Chapter 197: Enemy Revealed
**James**
The journey back from Alden’s hidden cabin was a silent, somber flight. The moon, a cold silver disc in the sky, illuminated our dragon forms, but the usual sense of freedom and power was absent. It had been replaced by the crushing weight of history, a history steeped in blood, sacrifice, and a sorrow so profound it seemed to leech the very warmth from the air.
We landed in the main courtyard of the palace, the sound of our feet on the ancient stones echoing in the stillness. The others began to disperse, their movements slow and heavy, each lost in the maelstrom of the night's revelations. Avery, her face pale but her eyes burning with a new, fierce light, looked as if she were about to head to her chambers.
But I couldn’t let the night end like this. Not yet. The pieces were finally slotting into place, not just from Alden’s and Donn’s stories, but from a lifetime of fragmented memories and a sudden, blinding vision that had struck me in that cabin.
“Wait,” I commanded, my voice carrying the authority of a king, but laced with an urgency that made them all pause. “Everyone. The conference room. Now.”
There were no questions, no arguments. They saw the look on my face. They followed me through the silent halls to the large, oak-paneled room where matters of state were decided. I shut the heavy doors behind us, the decisive thud sealing us in with the ghosts of the past and the terrifying shape of our future.
I stood at the head of the long table, my hands gripping the back of the king’s chair—my chair. My knuckles were white. Avery stood near me, her hand resting on my arm, a silent offering of strength. The others found seats, their eyes fixed on me, waiting.
“Alden’s story… Donn’s… it triggered something,” I began, my voice low and strained. “While you were speaking of the Great Dying, of Adrik and Layla, I saw it. Not just as a story, but as a memory that wasn't my own. A vision.”
I closed my eyes, the images flooding back with sickening clarity. “I saw fire. Skies choked with ash. I heard the screams of a million dying dragons. I saw great cities of crystal and light, like Dracos, crumbling into dust. And I saw Talos… the original Talos. It wasn’t a kingdom of stone and forest. It was a beacon of magic, a living, breathing entity, and I watched its light go out as its guardians fell.”
I opened my eyes, my gaze sweeping over them. “My father was not from here. He was not a king by birth, nor a native of this land. He was a trader, a wanderer from a distant tribe, one of the few that had survived the purge by remaining small and insignificant. He arrived here centuries after the fall, to find only ruins. He found what Donn described: the overgrown rubble of a fallen world.”
I let go of the chair and began to pace, the story pouring out of me, a confession and an explanation all at once.
“But he saw more than ruins. He saw beauty in the devastation. He admired the legends of those who had fought and fallen. He spoke of the Eragon Brothers—a name his tribe used for Adrik and his most loyal kin—with reverence. He spoke of Layla, the Shadowmancer Queen, as a figure of mythic courage. They were not just names to him; they were an ideal. A symbol of love and power so great it defied the very forces of creation.”
“In the heart of the dead kingdom, he found something. Not the immense magic of before, but a flicker. A single, stubborn spark of life, hidden deep within the earth, refusing to be extinguished. And he made a vow. He approached the spirit of this broken land and swore an oath. He asked if Talos could become his home, and he swore to protect it, to nurture that flicker back into a flame, no matter the cost. He promised that a part of the old world, the world of Layla and the great dragons, would always remain here.”
I stopped, looking directly at Avery. “My family name is not Balans. Not by blood. My father took the name himself. It was Layla’s ancestral name. He did it out of honor, so that the name of the last Shadowmancer Queen would not die. He declared himself King of a kingdom of ghosts and gave himself her name as a constant reminder of his sacred duty.”
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