Thalia didn't wait for permission.She strode forward, the merchant close behind her, ignoring the hissed warning from the guard.The Council chamber opened before them—a circular room dominated by a massive round table of polished oak.Maps covered its surface, weighted down with small metal figurines representing troop positions and strategic assets.The walls were lined with bookshelves and weapon racks, while a blazing hearth cast dancing shadows across the stone floor.
Around the table sat the instructors and senior officers who now comprised Frostforge's War Council.Wolfe at the head, flanked by Virek and Solberg.Marr and Calloway occupied positions to the right.Kaine stood at the far side, his face unreadable as Thalia entered.Ashe hovered near the back wall, her expression tense.
Wolfe's emerald eyes hardened at the sight of Thalia, her scarred face tightening with displeasure."This Council is closed to you, Greenspire," she said, her voice cutting through the silence."You were not summoned."
Thalia forced herself to breathe evenly, to keep her voice level despite the anger simmering beneath her skin."Instructor Wolfe, I know my standing in this academy.I'm not here to press my own case."She gestured to the merchant beside her."This man's ship was attacked near the Northern coast.He's witnessed firsthand what I've been trying to warn you about."
"And what might that be?"Virek asked, his whisper-soft voice somehow carrying across the room."Another fabricated tale of sea monsters to justify your inexplicable sympathy for our enemies?"
The merchant stepped forward before Thalia could respond, his weathered face pale beneath his ice-crusted beard."I don't know what disputes you have among yourselves," he said bluntly, "but I know what I saw.I've sailed these waters for three decades.I've weathered Warden attacks before.This was different."
A hush fell over the chamber.Even Wolfe seemed to recognize the gravity in the man's voice, nodding for him to continue.
"We were two days out from Greymist Point," the merchant began, his hands trembling slightly as he gripped the edge of the table."Clear skies, calm seas.Then the water around us...changed.Darkened, like ink was spilling into the waves."He swallowed hard, Adam's apple bobbing in his throat."The darkness spread until we were surrounded by it—a perfect circle of black water in an otherwise normal sea."
Thalia watched the Council's faces as the merchant described what followed—shadow tendrils rising from the depths, wrapping around the hull of his ship, dissolving wood and metal wherever they touched.His voice grew more agitated as he recounted the desperate flight from the darkness, the loss of three crewmen to the depths, the miraculous escape to Frostforge's harbor.
"Before we fled, we saw Greymist Point," he concluded, voice cracking."The fortress wall—stone that's stood for centuries—it just...dissolved.Melted away like snow in summer heat, but there was no heat—just cold.A cold like nothing I've felt before, like it was pulling the warmth from inside my very bones."
Thalia stepped forward, unable to contain herself any longer."This is exactly what I witnessed aboard the fortress-whale," she said, her gaze sweeping across the Council members."The same entities attacked Thrum’kith in the archipelago.The Deep Ones—that's what the Isle Wardens call them."
She turned to Kaine, finding support in his ice-blue eyes."The Isle Wardens have been fighting these creatures for generations," she continued."They've lost islands to them, whole communities swallowed by black waters.That's why they've been pushing onto the mainland—they're refugees, not just invaders.They're—"
"Isle Warden magic," the merchant interrupted, his face darkening."That's what this must be.Some new form of their storm sorcery, twisted into something even more vile."
Thalia's words died in her throat."No," she protested, turning back to the merchant."You misunderstand.The Wardens are fleeing from these entities, not creating them."
But the merchant shook his head vehemently."I've fought Wardens for thirty years, girl.I know their magics, their tactics.This is different, certainly, but it must be their doing—a new weapon in their endless war against us."
Thalia looked desperately toward the Council members, hoping to find some ally, some open mind.But what she saw instead was grim confirmation settling across their faces.Virek nodded slowly, as though his suspicions had been validated.Solberg's expression darkened with vindictive certainty.Even Marr, who had occasionally shown more pragmatism than his Northern colleagues, seemed to be considering the merchant's interpretation.
"This aligns with our intelligence," Virek said, his pale eyes fixing on Thalia with something like triumph."The Isle Wardens have been experimenting with new applications of storm magic—darker, more destructive forms.What better way to seize territory than to make it appear as though some greater threat drives them from their islands?"
"An elegant deception," Solberg agreed, his bushy brows drawing together."Create a phantom enemy, then present themselves as fellow victims rather than invaders."
"No," Thalia insisted, frustration sharpening her voice."You're not listening.I've seen these entities with my own eyes.They're not storm magic—they're something ancient, something the founders of this academy knew about.That's why they established the Founder's Price."
Wolfe raised a hand, silencing the murmurs that had broken out around the table."We've heard enough," she said, her gaze falling coldly on Thalia."Merchant Blacksail, we thank you for your testimony.It provides valuable confirmation of our intelligence regarding new Isle Warden tactics."
Thalia felt the ground shifting beneath her, another opportunity slipping away.She opened her mouth to object, but Kaine caught her eye from across the table, a subtle warning in his gaze.Push further now, his expression seemed to say, and you'll lose what little influence you still have.
"The Council will continue its deliberations in private," Wolfe continued, nodding to the guards at the door."Escort Merchant Blacksail to the healers' wing.He's earned rest and care after his ordeal."
The dismissal was unmistakable.Thalia stood frozen as the guards moved forward, one taking the merchant's elbow to guide him from the chamber.The merchant went willingly, seemingly relieved to be free of the tense atmosphere and heading toward promised rest.
"Greenspire."Wolfe's voice drew Thalia's attention back to the table.The head instructor's expression had softened slightly, though her eyes remained hard as emeralds."Your dedication to this academy is not in question.Your judgment, however, remains suspect.Return to your duties.Leave matters of war and alliance to this Council."
Something broke inside Thalia then—a final thread of hope that reason might prevail over prejudice.But she swallowed her retort, knowing that open defiance now would only cement the Council's dismissal of her warnings.She inclined her head stiffly, turned on her heel, and walked from the chamber with as much dignity as she could muster.
CHAPTER FIVE
Night pressed against the horizon with greedy fingers, devouring the last smears of crimson twilight as Captain Farah of the Third Reef paced the weathered deck of the Windreaver.Her boots struck hollow notes against planks that had once ferried merchants between prosperous isles but now groaned beneath the weight of desperate survivors.
Below, the shadowed waters churned with unnatural depth, an inky blackness that rose too swiftly for any sailor's comfort.The mainland remained frustratingly absent from view despite three full days of furious sailing, and with each passing hour, Farah felt the chance of reaching it slipping through her fingers like sand through a broken hourglass.
The salt-laden breeze caught strands of her copper hair, whipping them across her face as she gripped the ship's rail.Tension coiled between her shoulder blades, a familiar ache that had become her constant companion since the evacuation began.The Windreaver had been built to carry sixty passengers between the thriving ports of Stormhaven and Tiderest.Now it struggled beneath the weight of nearly three hundred souls—the remnants of three island communities swallowed by the advancing darkness.
From below decks came the dissonant chorus of misery—children crying, elders praying, the fevered muttering of those who had witnessed their homes dissolve into nothingness.The sounds wove together with the constant creak of overstressed timbers, a symphony of desperation that scraped against Farah's nerves like a dull blade.
