Episode 10 – Whispers of the Inheritor
"The past is not forgotten—it waits."
---
The mana winds had shifted.
Even the air around Arkanis Academy felt heavier—as if it had grown aware, watching from every shadowed corner and sunlit arch. Students whispered of strange dreams, of symbols burning on the walls that vanished before professors arrived. Something ancient stirred beneath the foundations of the academy.
Zane could feel it in his bones.
He stood in the spellforge arena, muscles aching, body drenched in sweat. Aetheric energy flickered at his fingertips, wild and chaotic. Every time he called on his summoning magic, it responded faster—but darker. Hungrier.
Vel'Torak's pact had amplified his strength, yes… but it had opened something else too.
Across from him, Kaela adjusted her gloves. The ornate crest of her noble house shimmered on her uniform's shoulder, yet her gaze held none of a noble's arrogance—only concern.
"You're holding back again," she said, flicking her grimoire open mid-air. Wind symbols danced along the page edges, swirling around her boots like playful spirits.
Zane exhaled slowly. "Because I'm not sure what happens if I don't."
Kaela offered a lopsided grin. "That's exactly why you need to stop holding back."
Without waiting, she attacked—spirals of wind shaped into slicing projectiles, laced with rune-precision.
Zane didn't dodge. His hands moved instinctively.
A dome of midnight-black fire erupted in front of him, twisting into jagged edges like a monstrous flower. Vel'Torak's magic. It wasn't just shadow and flame—it was a living thing.
The flames snarled as if they had a voice of their own, pushing Kaela back.
Her boots skidded along the stone floor, breath stolen for a moment. "Okay… not gonna lie, that was terrifying."
Zane grimaced. "It's getting worse. Every time I summon, it feels like… like I'm not alone."
Suddenly, his body jerked. The mark on his shoulder—the sigil of Vel'Torak—lit up with a searing violet glow.
And a voice not his own whispered in his mind.
> "He watches you from the mirror of time. The Inheritor remembers. Do you?"
A blast of psychic feedback knocked him back. His vision flashed with fragmented images:
A silver tower reaching into an eclipse sky.
A burning throne room covered in frost.
A masked figure holding a blade of black crystal.
He clutched his head and fell to his knees.
Kaela ran to his side, gripping his shoulders. "Zane! What did you see?"
"…A name," he gasped. "The Inheritor. Something... older than Vel'Torak."
---
Later that night, the Academy slept, but Kaela didn't.
She had always known more than she let on. Her family were keepers of ancient magical records—guardians of the Echo Archives, a library beneath the academy accessible only to select bloodlines.
She crept through hidden tunnels below the western tower, her grimoire pulsing faintly to guide her.
The Vault of Echoes opened with a drop of her blood and a flicker of wind essence.
Inside, the silence was absolute.
Dust blanketed the chamber, disturbed only by her footsteps. Crystal lanterns hummed faintly, illuminating rows of stone tablets, cursed manuscripts, and forbidden scrolls.
Kaela's fingers hovered over a sealed volume bound in wyrmhide.
> "Chronicles of the Lost Thrones."
She opened it, and her heart skipped.
> "The Inheritor—last scion of the Shadow Empire, bearer of the Severed Crown.
Bound in eternity to the Reclaimer by pact, betrayal, and blood.
When the Seven Chains break, he shall rise again."
She snapped the book shut, hands trembling.
"…Zane," she whispered, "you're more than a summoner. You're a piece of a war that never ended."
---
Far away, in the Ruined North, lightning cracked across a storm-wracked sky.
Inside a cathedral of black ice, a solitary figure sat before a broken mirror.
His face was hidden beneath a bone-carved mask. Shadows clung to his frame like loyal hounds.
The mirror did not reflect his image—but Zane's.
He watched the boy's duel. Saw the mark of Vel'Torak. Heard the name spoken again for the first time in centuries.
> "Reclaimer," he hissed, voice like silk torn on glass. "So… you live."
He rose, robes of stitched memory fluttering around him. Twelve robed figures—The Ashen Covenant—knelt around a blood-forged ritual circle behind him.
With one gesture, the glyphs burst into violent crimson light.
> "Awaken the second seal," the Inheritor commanded. "Al'Rhazak stirs. Let him test the Reclaimer's mind."
---
At Arkanis, the sky wept violet.
A pillar of warped mana surged into the heavens from the eastern forest—The Gloomweald. Trees warped and bent away from the storm's center. Screeches echoed from unseen mouths. Birds fell dead mid-flight.
Zane stood on the tower with Kaela, Rhain, and a squad of elite trainees.
Rhain's normally confident voice dropped to a whisper. "That's not natural mana. That's Sovereign resonance…"
Kaela nodded, eyes wide. "It's the Second Seal. Al'Rhazak the Dream-Eater has begun to awaken."
Zane's mark throbbed painfully. Vel'Torak's voice returned, ancient and tired.
> "The next chain breaks. He devours memory. If you face him, Reclaimer… you may not return the same."
Zane stared at the forest.
The time for training had ended.
Now… the true war of succession began.