Chapter 22 #2
“I know what you were meant to find. The key to completing Lasseran’s ritual.
The final piece of the theft that his bloodline has been working toward for generations.
” Vorlag closed his book. “But I also know you’re far too intelligent to miss the other truth hidden in those texts.
The one that reveals what has been stolen and must be restored. ”
Relief flooded through her. “You did know. All along. You knew what was in those texts.”
“It’s more accurate to say I suspected, but I could never prove it.
The knowledge was too well hidden. Too deeply buried in layers of obfuscation and deliberate mistranslation.
It took someone from outside our world, someone without preconceived notions about how the covenant should work. ” His smile deepened. “It took you.”
“We need your help,” Khorrek said, his voice hard. “We need to leave the city. Tonight.”
“Yes. I imagine you do.” Vorlag moved to a cabinet and retrieved a small leather pouch. “You’ll need supplies. Safe passage.”
He handed the pouch to Thea. She opened it and gasped. Gold coins. Silver. Enough to—
“This is a fortune.”
“It’s what you’ll need to reach Norhaven. To buy supplies. To bribe guards if necessary. To survive while you complete your research.”
“I can’t accept—”
“You can. You must.” Vorlag’s expression was grave. “The Veilborn have been waiting for this moment. For someone brave enough to stand against the corruption. We’ve been preparing for years, gathering resources and building networks, waiting for the right forces to align.”
“Why didn’t you act yourselves?” Khorrek asked suspiciously. “If you knew what was happening, why let it continue?”
“Because we didn’t know, not for certain. We had suspicions, and a growing sense that the balance we were meant to preserve had been corrupted beyond recognition. But we had no proof, no evidence that would convince anyone.” He looked at Thea. “Until you.”
“I’m just a linguist.”
“You’re the key. The outsider who could see what we couldn’t. The scholar who had no loyalty to Lasseran or his bloodline. The one who would follow the truth wherever it led. The one who was chosen.”
Tears stung her eyes. “I don’t know if I can do this. What if I fail? What if I can’t figure out how to reverse the ritual? What if—”
“Then you will have tried, and that is more than anyone else has done in five hundred years.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “The Veilborn stand with you, Dr. Monroe. All of us. We will do what we can to protect you and to ensure Lasseran doesn’t find you before you’re ready.”
“Thank you.” The words were inadequate, but they were all she had.
Vorlag squeezed her shoulder, then handed her another pouch, this one containing a carved wooden bowl, the wood dark with age.
“You will need this as well.”
“For what?”
“You’ll know when the time comes.”
Before she could ask any more questions, he turned to a door half-hidden in the shadows of the far wall.
“This leads to a different tunnel system—one the palace guards don’t know about.
Ancient passages that date back to before the palace was built, before even the Veilborn claimed this temple as our own.
” He produced a key and unlocked the door.
“It will take you beneath the city and out to the base of the cliffs. From there, you’ll need to make your way on foot, but you’ll be beyond Lasseran’s immediate reach. ”
Khorrek stepped closer and studied the darkness beyond the door. “Why are you helping us? You’ve served in this temple for decades. Served under Lasseran’s rule.”
“I’ve served the balance,” Vorlag corrected, his voice gentle but firm.
“The true balance. The one the covenant was meant to preserve. And when Lasseran’s actions threatened that balance—when his bloodline’s theft became so complete that the orcs themselves began to die—” He shook his head.
“The gods told us it was time to choose.”
“And you chose us.”
“I chose the truth.” Vorlag smiled. “You just happen to be carrying it.”
She gave him a quick, fierce hug. “I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t as long as you trust yourself. May the balance guide you, child. May you find the strength to restore what was stolen. And may you both survive what comes next.”
He stepped back and gestured to the darkness beyond the door.
“Go quickly. Lasseran will discover your absence soon if he hasn’t already. The longer you delay, the more danger you’re in.”
Khorrek took Thea’s hand. “Thank you, Master Vorlag.”
“Thank me by succeeding. That’s all the gratitude I need.”
They stepped through the doorway into darkness so complete it felt almost solid.
Behind them, Vorlag’s voice echoed one last time.
“And Dr. Monroe? The answer you’re seeking—the key to reversing the ritual—it lies not in taking back what was stolen, but in freely giving what should have been shared all along. Remember that.”
The door closed. The lock clicked.
She stood in the absolute darkness, her hand clasped tight in Khorrek’s much larger one, and processed Vorlag’s final words.
Freely giving what should have been shared.
Not taking. Giving.
Oh.
The implications crashed over her. The covenant had been corrupted because the High Kings had taken power instead of allowing it to flow naturally, had forced a connection instead of fostering partnership.
To reverse it, she would need to do the opposite.
She would need to give.
Willingly. Completely.
“Thea?” Khorrek’s voice rumbled through the darkness. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. I just—” She took a breath. “I think I understand what I need to do.”
“Good, because we need to move. Can you walk in the dark?”
“If you guide me.”
“Then hold onto me. Don’t let go.”
She shifted her grip and grabbed onto the back of his belt with her free hand. The scrolls pressed awkwardly against her side but she adjusted the bundle until it sat more comfortably.
Everything I need to save an entire people. No pressure.
Khorrek moved forward confidently, as if he could see in the absolute darkness.
Maybe he could. Maybe orc eyes were better adapted to low light.
She followed, keeping her steps careful and her breathing controlled.
The tunnel sloped downwards and the air grew colder. She could hear water somewhere. Dripping. Echoing.
We’re deep beneath the city now. In spaces that predate everything above.
The thought should have been claustrophobic. Instead, it felt safer, as if they’d slipped through the cracks of the world into a space Lasseran couldn’t reach.
Not yet, anyway.
They walked for what felt like hours. Maybe it was hours. Time lost meaning in the absolute darkness.
Her legs ached. Her shoulders protested the weight of the scrolls, and her eyes strained uselessly against the dark, but she didn’t complain.
He was doing this for her. He’d betrayed everything he’d ever known for her. The least she could do was keep walking.
Finally—finally—she saw a faint grey light ahead. The promise of dawn or just the ambient glow of a city that never truly slept.
Khorrek picked up the pace.
The tunnel ended at what looked like a natural cave mouth. Rock formations framing an opening that looked out over a steep slope descending from the base of the cliffs Kel’Vara was built upon.
Fresh air hit her face, carrying the scent of pine and stone and freedom.
Khorrek stopped at the cave mouth and scanned the landscape beyond looking for threats. She joined him and looked out at the world spreading below them.
The city rose behind and above. A massive structure of stone and ambition clinging to the cliffsides like a parasite.
Below, the land stretched away into darkness. Forest. Hills. The wild spaces between kingdoms where anything could be hiding.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.
“It’s dangerous.”
“Can’t it be both?”
He glanced at her. “Yes. I suppose it can.”
She smiled and squeezed his hand. “Thank you for this. For choosing to trust me. For risking everything.”
“I didn’t have a choice. Not really.”
“Yes, you did. You could have stayed loyal to Lasseran. You could have turned me in and done what you were raised to do.”
“No.” His voice was rough. Honest. “I couldn’t. Not once I—” He stopped and looked away.
“Once you what?”
“Once I saw you. Really saw you. Not as a mission or a problem to solve. But as someone who mattered. Someone worth protecting.”
Her throat tightened. “Khorrek—”
“We should keep moving. Dawn’s coming and we need to be far from here when Lasseran realizes we’re gone.”
He was deflecting, hiding behind practicality because emotion was too raw. Too new.
She understood. She was doing the same thing.
“Lead the way,” she said.
He nodded and started down the slope still holding her hand.
And as the first pale fingers of dawn began to paint the eastern sky, she followed the orc warrior who’d chosen her over everything he’d ever known into the wild darkness beyond the city.