345. Burning Sylvastra (1)
As soon as Kai heard about the Elder Tree, alarm bells rang in his mind.
He had already sensed that something was wrong in Sylvastra. The feeling had been there for a while, sitting at the back of his thoughts. But with the civil war unfolding the way it had, he had been too busy to look into it himself. Even so, he had not ignored it completely. He had sent men after Gorak and his adventuring party, the same group he had dispatched as envoys to the elf island to ask for support during the war.
Now it seemed they had returned.
And not with good news.
The moment he heard the news, Kai lost all interest in his research. The books, the theories, and the spell structures no longer mattered, at least not for the time being. Whatever was happening, it was serious enough that he needed to see it for himself. He decided to head to Veralt immediately.
Amyra wanted to come with him.
Kai refused.
He told her to stay in the tower and placed Kael and Neris as her bodyguards, alongside the guardian golems already stationed there. With him now in control of the entire tower, the golems answered directly to him. He gave them a simple command. They were to remain close to Amyra at all times and act immediately if her life was ever in danger.
He doubted anything would happen, but he knew better than to take risks. Amyra was far too valuable to leave unprotected.
Once that was settled, Kai left without ceremony.
Flying alone allowed him to move at full speed.
Therefore, in under two hours, Veralt came into view.
The city looked much the same as when he had last seen it. The streets were familiar, the layout unchanged. But there was far more noise now. People filled the roads, moving constantly, voices overlapping into a dull roar that never seemed to fade.
As he approached his estate, Kai noticed dozens of noble carriages gathered on the grounds.
He did not give them more than a passing glance.
Some people on the ground noticed him and pointed upward, their voices rising in excitement or shock. Kai ignored them all. He descended straight toward the estate, entered through the balcony without stopping, and headed directly for Francis’s office.
The entire office was filled with parchment and the heavy smell of ink. As soon as Kai entered, all of Francis’s apprentices stood and bowed deeply toward him.
Kai ignored them.
Francis rose from behind his desk at once. He looked both relieved and deeply concerned when he saw Kai standing there.
“What happened to the Elder Tree?” Kai asked immediately.
Francis lowered his head. “Please come with me, Lord Arzan. You should hear this directly from Raven herself. The elven elders commanded her to tell everything to you personally.”
Kai nodded as Francis led the way.
They moved through the hallways before taking the stairs. Francis kept pace beside him, but Kai did not need words to know the situation was worse than he expected. Heavy tension was clear on Francis’s face. His mind tried to form explanations as they walked, but he pushed every thought aside.
Guessing would not help.
They finally stopped in front of a guest room. Francis opened the door without knocking and saw Gorak and his party right there sitting on the sofa.
The moment they saw Kai, everyone inside stood up.
He stepped forward, his gaze fixed on Raven. She looked far paler than he remembered and there was only a flicker of a faint green beside her. Her spirit seemed equally disturbed by whatever had happened.
Francis closed the door behind them and the others began to bow, but he waved his hand to stop them.
“What happened to the Elder Tree?” he asked.
Raven took a step forward. “It’s dying, Lord Arzan,” she said. “The elders don’t believe it will survive more than six months. Possibly less.”
Kai’s eyes widened.
He had known the Elder Tree was nearing the end of its life. It was ancient, and in the future he remembered, it was meant to die. But this was far too soon.
Before he could speak, Raven continued.
“There was an attack on Sylvastra a few months ago, Lord Arzan,” she said quietly. “An attack that killed half of our population.”
“How?” he asked, eyes widening in shock. “Sylvastra is protected.”
Raven frowned. Her gaze went distant, as if the memory itself had frozen her. “We had a traitor among our ranks,” she said. “One of the elven elders, An’duin, sold himself to Maleficia. A man named Xantheus led the attack. He came with hundreds of cultists.”
She swallowed before continuing. “When we reached Sylvastra to ask for aid during the civil war, the forests were still burning.”
Kai went still.
In the span of a few seconds, countless questions formed in his mind, colliding and overlapping with each other. When he glanced at Francis, he found him watching him, his expression grim. He had clearly heard this before.
Even though Kai knew Raven was telling the truth, the words refused to settle. He simply couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It couldn’t have happened… It can’t be…
He felt a sharp twist of self-blame for ever thinking the elves alone would be enough to protect the Elder Tree.
But he pushed that thought aside.
Blaming and regret could wait.
Kai took a slow breath, forcing his thoughts into order. Then he looked directly at Raven. “Tell me everything you know,” he said. “Every single detail. I want to hear all of it.”
Raven nodded. Her hands clenched at her sides.
For the next hour, only her voice filled the room.
When she finally finished, Kai found himself strangely relieved that even half of the elves had survived. According to Raven, the man called Xantheus had been a summoner. She did not know the full extent of his power, but summoning circles had been carved all over his body. Through them, he had unleashed hundreds of beasts from different planes, all directed toward the Elder Tree.
By chance, Elder V’aleirith had been present at the time. She had defended the tree as best as she could, fighting alongside her own spirit.
In the end, it had not been enough.
Fortunately, she had survived, but she was still close to her deathbed.
The Elder Tree itself had protected her, destroying hundreds of the summoned beasts in the process. But in the end, the man had used what Raven described as everlasting flames, fire that did not fade or weaken. It burned through every part of the Elder Tree and continued burning for months, just like the rest of the forest around it.
The other elders had arrived later. Before that, they had been forced to deal with the traitor An’duin, and the remaining cultists who took part in the attack. When Raven spoke of this, her voice was filled with venom. The cultists had targeted young elves and even children, trying to destroy their future. Elven birth rates were already low, and the attack on them had been deliberate and cruel.
The elders were delayed because so many young elves had been injured and needed immediate care. By the time they reached the Elder Tree, it was already burning. Elder V’aleirith had been found beneath its roots, barely alive. She had lost an arm in the battle and was still confined to bedrest.
When Kai asked whether they had managed to extract any information from the cultists they killed, Raven shook her head. She explained that none of the dead had carried anything useful. They all had poison on them, and it was clear they had gone in expecting to die.
Xantheus, the summoner, had fled once the Elder Tree was set ablaze with the everlasting flames. No matter how thoroughly the elves searched, he was gone. Raven believed he had escaped using a flying summon.
At that point, hunting the one responsible had become secondary. Their priority had been saving what remained of their forests. The everlasting flames had spread to other trees, and now Sylvastra was almost unrecognisable.
Kai listened to everything with a calm expression, or at least as calm as he could keep it.
Part of him still refused to believe it had happened. That part wanted to fly to Sylvastra immediately and see it with his own eyes. Another part of him was already working, turning over possibilities, trying to understand how the Elder Tree could be saved and how Sylvastra could ever be restored. Still, he said nothing. He let Raven speak.
He could see the strain on her face. Tears clung to her eyes, and every sentence seemed to cost her effort, but she did not stop. She told him everything.
In the end, her voice wavered.
“I honestly didn’t know what to do, Lord Arzan,” she said. “When I arrived and saw everything, it felt like I had died and woken up inside the prophecy. Everything was dark. Everything was burning.” She hiccuped. “Even my family wasn’t spared. Half of them died. My mother died in the attack.”
She lowered her head slightly. “If not for grieving, I would have come here sooner. All the elders asked me to reach you and tell you what happened. Elder V’aleirith insisted on it, even while coughing blood with every breath.”
“I’m sorry for your loss… Raven. Elder V’aleirith—” Kai took a slow breath. “Will she survive?”
Raven shook her head slightly. “I don’t know, Lord Arzan. Her injuries are severe. Potions barely work, and there are wounds that alchemy simply can’t fix. The everlasting flame touched her flesh. Her lost limb won’t grow back, no matter what we try.”
Kai fell silent.
His thoughts turned to the everlasting flame. He had never heard of such a thing before. The closest memory he could grasp came from records of the Second Golden Era of Magic, where an entire kingdom had burned for over a century. No one had ever known how it happened.
Unfortunately, he had very little information to connect that ancient disaster to what had happened in Sylvastra.
What Kai could do right now was go to Sylvastra and see it for himself. But then, he would also need to think how to correct everything.
Francis seemed to catch the resolve in his eyes and spoke. “What are you going to do about it, Your Majesty?”
Kai opened his mouth to answer, then froze.
He realized he did not know.
The Elder Tree dying was not unexpected. He had known it would happen one day. That was why he had taken hundreds of its stumps in the past. But growing a new Elder Tree from them was another matter entirely, and he doubted it was even possible. As for the everlasting flame, he had no idea how to remove it.
For a brief moment, it felt as if fate itself was mocking him. He had finally defeated Regina, only to be reminded that rest was not something he was allowed. Every other crisis he had faced had come with a path forward, some solution he could grasp. This time, the problem felt far beyond his reach.
Dark thoughts crept into his mind, but right now, he couldn’t let despair take over before he had tried everything.
He looked at Francis. Then at Raven, who was watching him with clear hope in her eyes.
“I don’t know what to do yet,” Kai said honestly. “But I do know this. I’m going to Sylvastra immediately. Once I see everything for myself, we can plan properly.”
Raven stepped forward at once. “We can go right now, Lord Arzan.”
Kai studied her more carefully then. She looked exhausted, worn thin by grief and strain and every bad thing that had happened in the past few weeks. She was in no state to travel, much less help him.
“I believe you should stay behind,” he said honestly. “You’ve already suffered enough. Your task was to bring me the truth, and you’ve done that. I would rather you rest and recover. Leave the rest to me.”
Raven clenched her hands. “But it’s my home, Lord Arzan.”
He opened his mouth to explain why it was best if she stayed behind, but Gorak stepped up beside her and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “He’s right, Raven.” The giant man’s voice was quiet. “You need rest. You’ve barely slept for weeks.”
Raven said nothing after that, but her shoulders trembled slightly as she stood there, torn between duty, grief, and exhaustion.
The twins nodded as well. Finn spoke up first. “Yes. If you go with him, you’ll only slow him down.”
Raven still looked uneasy about staying in Veralt, but she did not argue. Instead, she stepped back and bowed deeply toward Kai. “Please save my home, Lord Arzan.”
Kai met her gaze and saw the tears falling down her cheeks. “I will do my best.” He then turned to Francis. “Send a drone to Amyra. Tell her I might not be back right away. And inform Killian and Amara about what’s happening. They deserve to know.”
Francis nodded at once. “As you command.”
With that, Kai did not waste another second. He turned toward the window along the side of the room.
Wind-aspected mana surged around him as he activated his [Flight] spell, and in the very next moment, he stepped out of the window.
Strong winds wrapped around his legs and body, lifting and propelling him forward. Kai crossed the whole of Veralt in seconds, following the course of the river as it led toward Sylvastra.
As he flew, anticipation and fear twisted together in his mind. He did not know what he would find. Would Sylvastra truly be as Raven described, or would it be even worse? Those thoughts stayed with him throughout the flight.
Hours later, as the sky began to darken, Kai found himself flying above the Mistfen River. Thick mist rose from the water and curled around him, but he pushed it aside with controlled bursts of wind. He formed a small flaming sphere in his hand, using it to light the path ahead.
A few river beasts leapt toward him, drawn by the movement and light, but they never reached him. The sharp winds surrounding his body sliced them apart before they could come close.
Then he felt it.
The air ahead of him thickened, turning heavy and resistant, as if he had flown straight into something solid. His forward motion slowed to a halt, his body pressing against an unseen force that refused to yield.
He had reached Sylvastra.
He didn’t try to push through. Forcing his way in would have been a mistake, one the forest would not forgive. Instead, he steadied himself in the air and raised both hands, pressing them gently against the invisible barrier. The surface felt cool and alive beneath his palms, faintly humming with power.
He drew in a breath and released a controlled pulse of mana outward. It was not an attack, nor an attempt to break the barrier. It was a signal. A familiar rhythm, shaped exactly the way Elder V’aleirith had taught him in his last visit, meant to announce his presence without provoking the forest’s defenses.
Then he waited.
Time stretched and the barrier did not respond at once.
Finally, after several long minutes, the resistance beneath his hands began to change. The invisible wall rippled, its surface shimmering like disturbed water. Slowly, almost reluctantly, it parted, opening a path just wide enough for him to pass through.
The moment the barrier opened, Kai moved forward. The wind gathered around him again as he accelerated, his heart beating faster with every passing second.
Sylvastra lay just ahead.
***
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