The council hall slowly emptied after Hyron’s stormy exit, but Caelum and Veyna remained. The silence that followed was heavy—not peaceful, but tight and humming with unspoken fears. The hovering map of the Thresholds cast a soft glow across their faces.

  Each realm pulsed faintly:

  Malachor — dark reds, iron storms circling like restless spirits.

  Roland — cracked and unstable, its forests flickering with strange energy ripples.

  Galaxia — islands of light drifting peacefully in star-blossom skies.

  Netheron — a slow swirl of shadowed magic, calm yet unsettling.

  And the many surrounding realms like Verdantis, Lunaris, Astrimaal, and Embera, spinning like petals around a cosmic core.

  Veyna wrapped her arms around herself as if she felt the weight of all of them pressing down.

  “She fell into the weakest Threshold,” she murmured. “Roland is practically untouched by Lord governance. Its people fend for themselves. Its borders are barely patrolled. And now she’s there—alone, confused, and hunted.”

  Caelum didn’t disagree.

  He gazed at Roland’s flickering projection, watching it pulse again with faint blue light—Althea’s presence echoing like a heartbeat.

  “It’s not coincidence,” he said softly. “Someone positioned the console to send her there.”

  Veyna’s breath caught. “You think this was intentional?”

  “I think,” Caelum answered, “that Roland is the only Threshold fragile enough to hide her awakening… and the only one where no one would question an outsider vanishing.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Veyna’s eyes widened.

  “That means… she was never supposed to be found.”

  Caelum nodded.

  The truth hung between them like a falling stone.

  “She is a child,” Veyna whispered. “Barely understanding where she is. And Hyron treats her like a threat.”

  “Hyron fears anything he cannot control,” Caelum replied. “Especially someone the prophecy mentioned.”

  Veyna paced across the crystalline floor.

  “The verse said a traveler from beyond would awaken something in the forgotten.”

  “‘And where the weak are broken,’” Caelum continued, “‘she will raise them.’”

  Veyna paused. “Roland is full of the forgotten.”

  “And that makes her dangerous to those who profit from its silence.” Caelum’s tone hardened. “There are Lords who prefer Roland weak. Quiet. Unnoticed.”

  Veyna turned sharply. “You think one of us orchestrated this?”

  “One of us… or someone outside the council. A faction. A hidden hand.”

  They fell into silence again.

  Then—

  A messenger sprinted into the hall, bowing deeply.

  “L-Lord Caelum, Lady Veyna—Hyron’s hunters have picked up movement in Roland. Three figures fleeing the forest. One matches the girl’s appearance. The reading is unstable, but—”

  Veyna gasped. “The omegas with her…”

  The messenger nodded. “Yes. And something else…”

  He hesitated. “It seems another presence is tracking her. The signal is… distorted.”

  Caelum’s expression sharpened.

  “Distorted? Show me.”

  The messenger tapped a crystal panel on the wall, and a new projection bloomed above the table.

  Three small blue lights raced through Roland’s forest—that was Althea and the two omegas.

  But behind them…

  A single red light flickered erratically.

  Then glitched.

  Then bent unnaturally.

  Veyna stepped back. “That isn’t Hyron’s hunter.”

  “No.” Caelum’s voice dropped. “That is something else.”

  The red light began pulsing in a pattern—one Caelum recognized instantly.

  “The Scout,” he breathed. “But… it’s corrupted.”

  Veyna stared, horrified. “Corrupted how?”

  “The magical disturbance from earlier,” Caelum replied. “It didn’t hurt the Scout. It changed it.”

  The projection showed the Scout staggering through the woods, movements jarring, unpredictable, almost frantic—its mission fragmented, its senses distorted.

  Now it hunted Althea not only out of duty…

  but because it didn’t understand anything else anymore.

  Veyna whispered, “If it reaches her in that state—”

  “She won’t stand a chance.”

  Caelum’s jaw clenched.

  “Prepare an override order. Restrict Hyron’s soldiers. Roland cannot become a battlefield.”

  The messenger hesitated. “Lord Hyron will accuse you of treason.”

  “Let him,” Caelum said. “But if Althea survives this… the entire Threshold system will shift.”

  He turned back to the map—Roland pulsed again, brighter this time, as though answering him.

  “She is awakening.”

  Veyna stepped beside him.

  “And if Hyron reaches her first?”

  Caelum didn’t look away from the flickering blue signal.

  “Then,” he whispered, “this world will lose the one person who could have saved it.”

  There was no more time for debate.

  The conspiracy that had been creeping in the shadows was no longer hidden.

  Someone wanted Althea erased.

  Someone wanted Roland silenced.

  And someone among the Lords might be helping it happen.

  The messenger bowed and rushed out.

  Veyna stared at Caelum, her voice barely above a whisper.

  “Who do you think is behind this?”

  Caelum finally tore his eyes

  away from the map.

  “I don’t know yet,” he said. “But I know where the truth begins.”

  His gaze hardened.

  “In Roland. With her.”