Ashes of the Forgotten Pact – Part 3

Smoke greeted them before dawn.

It rose in a slow coil above the low hills, a black ribbon winding through the morning fog like a noose suspended from the heavens. The village of Hollowmere sprawled beneath it, once a quiet settlement of cobblestone lanes and lantern-lit bridges, now etched with crimson runes that pulsed like infected veins through the earth. The Spiral had taken root. And it was feeding.

Aric reined his mount to a halt just past the ridge. From here, they could see the full scope of it—the town center swallowed in ritual flame, villagers penned behind runic wards, cultists weaving glyphs in blood with methodical cruelty.

Raelyn stared wide-eyed. “They’re bleeding the town. Literally.”

“I was hoping ‘draw the Spiral’ meant chalk and prayer,” Aric muttered, dismounting. “Not vivisection.”

Brenn slid down from his saddle with a grunt, shaking the travel dust from his robes. “In the old days, they called this ‘harvesting the resonance.’ In modern terms—yes, chalk and prayer would have been nicer.”

They moved quickly, keeping to the treeline. Liora joined them from a side path, her hood low and her blades red—not with fresh blood, but with rune ash. She’d been busy.

“You’re late,” she said, not unkindly. “I scouted three entry points. The western flank has the fewest guards, but the eastern square has… Verin.”

Aric’s heart skipped once. “He’s here?”

“Looking more warlock than priest these days,” Liora said, rubbing her fingers together. “And wearing something stitched from void silk. Which is concerning. On multiple fronts.”

Raelyn blinked. “How do you know what void silk looks like?”

“I dated a shadowmancer once. Long story. Ended poorly. Lot of illusions, not enough commitment.”

“I’m—both terrified and very curious,” Raelyn said under her breath.

Aric nodded toward the town. “We split. Raelyn and Brenn, you disrupt the sigils in the southern square. Liora and I go east. We confront Verin—and pray there’s something left in him worth saving.”

They moved like phantoms through the smoke, every shadow a hiding place, every sound a potential betrayal. Raelyn’s heart thudded loud enough to make her nervous, but her training steadied her breath. Magic coiled beneath her fingertips, ready.

They reached the southern square—a crude altar of iron and bone stood at the center, humming with a low, awful tone. Brenn examined the glyphs, frowning deeply.

“This one’s old. Twisted Spiral variation. It’s drawing on both ends of the Pact.”

Raelyn’s hands glowed softly as she reached toward the first sigil. “I can unweave it. Just need a moment.”

“You have thirty seconds,” Brenn muttered. “Give or take a cultist.”

Meanwhile, at the eastern square, Aric and Liora emerged into the burning heart of the village.

And there stood Verin.

Clad in void-black robes traced with violet flame, he looked more like a prophet of some doomed religion than the knight Aric once knew. His silver hair was longer now, unbound, and his eyes—once warm and quick to laugh—were like twin shards of night.

“I thought you’d come,” Verin said, turning slowly. “You always did have a hero complex.”

Aric stepped forward, sword sheathed but eyes hard. “And you always had a flair for dramatic entrances. That robe comes with a monologue, or do I have to ask?”

Verin smirked. “Still with the sarcasm. I suppose I missed it. Just a little.”

“Verin,” Aric said carefully, “tell me this isn’t what it looks like.”

“What it looks like,” Verin replied, raising both hands toward the glowing Spiral etched in the stones, “is salvation. We’re unraveling the curse, Aric. Ending the cycle. Do you know how long our families have suffered under the weight of a lie?”

“I’ve read the pact,” Aric said. “I know what was sealed. You’re not breaking the curse—you’re feeding it.”

Verin’s smirk vanished. “You always did think small. I’m not just breaking it—I’m replacing it.”

Suddenly, three cultists rushed at them from the flank. Liora spun into motion, blades flashing like lightning, cutting through the first two with surgical precision.

The third hesitated just long enough for Aric to draw steel and end him with a clean, echoing strike.

Verin raised a hand, dark fire blooming in his palm. “I don’t want to kill you.”

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”

“I mean it, Aric. You’re part of this. The pact lives in you. If you help me complete the Spiral, we can control it. We become the anchor instead of the sacrifice.”

Aric took a step closer. “And if I say no?”

Verin’s expression faltered. “Then we finish this in ash and regret.”

Back in the southern square, Raelyn whispered the final unbinding, and the glyph snapped like brittle ice. The resonance recoiled—spasming through the ground—and the Spiral at the center of town stuttered.

Aric saw it. Felt it.

He launched forward, striking not at Verin, but at the Spiral itself—his blade slamming into the rune’s heart, releasing a shockwave of raw energy that hurled both men backward.

Verin lay on the ground, eyes wide, a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth. “You—would destroy both our lines… before trusting me?”

Aric looked up, panting. “If I have to burn the lie to save what’s left of the truth… yes.”

Behind them, the Spiral cracked.

But it did not break.

Instead, it screamed—a sound with no voice, a cry that echoed through soul and stone alike.

Raelyn, Liora, and Brenn regrouped around Aric as the earth began to rumble beneath their feet. The cultists had fled. The villagers, those who lived, began to emerge dazed and trembling.

“What happens now?” Raelyn asked, voice tight.

Aric looked down at Verin—who, wounded but conscious, stared up at the churning sky above Hollowmere.

“We’ve disrupted the Spiral,” Aric said. “But the pact isn’t broken. Not yet. The curse… it’s waking up.”

“And it knows who we are,” Verin whispered.

The skies above Hollowmere opened in a spiral of dark flame.

And from the far reaches of the wound in the world… something looked back.

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All Parts of the Series

Ashes of the Forgotten Pact Part 1

Ashes of the Forgotten Pact Part 2

Ashes of the Forgotten Pact Part 3

Ashes of the Forgotten Pact Part 4

Ashes of the Forgotten Pact Part 5