Chapter 26 – Lilith’s Web
The night after the tremor had been sleepless. No monsters breached the walls. No further whispers rose from the crypt. But the tension had lingered—thick and sharp, like a blade pressed just shy of the skin.The village breathed—but no one relaxed.
By dawn, when no new threat had revealed itself, the watchers exchanged brief nods—unspoken, uneasy: the storm had not struck. Not yet.
The longhouse had not yet cooled from the weight of the ritual.
Ash still lined the circle where blood and vows had mingled, faint traces of light flickering now and then across the runes. But the hall was quieter now.
Lysanthir sat upon his stone seat, silent as ever, his gaze fixed ahead. Valtor stood nearby, arms crossed, as if still processing the power that hummed faintly beneath his scales. Kaela lingered at the far end, perched with perfect stillness on the edge of a beam, her golden eyes sharp and unreadable.
Lilith stepped forward, cloak dragging along the stone, her expression set with cold precision.
"It's begun," she said, voice low but sure. "Reports came in last night—three different couriers. All confirmed."
She unfurled a scrap of parchment and laid it on the table between them, tapping once with a gloved finger.
"First the minor supply lines along the Ashriver have been compromised. No soldiers yet, but food shipments burned. Grain rotted. Whispers of plague seeded in two towns. Fear is spreading faster than the damage."
Valtor's jaw clenched, eyes narrowing.
"Good," he rumbled. "Let them feel it."