Location: The Forgotten Forum, deep beneath the Cradle of Ethera
The Forum had once echoed with symphonies of light and law.
Now, it whispered only of fear.
Five rogue Isu stood in silent conference, their golden bioluminescence dimmed beneath layers of shadowed robes. Their features were half-hidden behind ceremonial veils—remnants of their past allegiance to the High Pantheon, now discarded in secret.
At the center of the chamber stood a projection of Kaelen.
Or rather, what he had become.
Clad in human battle garb, radiating with dormant Isu coding, flanked by the Awakened—hybrid children rescued from the brink of oblivion.
His voice played on loop:
"Legacy is not what they give you. It's what you choose to leave behind."
Fear in Unity
Isu Matriarch Qyretha leaned forward. Her voice, like frost on steel, cut through the silence.
"He speaks as though he were born free. But we know the truth. That shell… is ours. A construct of Vael'Ruun. And now it walks and preaches and raises warriors."
Her counterpart, Eoran the Thoughtless, responded with unusual concern. "And yet… they listen to him. More than to us. The Veiled Ones chant his name. The children revere him."
"He was a weapon," spat another. "We made him to be Vael's failsafe. Now he thinks he is a messiah."
Tyreon's absence from the meeting had not gone unnoticed. He'd gone fully over to Kaelen's side.
And the balance had shifted.
The Vote of Shadows
A debate ensued. Whether to:
Support Kaelen openly, allowing the Awakened to become the vanguard of a new alliance.
Suppress his rise, isolating him from rebel command, limiting his influence.
Eliminate him, and reclaim control over the future before it spiraled into chaos.
Qyretha pushed for the third. "He is proof of our sin. If the High Council learns we allowed such a construct to flourish, we will all be purged."
Eoran hesitated. "If we strike him down, we make him a martyr. And worse… we confirm his truth. That we are still tyrants in different robes."
A fourth Isu, the elder Sil'Varen, who had remained silent throughout, finally spoke.
"Vael'Ruun believed in a bridge between our kind and humanity. A single soul who could contain both past and future."
He gestured to the projection of Kaelen, frozen mid-sentence, eyes burning with conviction.
"If that soul now lives… then perhaps it is not for us to control him. But to listen."
An Unseen Betrayal
As the meeting ended, not all walked away with peace in their hearts.
Qyretha returned to her sanctum and opened a long-sealed conduit—encoded to bypass rebel security.
She transmitted a single phrase through a secure channel… to an unknown Isu receiver far to the west:
"The Echo of Vael awakens. Initiate fallback directive. Zarxes is cleared."
She closed the link with trembling hands.
Let the war machines come.
If Kaelen was what she feared, he could not be allowed to rise.
Meanwhile…
Back at the Veiled Ones' encampment, Kaelen stood atop the training hill, watching as the Awakened meditated in formation under the rising sun.
He felt the shift.
A tremor in the memory-stream. A disturbance in the pulse of the world.
He turned to Lysara. "They're watching us. The others. The ones who said they stood with us."
She nodded grimly. "And?"
Kaelen's gaze hardened. "Then let them watch. But when they come, we show them what we are."
Not weapons.Not pawns.The first bond of something new.