Chapter 11 Elena
We made our way to the village closest to the forest. The mage was due to arrive today, and we would be waiting for him.
Dario walked by my side, and his quiet wonder at walking through the streets of a village after a hundred years was both amusing and heartbreaking.
We moved silently, keeping to the shadows as we approached the house that had been marked by the mage.
Dario waved a hand and the sigil on the door burned brightly again, as it had when the hooded mage had left it two nights before. We settled in to wait near the house, hidden in the shadows, watching silently.
We didn’t have to wait long.
We watched as there was a flash of magic and smoke rose into the air. When it cleared away, a hooded figu re stood in the lane. The same hooded figure we had seen before.
The mage was back.
The figure walked slowly through the lanes, disturbing no one, and making no sound. The way it moved suggested that magic was being used to keep the figure inconspicuous.
The sigil glowed as the figure neared the house it had marked. It knocked softly, and a moment later, the door creaked open.
A young boy, no more than ten or eleven, appeared in the doorway. He was thin, his face pale and hollow, and I felt my heart tighten at the sight of him. He was hungry. Desperate.
The cloaked figure knelt in front of the boy, speaking in hushed tones. I couldn’t make out the words, but I saw the way the boy’s face lit up with hope, the way his eyes widened with something that could only be described as relief.
“They’re lying to him,” I murmured, my voice tight with anger. “Whoever that is, they’re manipulating him. We need to stop them.”
I moved to step forward, but Dario’s hand shot out, gripping my arm. “Wait,” he whispered, his voice low but firm. “We need to understand what’s happening first.”
I glared at him, my pulse quickening with frustration. “I can’t just stand by and watch this.”
“You have to,” Dario said, his grip tightening slightly. “If we confront them now, they’ll vanish. We’ll lose the chance to find out who’s behind this.”
His words were logical, but it took everything in me to stay where I was. The boy was looking at that figure like they were offering salvation, and every fiber of my being screamed to intervene, to protect him.
But I didn’t move. I trusted Dario—for now.
The figure placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder, speaking softly. “Meet me here tomorrow night. I’ll take you somewhere safe. Somewhere where you’ll never have to worry about food again.”
The boy nodded, his face bright with hope, and I felt a pang of despair stab through me. This was wrong. So wrong.
Before I could react, the figure disappeared into the shadows, slipping away as quickly and quietly as they had come. The boy watched them go, then retreated into his house, closing the door with a soft creak.
I exhaled, my chest tight with frustration and fear. “We can’t let him go with them,” I said, turning to Dario, my voice trembling with emotion. “Whatever they promised him, it’s a lie. They’ll hurt him.”
“I know,” Dario said, his voice calm but intense. “But we need to wait. If we stop them now, we won’t find out where they’re taking him—or who’s behind this. We have to catch them in the act.”
I clenched my fists, torn between the need to act and the logic of Dario’s words.
“We’ll follow them tomorrow night,” Dario said quietly, his voice a calm whisper in the dark. “We need to understand the full scope of what’s happening before we make a move.”
My heart pounded in my chest. I wanted to argue, to rail against the idea of waiting, but a small part of me understood his reasoning.
We needed more information—if we acted too soon, we could tip our hand and lose any chance of stopping whoever was behind these disappearances.
I shook my head, my throat tightening with the weight of my own doubts. “We can’t let this go on,” I whispered, my voice thick with emotion. “I was supposed to protect them.”
Dario’s grip on my arm loosened, and he stepped closer, his dark eyes searching mine in the moonlight. “You still can,” he said softly, his voice gentler than I’d ever heard it. “But you need to see the whole picture first.”
The way he looked at me—so steady, so sure—made something inside me falter.
“And if it makes you feel any better, I shall keep an eye on him until tomorrow.”
I blinked. Never in a million years would I have imagined that the Shadow King would take on the role of protector for one of my people.
So much had shifted in the space of a single day.
The animosity of years, the broken wards, the unlikely alliance... it felt as though fate, not mere chance, had drawn our paths together. A sense of shared destiny, both terrifying and exhilarating, settled upon me.
I turned away from him, unable to hold his gaze any longer. The night around us was heavy, the quiet of the village broken only by the distant rustling of leaves in the wind.
The weight of the silence pressed down on me, and I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling the cool air seeping through the thin fabric of my cloak.
“How did I not see this?” I murmured, more to myself than to Dario. “All this time, I’ve trusted the Elders, trusted that they were doing what was best for Solaris. And because of their mismanagement, now we have children ready to sacrifice themselves….just for food. Water.” I shuddered.
Whatever the mage wanted with the child, it was bound to be nothing good.
Dario was quiet for a moment, his gaze still fixed on me. “Sometimes the truth is hidden in plain sight,” he said softly. “You were never meant to see it. They kept you sheltered, protected, just like they’ve kept Solaris hidden from the world.”
His words hit harder than I expected, and I felt a surge of resentment rising in my chest. Sheltered. Protected. Those were words I had heard all my life—words that were meant to be comforting but had only ever made me feel caged.
My heart urged me to lash out, and I did.
I turned to face him again, my eyes narrowing. “And what about you? You’ve been hiding in the shadows for years, never caring about these people until I came for you. You’re no better than the Elders.”
Dario’s jaw tightened, a flicker of something dangerous passing over his face. “I never claimed to be better,” he said, his voice low, the calm veneer cracking slightly. “But I’ve never lied to you, Elena. Not about what I am, or why I’m doing this.”
The raw honesty in his voice caught me off guard, and for a moment, I was at a loss for words. I could feel the intensity of his gaze, the weight of everything that had passed between us since we struck our uneasy truce.
There was no denying that Dario was dangerous—he was the Shadow King, after all, a creature cursed by the night itself. But there was something else beneath that darkness, something I hadn’t expected.
Vulnerability.
I took a step back. The air between us crackled with unspoken tension, the shadows around us seeming to swirl and shift in response to the unsteady rhythm of my heart.
My breath caught in my throat, and for the briefest moment, I saw something raw and unguarded in his expression.
I shook my head, trying to push the growing storm of emotions away. “We have achieved nothing today,” I said, my voice firmer now. “We still don’t know who’s behind these disappearances. You claimed it was the Elders, but we still have no proof. I cannot turn against my people for this. ”
Dario’s lips twisted into a bitter smile, though there was no real amusement in it. “I’m not trying to turn you against anyone, Elena. I’m trying to show you the truth.”
“And what truth is that?” I demanded, my frustration bubbling to the surface. “That everything I’ve believed in, everything I’ve fought for, has been a lie?”
He held my gaze, unflinching. “Yes.”
The simple, stark truth of that word made my stomach churn. I wanted to fight him, to tell him he was wrong, but deep down, I knew there was truth in what he said.
I had seen it with my own eyes tonight.
But even as the weight of it all pressed down on me, I felt Dario’s presence beside me, solid and steady. He had his own reasons for what he was doing, but in that moment, I realized that he wasn’t my enemy. Not anymore.
“I don’t know what to believe,” I admitted, my voice cracking slightly as I looked away from him, my gaze falling to the cracked earth beneath my feet. “I thought I knew my purpose. I thought I was doing what was right, but now...”
I trailed off, unsure of how to finish that thought. How could I admit that everything I had built my life on was crumbling before me?
Dario stepped closer, his voice soft but unyielding. “You’re still doing what’s right, Elena. You’re questioning the truth. You’re seeing the world for what it really is, not what you’ve been told it is. That’s what makes you strong.”
I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat growing tighter as his words hit home. It wasn’t comfort, exactly, but there was a strange sense of reassurance in what he said. Even in the darkness, I could still fight for the light. I could still find the truth.
The silence after his words felt heavier than the night itself.
I turned sharply, forcing my gaze back to the boy’s door.
The wood looked so frail, its hinges crooked, the frame warped by years of neglect and drought.
It would not keep out a determined thief, let alone a mage.
Yet behind that fragile barrier a child slept, clutching false promises to his chest as though they were lifelines.
And here I stood—High Priestess of Solaris—watching, waiting, doing nothing.