Inside Gravespire Hold – Nightfall
Lyra
The halls of Gravespire were not built for the living.
Every corridor was lined with statues of faceless things—guardians or victims, it wasn't clear. The stone floor was veined with dried blood that no one bothered to clean. Time didn't pass normally here. It coiled, like a serpent waiting to strike its own tail.
I counted three separate time loops in the entrance hall alone. Minor folds, unstable echoes.
They were letting them linger. That meant this place was older than the System.
Much older.
The Crimson Veil led us through a narrow gate lined with crimson banners stitched from silk and flayed flesh. No one spoke. The only sound was the low hum of magical wards vibrating through the stone.
We entered the Hall of Accord—an amphitheater of jagged granite, lit by a ring of black torches that burned cold blue flame.
📜 Faction Notice:
🔴 Crimson Veil – Enforcers of Sacred Blood, Masters of Binding Contracts
🌑 Black Thorn Pact – Rogue Warlocks, Shadow-Dealers, Wielders of Forbidden Magic
💠 Status: Accord Treaty in Place – Hostilities Suspended Until Blood Moon Sets
Kael and I stood in the middle—outsiders in a game we hadn't been invited to play.
A woman with burning red eyes stepped forward, her mask porcelain-white and shaped like a grieving widow's face.
"Lyra Valeheart," she said. "Bearer of time-lost magic. You will come with us."
Kael stepped forward, fire bristling on his skin. "No, she won't."
A ripple of tension moved through the chamber.
The woman tilted her head. "You speak like you have weight here, Infernal."
"I have fire."
She smiled without warmth. "And fire burns. But time rules."
I felt it before Kael did—the shift.
Behind us, a second voice spoke—greasy, low, full of contempt.
"Kael of Emberwatch. You stand in violation of Pact Order 17-C. Destruction of a sanctioned outpost. The deaths of seventeen Pact-aligned initiates. One of them my son."
We turned. A figure in robes darker than midnight stood across the hall, eyes glowing with hatred.
High Binder Vrosh.
Black Thorn executioner.
Kael's voice was low. "I didn't kill them."
Vrosh raised a talon-marked sigil.
"You lived. That was enough."
The Accord had barely begun.
And already, it was breaking.