Free Web NovelCHAPTER 58 — THE WEIGHT OF SHADOWS
Rain fell over Drakhar.
Not the gentle rain of forests.
Nor the endless storms of the sea.
Here, it hissed against warm volcanic stone, rising again as silver mist.
The mountain seemed to breathe.
Vespera found Nyxara sitting alone on the fortress wall.
She wasn't watching the city.
She was watching the roads leading away from it.
"You always choose the highest place."
Vespera said.
Nyxara didn't turn.
"High places show you who is arriving."
"And who is leaving."
Vespera leaned against the ancient stone beside her.
"You're thinking about the missing books."
"I'm thinking about the people who took them."
Silence settled between them.
Comfortable.
Unforced.
After a long while...
Vespera asked quietly,
"Who taught you to see the world this way?"
Nyxara smiled without humor.
"I suppose..."
"...it's time you knew."
"I wasn't born into an assassin's guild."
"I was born in a border village."
"It didn't matter which kingdom claimed us."
"Every few years..."
"The flags changed."
"The taxes changed."
"The soldiers changed."
"But ordinary people..."
"We were always the ones buried."
She looked toward the distant western horizon.
"When I was twelve..."
"A noble hired mercenaries to burn our harvest."
"They wanted our land."
"We resisted."
Her voice remained calm.
Almost too calm.
"My father died defending our home."
"My mother died the following winter."
"My little brother..."
She stopped.
For the first time...
Words failed her.
Vespera said nothing.
She simply waited.
"I found him two days later."
Nyxara whispered.
"He'd hidden beneath the floorboards."
"He wasn't wounded."
"He had simply..."
"...starved."
Rain continued to fall.
No one spoke.
Some grief...
Never truly left.
"It wasn't monsters."
Nyxara continued.
"It wasn't demons."
"It wasn't the Abyss."
"It was greed."
She looked directly at Vespera.
"That's the day I stopped believing kingdoms were automatically good."
"So who found you?"
Lirael asked gently from the doorway.
The others had arrived quietly.
None of them wished to interrupt.
But none wished to leave either.
Nyxara answered honestly.
"The Veiled Hand."
"The guild."
"They fed me."
"They trained me."
"They gave me purpose."
Kragga folded her arms.
"They also taught you to kill."
"Yes."
"They did."
Nyxara didn't make excuses.
"I became very good at it."
Captain Rowan finally asked the question everyone had wondered.
"Then why leave?"
Nyxara reached into her cloak.
She removed a small bronze coin.
One side bore the symbol of the Veiled Hand.
The other...
A child's handprint.
"My brother carved this."
"I kept it hidden for years."
"One day..."
"My guild accepted a contract."
She closed her hand around the coin.
"The target was another farming village."
"They called it a strategic necessity."
"I called it murder."
"So..."
"I refused."
"What happened?"
Sylvana asked softly.
Nyxara laughed once.
"They sent three assassins after me."
Kragga grinned.
"They failed."
"They underestimated how well they had trained me."
Vespera understood.
Nyxara hadn't joined the Abyss because she loved monsters.
She had joined because she refused to become the monster her old masters wanted.
Elyra stepped forward.
"The Holy Empire employs the Veiled Hand."
It wasn't a question.
Nyxara nodded.
"Officially?"
"No."
"Unofficially..."
"They've been useful to each other for decades."
Another piece of the puzzle fell into place.
The Empire preferred clean hands.
Others did the dirty work.
Later that afternoon...
Vespera walked through the training grounds.
She found Kragga teaching young Dragonkin warriors.
Not how to win.
How to survive.
"Never fight fair."
Kragga barked.
"If someone wants a fair fight..."
"They can join a tournament."
"If they want to stay alive..."
"They learn everything else."
The young warriors laughed.
But they listened.
Even Captain Rowan found himself taking notes. freёwebnovel.com
That evening...
The council gathered once more.
No secrets.
No strategy.
Just dinner.
Dragonkin stew.
Fresh bread.
Roasted vegetables from Sylvana's gardens. ƒreewebɳovel.com
For a while...
No one spoke about war.
No one mentioned the Empire.
They simply shared stories.
Laughed.
Argued about food.
Teased Kragga for eating enough for four people.
She insisted she was "eating for the army."
Even Nyxara smiled.
Not because anything was funny.
But because she had almost forgotten what ordinary companionship felt like.
Far to the west...
Inside a candlelit chamber...
Lady Seraphine read a fresh intelligence report.
She paused at one line.
The Abyss Queen's inner circle continues to strengthen.
She closed the report slowly.
"They're becoming a family."
One of the hooded figures answered coldly.
"Then break them."
Seraphine looked into the candle flame.
"And if that proves impossible?"
The figure's reply was immediate.
"Then make the world fear them."
The flame flickered.
Outside...
The rain finally stopped.
But over the continent...
Far darker clouds continued to gather.
End of Chapter 58
Author's Note:
Thank you all for reading and for your comments—they really motivate me to keep writing.
I'm trying to publish as many chapters as I can while I have a stable internet connection. There's a chance I may have limited or no internet access for part of next month, so I'd like to build up a backlog for everyone before then.
Thank you for your patience and support. I truly appreciate every reader.
