The forest grew denser as Aric, Selene, and Kael pressed deeper into its heart. It was an ancient woodland, older than any they had traversed before. The towering trees loomed like giants, their thick canopies blotting out the sun, and the air was cool, carrying with it the faint scent of moss and loam.
"Why does every forest we walk into have to feel like it's hiding something?" Kael grumbled, his axe resting heavily against his shoulder.
Selene glanced back at him with a smirk. "Maybe because you're always expecting a fight."
Kael shrugged. "That's because there's always a fight."
Aric chuckled quietly but didn't disagree. The world was rarely still these days, and peace was always fleeting. Briar's Hollow had been a reminder of what could be rebuilt, but as the three of them continued down the winding path, Aric's instincts told him something else was stirring.
"Eyes up," he said softly, scanning the shadows.
Selene's hand drifted to her bow, her steps quieter as she fell into that familiar hunter's rhythm. Kael grumbled something under his breath but loosened his grip on his axe.
They moved with purpose, the silence pressing down on them like a weight. Occasionally, the distant call of a bird would break the stillness, but there was something unnatural about it, as if the forest itself were listening.
After nearly an hour of walking, Selene came to a sudden halt. She raised a hand, signaling the others to stop.
"What is it?" Aric whispered.
Selene's eyes narrowed, sharp and focused. "Listen."
The three of them fell into complete silence. At first, Aric heard nothing, only the faint rustling of leaves in the breeze. But then it came—a low, rhythmic sound. Faint and distant, like a whisper carried on the wind. It was not the voice of a man or beast, but something other.
Kael's brow furrowed. "What in the hells is that?"
Selene shook her head. "I don't know, but it's coming from ahead."
Aric tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. "We keep moving. Stay alert."
They pressed forward, the whispers growing louder with every step. It wasn't words they heard—more like sounds strung together, as though something tried to speak but didn't know how. It sent a chill down Aric's spine, the hairs on the back of his neck prickling.
After a short while, they emerged into a clearing unlike any they'd seen before. It was circular, perfectly shaped, and at its center stood a massive stone obelisk. It jutted out of the earth like a jagged blade, its surface covered in unfamiliar symbols that seemed to pulse faintly with light.
Kael whistled low. "That… doesn't belong here."
Selene approached cautiously, bow still ready. "It looks ancient. Older than the trees."
Aric stepped forward, his eyes drawn to the strange writing. He'd seen many ruins in his life, but nothing quite like this. The obelisk was cold and lifeless, and yet it radiated an energy that made the air hum.
"Can you read it?" Selene asked softly.
Aric shook his head, though his gaze lingered on the symbols. "No. It's not any language I know."
Kael scowled, planting his axe into the earth. "I don't like this. I don't like this at all."
As if in response to his words, the ground trembled beneath their feet. Aric instinctively drew his sword as Selene spun, raising her bow, her arrow nocked. Kael yanked his axe free and stood ready.
The whispers grew louder, swirling around the clearing, as though the forest itself had come alive. The symbols on the obelisk pulsed brighter now, their light shifting from faint white to a sickly green.
"Aric…" Selene said warily, taking a step back.
Before he could respond, the ground at the base of the obelisk split open with a deafening crack. The earth crumbled and parted as something began to rise from the depths below.
A figure emerged, tall and draped in tattered, dark robes. Its face was hidden beneath a hood, and yet its presence was palpable, like a void that pulled at the air around it. Long, bony fingers curled out from the sleeves of its robes, and in its otherworldly voice, it spoke—this time, its whispers clear.
"You should not have come."
Aric's blood ran cold as the voice echoed across the clearing. It was neither man nor creature. It was something ancient, something forgotten.
Kael gripped his axe, baring his teeth. "And who exactly are you supposed to be?"
The figure raised its head slightly, and though no face was visible beneath the hood, Aric felt its gaze settle on him.
"I am the Keeper," it intoned, its voice reverberating like a thousand echoes. "And you have disturbed the sacred veil."
Aric tightened his grip on his sword. "We've torn down that veil. The darkness it held is gone."
The Keeper's robed form seemed to shift, the fabric of its being fluttering unnaturally, as though it were made of shadow itself. "Fools. You cannot destroy the void. You have only awakened what sleeps beyond."
Selene stepped closer to Aric, her voice low. "Aric… what does it mean?"
Aric shook his head, his heart pounding. "I don't know."
The Keeper extended one of its clawed hands, pointing toward them. "You have shattered the balance. The Forgotten stir in their prison, and now the world shall bear the weight of your folly."
As the last word fell, the ground trembled once more, and from the earth, black tendrils began to rise. They lashed out, sharp and writhing, as though the land itself had turned against them.
"Move!" Aric shouted.
Kael roared, swinging his axe to cleave one of the tendrils in half. Selene loosed an arrow, striking another, though the black mass merely rippled and reformed.
Aric darted forward, sword flashing as he slashed through the writhing shadows. "We need to get out of here!"
"Agreed!" Kael bellowed, cutting his way toward the treeline.
Selene moved with fluid precision, her arrows firing in rapid succession to clear a path. The tendrils seemed endless, rising from the earth and lunging for them.
As Aric fought his way through, he glanced back to see the Keeper standing unmoving beside the obelisk. It watched them, its shadowy form untouched by the chaos around it.
"Run," it whispered, the sound cutting through the din. "Run while you can. The Forgotten are coming."
Aric turned his focus forward, his jaw set as they broke free of the clearing and plunged back into the forest. The black tendrils seemed unwilling to leave the circle, receding into the earth as quickly as they had appeared.
The three of them ran for what felt like miles, the Keeper's words echoing in Aric's mind like a curse.
They finally stopped in a small glade, each of them panting from exertion. Selene slumped against a tree, her face pale. "What… was that?"
Kael spat onto the ground, his face dark. "That was unnatural. And that thing… what did it mean?"
Aric sheathed his sword, though his hand lingered near the hilt. "I don't know. But it called itself a Keeper, and it spoke of the Forgotten."
Selene looked up sharply. "The Forgotten…? I've heard stories, Aric. My mother spoke of them when I was a child. Shadows that exist beyond the boundaries of our world. She said they were locked away eons ago, sealed in a prison no man could reach."
Kael cursed. "And now we've got some robed shadow-thing saying they're waking up?"
Aric exhaled slowly, his mind racing. The veil they had destroyed had been the root of one darkness—but perhaps it had been a shield as well.
"We need answers," he said firmly. "We need to know what the Keeper meant."
Selene nodded, determination hardening her expression. "Then we head to the Archives of Durnholde. If there's any place with knowledge of the Forgotten, it's there."
Kael groaned. "More walking, more cryptic nonsense. Fine. But when we find these Forgotten things, we're putting them back to sleep."
Aric turned toward the forest path ahead. The whispers had quieted, and the stillness of the woods had returned. But something lingered in the air—a sense of dread, as though the world itself waited for what was to come.
"The Forgotten stir," Aric murmured to himself. "And we're running out of time."
The road ahead stretched onward, darker and more uncertain than before. And somewhere, deep in the shadowed places of the world, something ancient had begun to wake.
The journey to Durnholde was relentless, an unforgiving stretch of wilderness punctuated by sparse settlements and winding paths that seemed to defy logic. Aric, Selene, and Kael moved quickly, driven forward by the unsettling truth the Keeper had revealed.
The forests they passed through were no longer simply quiet—they were watchful. Birds took flight at their approach, and shadows under the trees seemed to linger longer than they should, stretching in ways unnatural. Twice, they spotted figures darting between the trees, but when they turned to confront them, nothing was there.
"Something's following us," Selene said, her voice low as she crouched at the edge of a stream. She studied faint prints in the mud—three-toed and twisted, nothing that belonged to a man or beast.
Kael growled, gripping his axe tightly. "Let it follow. I'm getting tired of these games."
Aric scanned the treeline, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "We're close now. Durnholde's Archives might hold the answers we need. Whatever is out there… we'll deal with it when it shows itself."
Selene rose and nodded. "Then let's not waste time."
Three days later, the ruins of Durnholde came into view.
Once a sprawling citadel, Durnholde had been the center of knowledge in the region, famed for its Archives—a vast library said to hold the collective wisdom of civilizations long gone. Now, it was little more than a skeleton of stone and crumbling towers. Ivy crawled over broken walls, and shattered statues stood like sentinels in the overgrown courtyards.
"Looks welcoming," Kael muttered, scanning the ruins with distaste.
Selene ignored his sarcasm, her sharp eyes already sweeping for danger. "We'll need to find a way underground. The Archives were built beneath the keep to protect them from war."
Aric stepped forward, leading the way up the cracked steps of what had once been Durnholde's main gate. The massive doors had long since rotted away, leaving a yawning entrance that swallowed them in shadow.
Inside, the air was heavy with dust and the scent of decay. Sunlight filtered through gaps in the walls and broken ceilings, casting long beams of light across the rubble-strewn floor.
Selene knelt to examine deep gouges along the stone. "Something's been here recently."
"Bandits?" Kael asked, though he didn't sound convinced.
Selene shook her head. "No. This isn't their work."
"Then what?"
Before Selene could answer, a sound echoed through the ruins—soft and rhythmic, like slow, deliberate footsteps.
Aric raised a hand, signaling silence. The three of them stood motionless, listening. The sound grew louder, closer. It was coming from deep within the ruins, a deliberate cadence that sent chills racing down Aric's spine.
"It's not human," Selene whispered.
"Draw steel," Aric said quietly, unsheathing his sword. Kael hefted his axe, and Selene notched an arrow, all of them turning toward the source of the sound.
From the shadows of a collapsed hall, it emerged.
The creature was grotesque—a towering figure of flesh and shadow, its form twisted and unnatural. Its limbs were elongated, its fingers ending in claws that dragged along the ground, leaving scratches in the stone. Where a face should have been, there was only a dark void that pulsed with faint light.
Kael swore under his breath. "What in the hells is that?"
Selene's voice was tight. "Something that shouldn't exist."
The creature tilted its head as if studying them, and then it screeched—a sound so unnatural and piercing that it seemed to reverberate through their very bones.
"Move!" Aric shouted.
The creature lunged, impossibly fast for its size. Aric barely had time to raise his sword as it struck, claws slamming into his blade with a force that rattled his arms. Selene's arrow flew true, embedding itself in the creature's shoulder, but it didn't falter.
Kael roared, charging forward and bringing his axe down in a powerful arc. The blade bit deep into the creature's side, and it let out another screech, this time one of pain. Black ichor sprayed from the wound, sizzling as it struck the stone floor.
"Don't let it touch you!" Selene yelled, already loosing another arrow.
The creature spun, its elongated arm lashing out. Kael barely dodged in time, stumbling back as the claw smashed into a pillar, shattering the stone. Aric seized the opportunity, driving his blade into the creature's side. The sword sank deep, and the creature howled, twisting violently.
Aric wrenched his sword free just as Selene loosed another arrow, this one striking the void where its face should have been. The creature froze, its limbs twitching as though fighting some invisible force.
"Now, Kael!" Aric shouted.
Kael let out a battle cry and swung his axe with all his might. The blade cleaved through the creature's neck, severing its headless form. It collapsed to the ground with a sickening thud, black ichor pooling beneath it and hissing against the stone.
For a long moment, none of them spoke, their ragged breaths the only sound in the hall.
"What was that thing?" Kael finally muttered, wiping his axe clean on his cloak.
Selene approached cautiously, studying the creature's remains. "I don't know. But I've never seen anything like it."
Aric frowned, wiping sweat from his brow. "Whatever it was, it shouldn't have been here. And I doubt it was alone."
Selene nodded grimly. "We need to move. The Archives won't be far now."
Deeper into the ruins they went, following long-abandoned passages that led beneath the keep. The further they descended, the colder the air grew, and the heavier the silence became.
Finally, they reached the entrance to the Archives—an enormous stone door carved with intricate runes. Unlike the rest of the ruins, this door was untouched by time.
Selene ran her fingers over the carvings. "It's sealed with magic. Old magic."
Aric stepped forward and studied the runes. "Can you open it?"
"I can try," Selene said, pulling a small vial of silver dust from her pouch. She sprinkled the dust along the carvings, muttering an incantation under her breath. The runes flared to life, glowing with pale light. Slowly, the massive stone door shuddered and began to open, the grinding of stone echoing through the passage.
Beyond the door was a vast chamber lined with towering shelves filled with ancient tomes and scrolls. The Archives of Durnholde.
Kael whistled low. "So this is where they kept all their secrets."
Selene stepped inside, her expression guarded. "Let's hope it has what we're looking for."
Aric followed, his eyes scanning the chamber. "The Forgotten. We need to know who—or what—they are, and how we stop them."
As they moved deeper into the Archives, Aric couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. The shadows between the shelves seemed darker here, and the silence was oppressive.
Selene paused in front of a massive tome resting on a pedestal. She opened it carefully, her eyes narrowing as she scanned the pages.
"Aric," she said, her voice tight. "You need to see this."
Aric stepped beside her, his gaze falling on the faded text. The words were written in a language he couldn't fully understand, but the meaning was clear enough. The Forgotten were not just shadows—they were the first shadows, born from the void before the world was shaped. Sealed away by ancient magic, they had been banished beyond the veil of reality.
And now, with the veil destroyed, they were waking.
Aric felt his stomach sink. "We've opened the door for them."
Selene's voice was quiet but steady. "Then we'll find a way to close it."
Kael grunted from where he stood guard. "Well, we'd better hurry. I don't think we're alone down here."
From deep within the Archives came a low, resonant thrum. It was faint at first, like a heartbeat in the dark, but it grew louder, closer, and with it came the sound of something stirring.
Aric drew his sword, his jaw set. "Whatever it is, we face it together."
The three of them turned toward the darkness, their weapons ready, as something ancient and terrible began to rise from the depths of the world.
The deep, resonant thrum echoed like a heartbeat in the vast chamber of the Archives. Dust shivered on the shelves, the heavy air thickening as though the ruins themselves sensed what was coming.
Selene turned, eyes sharp as flint, her bow already drawn. Kael stood with his axe ready, scanning the shadows. Aric tightened his grip on his sword, feeling the cold metal hum faintly in his hands, as if the weapon sensed the unnatural presence.
The sound came again—louder this time, pulsing like a ripple across the air. From the depths of the Archives, an unnatural darkness began to spread. It crept forward with deliberate purpose, swallowing the pale glow of Selene's lantern as though it were devouring the light itself.
"Stay close," Aric ordered, his voice low but firm. "Whatever this is… we face it together."
Selene nodded, her movements tense as she stepped back toward Aric. "It's coming from below us. Something's stirring… something old."
Kael spat onto the stone floor, his eyes fixed on the growing void. "If it's as ugly as the last thing we fought, I'll enjoy putting it back in the dirt."
The darkness spread until it stopped just short of their feet, an inky pool of shadow seeping into the cracks of the stone floor. From its depths, a shape began to emerge. First a hand—thin, clawed, and impossibly long—pulled itself free from the void. Then another.
Aric braced himself as a figure rose. It was tall and wraithlike, its limbs grotesquely elongated and emaciated, its body shrouded in black ichor that oozed from its form. Where a face should have been, there was only emptiness—a void that seemed to pull at the world around it. Its head tilted slowly, the same sickening heartbeat resonating with each movement.
Selene's voice was barely above a whisper. "The Forgotten…"
The creature seemed to hear the word. It froze, its empty void-like face turning toward Selene. From its gaping maw came a sound—low and guttural, like a chorus of voices speaking as one.
"We… have awoken."
The words echoed through the chamber, vibrating in Aric's bones. It was not a language he understood, but the meaning burned itself into his mind nonetheless.
Kael stepped forward, raising his axe. "Yeah? Then you'll wish you stayed asleep!"
The creature moved before Kael could finish. It was impossibly fast, its limbs blurring as it lashed out with claws that screeched against the stone floor. Kael barely dodged, his axe swinging in a wide arc that passed through the creature's form.
"Aric!" Selene cried. "It's shifting—our weapons aren't connecting!"
Aric's mind raced as he watched Kael stumble back, the creature's claws missing him by inches. He'd seen this before—enemies that could not be fought in the physical realm alone.
"Selene, focus on your light!" Aric ordered. "Kael, keep its attention!"
Kael grunted in response, raising his axe again and roaring to draw the creature's gaze. The Forgotten shrieked, the sound splitting the air as it lunged toward him. Selene, moving quickly, reached for her pouch and pulled out another vial of silver dust.
"This had better work," she muttered under her breath.
She hurled the dust at the creature, her voice rising in an incantation that echoed through the hall. The dust flared bright silver as it struck the creature, and for the first time, the Forgotten recoiled. Its shadowy form hissed as the silver burned against it, its movements faltering.
"Now, Aric!" Selene shouted.
Aric didn't hesitate. He surged forward, his sword glowing faintly with the same silver light. He struck, and this time his blade connected. The creature shrieked, its form convulsing as the sword bit deep.
Kael swung his axe next, the force of his blow cleaving through the creature's arm. Black ichor sprayed into the air, sizzling where it struck the ground. The Forgotten let out a final, piercing wail before its form collapsed, dissolving back into the inky void from which it came.
For a moment, silence reigned. The darkness receded, leaving the air still and heavy once more.
Kael lowered his axe, breathing hard. "Is it dead?"
Selene shook her head, her expression grim. "No. It's not dead. It's banished—for now."
Aric wiped his blade clean, his mind racing. "These creatures… they're the Forgotten. And if they're waking up, that means the Keeper was telling the truth."
Selene's voice was steady, though there was a shadow of fear in her eyes. "The veil is shattered. The prison is failing."
Kael growled, slamming the butt of his axe against the floor. "Then we find whoever's responsible and fix it."
Aric nodded, though the weight of what they faced felt heavier than ever before. "We need to understand how the veil was created in the first place. If it was sealed once, it can be sealed again."
Selene glanced at the vast shelves of the Archives, their shadows stretching endlessly. "Then we'd better start looking. The answers have to be here somewhere."
Hours passed as they searched the Archives, combing through crumbling tomes and scrolls lit only by lantern light. The knowledge within the Archives was vast—tales of empires long gone, of magic lost to time, and of wars fought against enemies whose names had been forgotten.
It was Selene who found it—an ancient, tattered scroll bound with silver thread. She unrolled it carefully, her eyes scanning the faded text.
"Aric," she said quietly. "This is it."
He came to her side, Kael close behind. Selene held up the scroll, pointing to the illustrations. "The veil wasn't natural—it was forged. A binding created by the first sorcerers, a collective of powerful mages who drew their strength from the world itself."
Aric frowned, leaning closer. "And the prison? Where was it?"
Selene tapped the parchment, where a single location had been marked on a faded map—deep in the mountains, beyond lands now forgotten by time. "They called it Azerath, the Heart of the Veil. It's where the first rift to the void was sealed."
Kael squinted at the map. "Looks like a cursed place if I've ever seen one."
Aric straightened, his expression set with determination. "Then that's where we go. If the veil was forged there, then we might be able to reforge it."
Selene carefully rolled up the scroll, tucking it into her pack. "We'll need to move quickly. If the Forgotten are already stirring, they won't wait long before spreading beyond the veil's ruins."
Kael grunted. "Good. I'm tired of chasing shadows. Let's end this."
Aric turned toward the stone door they had entered through, the echoes of the Forgotten's wail still lingering faintly in his mind. "We need to be ready for whatever's waiting at Azerath. The Keeper warned us that we've broken the balance—and we're running out of time to fix it."
Selene nodded, her gaze firm. "Then we don't stop until we put the Forgotten back to sleep."
Together, they left the Archives of Durnholde, stepping back into a world that now seemed darker than before. The weight of their task pressed on Aric's shoulders, but he pushed it aside, focusing on the road ahead.
The Heart of the Veil awaited—and with it, the fate of their world.