived it. Whatever Zenith’s intention was, it changes nothing in the end."

"That isn’t what concerns me." Ulvakor’s eyes moved past Magnorus, past the hall, to something further away. "We need to act before his Majesty does so himself."

Magnorus went still. "His Majesty? You mean he would intervene personally?"

"The Xarveth Stone is ours." Ulvakor’s tone didn’t shift in temperature, but something in it became more precise.

"The first Aetherstone ever forged. Even among our own kind, no one has ever fully conquered what it holds. And for what’s coming for the war. It is not something we can allow to simply stay lost." He straightened from the dais fully. "His Majesty will not wait forever."

Footsteps from the corridor came unhurried. Accompanied by the slow, deliberate rhythm of quiet applause.

"Well, well~" Zeus Vedrath came around the entrance with his hands still clapping softly, grey eyes moving between the two of them with the easy amusement of someone arriving late to a conversation they had no intention of taking seriously.

Two curved horns, dark robes, the posture of someone who just woke up from the bed still lazing around. "Looks like the Xarveth Stone is genuinely gone."

"Zeus." Ulvakor’s tone didn’t change. "Explain your presence."

"Nothing complicated." Zeus set his hair back casually. "Just checking on my oldest friend, who’s desperately trying to recover a lost Aetherstone."

his grey eyes slid sideways "And also, from what I hear, still searching for a way to bring back a dead wom—"

The killing intent that rolled off Ulvakor was immediate and physical, something the air itself adjusted around. Every torch in the hall dimmed a fraction. His crimson eyes had gone completely still. "I dare you, to finish that."

The hall had no other sound in it.

Magnorus was sweating without moving.

Zeus raised both hands, unhurried. "Alright. Alright, I apologize. I went too far, I’m sowwy."

"Don’t." The intent dissolved as slowly as it had come. "Don’t ever tease something about my wife."

"Forgiven." Zeus lowered his hands, expression settling back into its natural composure. "On to actual business then."

He glanced between them. "His Majesty has summoned all the Alynkarnates. He wants to start making moves."

Ulvakor looked at him for a long moment.

Then a slow grin crossed his face, small and sharp and not something anyone would want directed at them. "So. After all this time. Our new monarch finally decided to make his move."

"Your expression is terrifying, Ulvakor," Zeus said pleasantly, in the tone of someone who was not remotely terrified.

"That’s enough." Ulvakor moved toward the corridor. "We have nothing left to waste time on here."

"After you~" Zeus fell into step without hurry.

At the threshold, Ulvakor paused and looked back over his shoulder. "Magnorus. You’re dismissed. Find the stone."

"Your wish is my command, my lord."

Magnorus was gone before the echo finished.

*****

Morning came to Kaelenor Manor.

Aries opened his eyes to Valea’s face directly above his.

"Aries? You awake?"

He blinked. Open sky above him. The balcony floor was hard under his back, morning cold sitting on everything.

"We found you sleeping out here," Cedric said from a few feet away, arms folded, watching him with an expression that wasn’t quite concern and wasn’t quite anything easier to name.

Aries sat up slowly. His head ached with a depth to it that sleep shouldn’t leave behind. He looked down at his left hand.

The mark was there. Black lines, quiet now, sitting across his palm.

"What happened?" Valea crouched beside him. "You were in your bed when we all went to sleep."

Aries looked at the empty space above the balcony where a figure with frost blue eyes had been standing in the dark.