Chapter 4: Shadows in the Core
The scent of scorched aether hung in the air long after the Forge Trial ended. Valkryss, now deactivated, was carted away by recovery drones for emergency restoration. Still smoking. Still whole.
Kael Virel sat on the infirmary bed, staring at his hand. It still tingled. The full sync had changed something—rewired his connection to the mech. To Zaira.
Across from him, Zaira Thorne lay in a diagnostic chair, her eyes closed, a monitor above her flickering with neural activity readings. The med-bots hovered, murmuring to themselves in sterile tones.
"Your sync score was... off the charts," said Instructor Ryven, who entered silently. "You two didn't just connect with your Spellmech. You became it."
Kael didn't look at him. "What was that thing? The Wraithcore."
Ryven exhaled slowly. "A fragment. A remnant of something Arcforge was built to contain, not destroy. There are things buried beneath this academy, Kael. Older than Aether. Older than magic."
"You knew," Kael said, rising. "You knew it was down there."
"We suspected. That's why we train you. Why Arcforge exists."
Zaira stirred. Her eyes opened slowly, silver light flickering in her pupils.
"It spoke to me," she whispered. "The Wraithcore. It... knew my name."
Ryven turned to her, face hard. "Then it's starting."
"What is?" she asked.
Ryven tapped his wristband. A wall section slid open, revealing a staircase leading downward into darkness.
"Come with me."
---
They descended in silence. The stairs spiraled down into the heart of the academy. Past reinforced doors. Past runes older than the founding families.
At the bottom: a massive vault.
Ryven pressed his hand to a sigil. The door shuddered open.
Inside was not a room—but a chamber. Circular. Walls lined with mech cores floating in containment fields, their lights dim but still active. In the center, a pedestal pulsed with a single black shard—jagged, cracked, humming with malevolent energy.
"That," Ryven said, "is a Wraithshard. The core of a fallen Spellmech... one consumed by rage, corrupted by what we call the Oblivion Drive."
Kael stepped closer. The shard pulsed harder.
"It reacts to you," Zaira murmured.
Ryven nodded. "You both. That's why you could stop the Wraithcore. You're connected to this... war. You just don't remember it yet."
"Yet?" Kael repeated.
"There's more to your past than either of you were told."
He turned, cloak sweeping behind him.
"I'm going to assign you two to the Vault Initiative. It's not officially part of the academy curriculum. But it's the only way to get answers."
Zaira touched the edge of the pedestal, eyes narrowed.
"Then we want in."
---
The Vault Initiative met in the old forge halls—long-abandoned sections of Arcforge where the walls still bore scorch marks from forgotten duels. Kael and Zaira arrived to find a small group already gathered.
Rina Kestel was there—Zaira's roommate, her cheerful grin dimmed by the weight of what she'd seen in the trials. Two others stood beside her: A boy with cybernetic arms and a girl whose eyes glowed like moonfire.
"Welcome," said Ryven. "You're now part of the team that keeps Arcforge from falling apart."
"What exactly do we do?" Kael asked.
Ryven gestured to a massive map on the wall—an underground layout of Arcforge. "There are breach sites. Places where Wraith energy leaks into the academy. You seal them. Investigate them. Learn what the rest of the council won't dare to touch."
Zaira frowned. "Why hide this from the students?"
Ryven's voice lowered. "Because some of them aren't students."
Kael and Zaira exchanged a look.
"You mean spies?"
Ryven nodded. "Arcforge is not only a school. It's a battlefield. And the war's already begun."
---
Their first Vault mission came two nights later.
Deep under the east wing, a mana disturbance had triggered an alert. Kael, Zaira, and Rina moved through collapsed tunnels and crystal-choked chambers until they reached the breach.
It was a wound in the world. A tear in space, humming with dark energy. Around it floated broken shards of what once might've been a Spellmech.
Zaira activated a scanning glyph. "It's unstable. Growing."
Kael knelt. "There's something inside."
Suddenly, the breach pulsed—and a shape emerged. Not a full Wraithcore, but a fragment. A ghostlike construct of armor and shadow.
Kael's instincts took over. He summoned his arm-blades, lunging forward. The creature was fast—blindingly so.
But Zaira was faster. She activated her barrier rune, catching its claws mid-swing. Rina fired a volley of stun glyphs, driving it back.
Together, they forced it toward the breach.
Kael launched the final strike—his blade piercing the heart of the phantom.
It dissolved, screaming.
The breach sealed.
Silence returned.
---
Later, as they walked the upper halls of Arcforge, Kael looked out over the campus.
"We're in deeper than I thought," he said.
Zaira stood beside him. "We always were. We just didn't know it."
She looked at him, eyes serious.
"Kael... when that Wraithcore rose during the trials—it knew my name, yes. But it also knew yours."
He turned.
"What if this isn't just about the academy? What if we are part of whatever caused this in the first place?"
Kael didn't answer. The stars above offered no comfort.
Only questions.
---
Next: Chapter 5 – Echoes of the Fallen
Memories long buried begin to surface. And as Kael and Zaira uncover the truth behind the Wraithborn War, they'll come face-to-face with a past that refuses to stay dead.