The fire in Kaelen's study had burned low, creating long shadows across the walls. The forbidden text lay open on his desk, its pages glowing faintly in the candlelight, the ancient symbols seeming to pulse with a life of their own. I sat across from him, my hands folded in my lap, my heart heavy with the weight of what we had discovered.
Elara had left us alone, sensing that the moment was a conversation between the two of us. The fortress was quiet, the warriors resting, the healers tending to the wounded. But in this small room, the world was anything but at peace.
Kaelen read the final pages of the text in silence, his winter-gray eyes moving slowly across the ancient words. I watched his face, looking for any sign of what he was thinking. His expression did not change; it never did, but I saw the tension in his jaw, the slight tightening of his hand around the edge of the desk.
When he finished, he closed the book and looked at me.
"The First Saint was betrayed."
