The icy wind howled through the black pines like a living thing.
Kaela adjusted the enchanted scarf around her neck, the fabric shimmering faintly with protection glyphs. Her boots crunched softly against the frost-layered forest floor. Around her, her chosen squad moved in quiet formation—trained, alert, and increasingly uncomfortable.
Even Seris, who never complained, finally spoke. "I've faced lava serpents and soul-warped banshees, but I draw the line at haunted tundra."
Mirex chuckled softly. "It's not haunted, just historically blood-soaked and magically fractured."
"Oh, well then, that's much better."
Kaela didn't reply. Her gaze was fixed ahead, on a ridge cloaked in swirling mist. According to the resonance map Mirex had extracted from the beacon, the third fragment of Aelira's soul had rooted itself in the ruins of an ancient elven monastery long buried beneath snow and centuries of pain.
This was their third mission to retrieve fragments, and the toll was beginning to show not in physical strain, but in the creeping awareness of just how far Aelira had scattered herself to seal the Calamity.
The Calamity.
None of them dared speak its true name yet. Even thinking about it made Kaela's stomach twist.
But the shard was close now. She could feel it.
-----
Before the descent into the ice-cracked valley, Kaela called for a short rest, and the team gathered beneath the skeletal canopy of a dead pine tree. She took the opportunity to do something she'd been meaning to since Ashmere.
"Alright," she said. "Let's lay out the structure. We've had too many encounters lately where power overlaps or assignments get messy."
Ilara, wrapped in a ghost-cloak, blinked at her. "You mean... an organizational talk?"
"In the middle of a cursed forest?" Torren added, incredulous.
"Yes," Kaela said firmly. "We're three missions into this arcane scavenger hunt. We need clarity."
Mirex smirked. "Go on, then. Enlighten us, Spellcaster."
Kaela smirked. "I know you guys know these stuff but for anyone that doesn't know.... I mean we really didn't have any talk like this you know .... So let's start with the basics. Each of us council members and squad alike has an affinity, as you all know. It's our core connection to the supernatural world. Most people only ever awaken one or two abilities tied to it. That's what we call Stage One or Stage Two. Which you guys are..."
Seris raised a hand lazily. "And Stage Three?"
"That's the threshold for becoming a member of the Umbra Concord Council Seat," Kaela continued. "Stage Three represents full manifestation of your affinity: three distinct abilities bound to your core. Council members are the only beings who've reached this level... except for faction leaders."
Mirex nodded. "Even within Stages, no two abilities are identical. My affinity is Arcane Constructs I manipulate coded runes and stored enchantments. Seris' is Barrier and Reflection. Yours, Kaela, is Mystic Linguistics."
"Right," Kaela nodded. "Words have power—spoken, written, inscribed. My affinity breaks into three: Arcane Spiral, Memory Flame, and Spellweave Dominion. Together, they form what most call Mystic Linguistics."
Ilara added softly, "Mine's Deathsong. I hear the dead. Guide them. Sometimes... weaponize their last emotions."
"And mine's speed," Torren said. "More specifically tactical velocity. I can cut reality like it's paper."
Kaela smiled. "Exactly. Our strengths are unique, but they complement each other. That's how the council was designed."
She drew a quick sketch in the snow with her finger.
"The eight Umbra Concord seats," she said, drawing a circle split into sections. "Each seat represents a role, a function. They're not just titles they're responsibilities."
She pointed at the topmost section.
"The Warden," she said. "Our leader Lucien Draeven holds this seat and governs Law, internal regulation, enforcement. He oversees the council's integrity and its political backbone."
"The Spellcaster," she continued, touching the next wedge. "That's me. Magical support. Reinforcement, decoding, arcane adaptability. My seat exists to assist the others and fill gaps in power."
"Then around the circle:
The Reaper – assassination and silent removal of threats. Stealth and lethality.
The Titan – combat commander, warfare expert.
The Oracle – prophecy, intelligence, foresight.
The Forgemaster – weaponsmith and artifact crafter. Their squad maintains the magical armory.
The Lifebinder – healer, biological alchemist. And We're trying to find Aelira, the first Lifebinder.
The Defender – guardians of the council tower. Responsible for physical defense and personal guards."
"Every seat has a vice," Kaela added. "Vice seats are almost always Stage Three users, but not quite council material. They command our squads and execute our orders."
She looked around. "This info matters, because if we lose more of our powers... these roles become even more vital. Tools, tactics, compatibility everything changes."
A silence followed, filled only by wind and breath.
Ilara nodded. "Good. Now let's go save what's left of the Lifebinder."
-----
The monastery was a jagged skeleton of black stone jutting from beneath the snow, surrounded by broken statues of serene elven monks. Whatever magic once protected the place had long decayed, leaving a biting chill that sank deeper than the bones.
Kaela led them through a frostbitten archway, casting runes along the edges to reveal invisible wards.
"No traps," she muttered. "But someone tried to keep something locked inside."
As they entered the main chamber, they saw it a massive ice sculpture in the center, carved into the shape of an open hand. Inside its palm, suspended like a frozen flame, was the final shard of Aelira's soul.
Torren whistled. "That's... poetic."
"Or a prison," Mirex muttered. "Something's wrong. The air's too still."
Kaela reached for the shard, only for a shiver of sound to ripple across the room—a whisper, repeating in a forgotten tongue.
Ilara froze. "Those are Vyre Rites. Burial spells... for gods."
The walls pulsed.
Out from the shadows emerged four figures—twisted amalgamations of elf and ice, wielding broken relics and bound in cursed armor. Their eyes glowed with trapped light.
"Guardians," Seris breathed. "Bound to the fragment."
"No talking them down," Kaela said. "They're echoes, like Ashmere but bound to oath rather than emotion."
"Then we unbind them," Torren said with a grin, already vanishing into a blur.
Battle broke out.
Ilara sang, her Deathsong slicing through the undead silence, staggering one guardian as its soul reeled under sorrow. Mirex hurled a trio of runes that detonated mid-air, shattering one of the guardians' frozen shields.
Kaela moved with grace and fury, drawing sigils in the air that burned with blue fire. Her stage one ability arcane initiate allowed her to conjure basic runic sigils, the 'Scriptflare' is such a runic sigil, it ignited midair to lash at foes. Another runic sigils, Chaincall, allowed her to link the squad's energy, healing small wounds by drawing on her own reserves.
Seris held the line with a gleaming wall of hexglass, buying Ilara time to land a perfect banshee scream that shattered two of the guardians completely.
The last guardian lunged for Kaela—
Only to be intercepted by Torren, who appeared in a flicker and decapitated it in one blur of motion.
Silence fell.
Kaela stepped forward, laid a hand on the frozen shard, and closed her eyes.
"Unbind," she whispered.
The ice melted in a breath of light.
The third fragment pulsed into the beacon in her belt.
-----
Later, around a fire lit just outside the ruin, Mirex handed her a datapad. "All three fragments are in place. The beacon's stable."
Kaela studied the readout. Three fragments. Three echoes. Three tragedies.
"Now what?" Seris asked. "We summon her?"
Kaela shook her head. "We don't summon Aelira. We follow the beacon. It'll lead us to the place she hid the rest of herself. The final lock."
Ilara's face was pale. "You mean the place where the Calamity... happened."
Kaela nodded. "We'll go there. We'll bring her back."
She didn't say it aloud, but they all felt it.
Once they did everything would change.