Chapter 6

Weeks had passed since the fall of the Black Raven. Vyth was at home, sitting in his room, when something changed. He did not hear it, he did not see it, he simply felt it. A dark energy swept across the city, moving toward the Temple.

He stood up and was already on the move. He did not hesitate.

The city streets were quiet. As he approached the Temple, he felt the foreign presence growing stronger.

Aryn was already there, standing at the Temple steps. She watched the road motionlessly, not turning toward Vyth as he arrived.

"You feel it too." she said.

"Yes." Vyth replied quietly.

Together, they looked down the street. The tension rose without words.

A figure appeared in the distance.

It was Amarah, yet not. The movement was familiar, the posture, the way of walking. But the appearance... gray skin, red eyes, and an ominous aura surrounding him. The former radiance was gone.

When he came closer, he stopped. His gaze swept over them.

Vyth stepped forward.

"Amarah...?"

"That name no longer fits me." the figure replied. "I am Kierg."

For a moment, the silence became suffocating.

"What happened to you?" Aryn finally asked.

"I had to become stronger." Kierg’s voice was calm, yet cold. "I could not watch it happen again... when Vorgath brought destruction to Glelrun. I was powerless. But I will never be that again."

"What did you do?" Vyth asked quietly.

"I found someone who helped me. Helped me become stronger."

"You became a vampire." Aryn said.

"This is only a form. The purpose has not changed." Kierg’s eyes gleamed, not with anger, but with determination. "I needed strength, before the thing we all know will come... comes again."

Kierg fell silent for a moment. His gaze drifted to the wall of the Temple, then back to Vyth and Aryn.

"In the book I found in Abydore, there was a mention of the artifact I had been searching for. The Necklace of Immortality. According to the description, I set out to find it, and eventually discovered it inside a cave."

Aryn’s eyes glimmered. A look of grim realization appeared on her face.

"The Necklace of Immortality... It is an Unholy Relic." she said slowly. "It was born of dark energy. It is not meant for protection or healing, but for something else entirely."

"I am aware." Kierg nodded. "But I had no other choice. I needed power. Quickly. I did not want to be helpless again, like I was when Vorgath slaughtered our Guardians, and I could do nothing."

"And who helped you activate the necklace?" Aryn asked.

Kierg hesitated, then shrugged.

"A demon. He was already there when I arrived. At first I thought it was a trap, but he did not attack. He offered me a deal."

Aryn’s eyes narrowed.

"Who was it?"

Kierg sighed, then finally said it.

"Argath."

The name drew a heavy silence. Aryn froze almost completely, and Vyth watched him with tense attention.

"Argath..." Vyth repeated quietly.

"He only wants me to defeat Vorgath. If I succeed, he will have one less rival. That was the price. It is a goal we both wish to achieve."

"And you trusted him?" Aryn asked.

"It does not matter whether I trusted him. I knew the risk I was taking. I can no longer wear the golden armor. The holy power within it would tear my body apart. But what I received in return... it is more than I ever hoped for."

"And what is that?" Vyth asked softly.

"I have become stronger. Faster. My senses are sharper, my body more resistant. And... I can use a new kind of magic. Not Holy Magic, but effective. Now I can truly protect those who matter to me."

Aryn remained silent for a moment, then spoke softly.

"This path... is darker than any you have walked before."

Kierg nodded.

"Perhaps. But for the first time, I feel I will not be powerless."

Aryn watched Kierg in silence, her expression darkening.

"And now?" she finally asked. "What is your plan after all this?"

Kierg looked down at the ground for a moment, then slowly raised his gaze again.

"I want to continue what I started. Even if the path is different. I still serve Glelrun... and Ylena. That has never changed." His voice was quiet, but firm. "And... if you allow it, I would like to keep training Vyth as well."

Vyth stood in silence, unsure what to say. The sight, what he had heard, Kierg’s new appearance and power... it all turned everything inside him upside down. But one thing remained. Amarah, now Kierg, was here again. And that was what mattered.

Aryn’s face stayed motionless. It was clear she did not approve of the decision, nor of what had happened to Amarah. The necklace, the demonic pact, the new power. It was all too much to accept easily. But after a long moment, she nodded.

"I do not like the path you chose. But if you truly still wish to protect Glelrun... then I trust you to make the right choice."

Vyth then stepped closer to him. Awkwardly, yet sincerely, he said.

"I’m glad you came back."

Kierg smiled faintly. Perhaps only for a moment, but in that moment there was something of who he once was.

A few days later, Kierg summoned Vyth. He led him to the rocky field behind the Temple, where they had once trained.

"There is something I want to show you." Kierg said as he stopped on a small rise. "Something I did not know myself until recently."

Vyth said nothing, only nodded. A moment later, Llyris arrived as well. Vyth had invited him, thinking he might learn something too.

Kierg watched them for a while. The wind tugged at his cloak.

"This is not Holy Magic." he said finally. "Argath taught me. I will not say it is safe, but it can be useful if handled properly."

He slowly extended his hand forward and closed his eyes. The air changed.

Something beneath the ground began to tremble.

A dark aura gathered around Kierg’s hand, like a slowly swirling mist. From the earth, black shadows stretched out in thin, snake-like forms, then merged into a single shape. A dark hand rose from the ground.

Kierg watched it silently, then lowered his palm. The hand immediately sank back into the earth.

"This is a binding magic." he explained. "Whoever I catch with it cannot move. At least, not unless they have enough power to break free."

Vyth and Llyris stood silently. Llyris stepped closer, glancing at the spot where the hand had vanished.

"This... I have never seen magic like this." he said quietly.

"There are similar kinds of magic." Kierg replied. "But this draws from a different source. From the energy of the Underworld. That is why it is strong. But..." he fell silent, then looked at Vyth and Llyris. "Now, you try."

Vyth and Llyris exchanged glances, then obediently extended their hands, imitating his movement. They tried to guide the energy, but nothing happened. Only silence.

Kierg watched them for a while, then slowly nodded.

"It does not work. I actually expected that." he said thoughtfully. "Since you are not connected to the Underworld..." He did not finish.

Vyth stepped away from the center of the circle, a trace of disappointment crossing his face.

"But at least you tried." Kierg continued.

Kierg turned away for a moment, then looked back at them.

"What I know now is no longer Holy Magic, but it may still prove useful in the future."

In the days that followed, the rocky field behind the Temple grew quiet again. Kierg no longer called them to train, but what he had shown them did not fade without a trace.

One afternoon, Vyth was walking through the market when the whispers of two women reached his ears.

"...they saw shadows rising from the ground. That is not a natural thing..."

"...and that Amarah... he calls himself Kierg now. What kind of name is that..."

Vyth stopped for a moment. The voices were soft, yet clear. He did not look back, just kept walking.

Later, when Llyris joined him in the training yard, he spoke after a long silence.

"You have heard it too, haven’t you?" he asked quietly.

Vyth nodded, but said nothing.

"The city is full of rumors. Someone saw the magic he used. And... I cannot stop thinking about it." Llyris’s expression darkened. "When we stood there with him, there was something... strange about him. I cannot describe it, only... as if he were no longer the same person he once was."

Vyth remained silent for a long time. Then he lowered his gaze.

"I noticed it too. Sometimes he looks at people as if... he no longer belongs among them. And when he used his magic..." he fell silent. "It was as if he enjoyed his new power a little too much."

"I do not want to think the worst right away." Llyris said softly. "He has done too much for us. But if he truly is going down the wrong path..."

Vyth sighed.

"He is still Amarah. And he is my friend." he said at last. "Just... a little different now."

Llyris did not answer. For a while, he only looked at Vyth, then quietly stepped beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

The area around the Temple was quiet. Kierg sat on the steps of the sanctuary, his gaze fixed on the city. In the past days, more and more eyes had turned toward him. Not out of curiosity, but with caution, even fear. People looked away when he passed by. Children no longer ran to him as they once did. Sometimes, mothers hurriedly pulled them aside the moment they caught sight of Kierg.

Vyth watched from a distance for a while, then walked over to him. Kierg glanced sideways and nodded.

"It has been rather quiet around you lately." Vyth remarked as he sat down beside him.

After a few seconds of silence, Vyth spoke again.

"Does it bother you that they fear you?"

Kierg let out a quiet laugh.

"Fear at least breeds respect." he said, as if joking. Then his expression darkened, and he lowered his eyes. "But you know that is not how I really feel."

Vyth said nothing. He just listened.

"This is the price." Kierg continued softly. "If this is what it takes to protect them... I will endure it."

Vyth glanced at him. The man looked tired, but not physically. It was a deeper exhaustion that weighed on him.

"You have not been sleeping much lately." he said finally.

Kierg nodded. "I do not really feel the need to."

"And I have not seen you eat either."

"Perhaps I no longer need to." Kierg shrugged. "Something is changing in me. I do not know exactly what, but I can feel it."

Vyth watched him for a while, then asked carefully.

"And when you disappear at night... where do you go?"

Kierg looked up at the sky. The sun was already setting.

"I watch. Glelrun’s borders. The old paths. Sometimes... I just walk." he paused for a moment, then added. "That is when I remember who I am."

Vyth nodded, but what he heard did not comfort him. His friend was still there, within Kierg... but it felt as if he was slowly drifting away.

The silence of night settled over Glelrun. Vyth tossed and turned without sleep, then rose, got dressed, and stepped out of his room. He did not know exactly what was driving him, only that he could no longer feel Kierg’s presence nearby.

He started around the Temple, then headed south, where the city ended. The fields were dark and empty. Moving along the path beneath the trees, he slowly reached the barren, rocky hillside he had rarely dared to visit before.

He was about to turn back when a strange feeling came over him.

Slowly, cautiously, he continued forward. When he reached the edge of the hill, he saw a motionless figure in the darkness.

Kierg stood there. Alone. Beside a flat stone, completely still. The moonlight glimmered on his clothes, but his face remained in shadow.

Vyth was about to step closer, but stopped. Something was lying on the ground around Kierg. Several smaller shapes. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, the details slowly became clear.

Corpses. The bodies of animals. Foxes, deer, and perhaps others as well. All of them lay silently on the ground.

Vyth did not move. He tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

Then Kierg spoke quietly, still facing away from him.

"Why are you out here at this hour?"

Vyth stepped out from between the trees.

"I was looking for you." he said softly.

Kierg did not move. He just stared ahead.

"What are you doing here?" Vyth asked, his gaze fixed on the animals lying on the ground.

"I am trying not to hurt anyone." Kierg replied. "Vampirism... it does not only grant power. It brings something else, something that grows louder every night. Hunger. Urge."

"You hunt animals?" Vyth asked.

Kierg nodded.

"You cannot control it?" Vyth asked quietly.

"I can control it." Kierg said. "But I cannot make it stop. And if I do not want people to suffer for it, this is what remains."

Vyth lowered his head.

"I understand." he said finally.

"This is what I am now. I have to live with it. And if this is what it takes to keep others safe... then I accept it."

"And you? How long can you keep this up?"

Kierg looked off into the distance, where the dark shapes of the trees merged with the night.

"As long as there is still something left of me." he answered quietly. "And when there is nothing left... then I will leave."

Vyth said nothing for a long time. He only stood on the rocky hillside in silence. His friend was no longer quite the one he had once known.

The sun had already set behind the mountains when the news spread through the streets of the city like wildfire. A small child had gone missing. A boy around six years old, playful, last seen that afternoon near the western edge of the city.

His parents searched in desperation. At first, they went through the nearby streets, then asked the neighbors, and eventually even approached strangers.

"We only turned away for a moment..." the mother cried. "He was playing among the stones, and then suddenly he was gone..."

The Guardians were mobilized as well. Vyth was at the Temple when one of the aides hurried to deliver the news. He did not waste time, joining the search immediately.

As more and more people joined, the whispering accusations began to grow louder.

"It cannot be a coincidence..." voices murmured among the market stalls. "Ever since that Kierg arrived, everything has changed. First that dark magic, now this..."

"No one has seen him since, have they?" someone asked. "And now the boy disappears just when he does? You do not find that suspicious?"

Some nodded. Others said nothing, but their eyes told enough.

Vyth could hardly believe what he was hearing. With his jaw tight, he walked past the group and headed for the western edge of the city. He began his search in the hilly, wooded area where the boy was last seen playing. He walked under the shadows of trees, bent between bushes, calling the child’s name again and again.

Hours passed. Dozens of people combed the area, carrying torches and lanterns, quietly calling out to each other, whispering, signaling when they found something. A cloth, a toy, but all false trails. Nothing that truly belonged to the boy.

Vyth reached a narrow cave entrance alone. The opening was barely as tall as a man, half hidden by bushes. He was about to move on when he heard a faint sound from inside. A quiet sob.

He stepped closer slowly.

"Hello?" he asked softly.

At first there was only a trembling sniffle, then a weak voice.

"...mom?"

Vyth immediately knelt by the entrance and saw the boy. He was crouched alone on the cold stones, his face streaked with tears, but unharmed.

"Come here. It is all right. They are already looking for you." Vyth said with relief, reaching out his hand.

The child slowly crawled toward him and nestled into his arms. He was trembling. He said he only wanted to play, then wandered deeper into the forest. When night fell, he grew frightened and crawled into the cave for shelter. After that, he no longer dared to come out.

The city breathed a sigh of relief. The news spread quickly, but by the time it reached every corner of Glelrun, the doubts had already taken root.

In the main square, a woman was still speaking with accusation.

"Now they say he just hid. Of course. But who knows what that devilish man did to him..."

Kierg stood silently on the Temple steps. Vyth could already see from afar how people avoided him. Some whispered as they passed, others turned their backs openly. A mother grabbed her child’s arm sharply when the boy looked toward Kierg.

And Kierg just watched them. He did not speak. He did not clench his fists. He did nothing.

But when Vyth stepped beside him, he saw the change on his face.

From the people, this was no longer fear. Nor mistrust. It was hatred.

Kierg spoke in a whisper.

"I do not need to do anything. My existence alone is enough. That alone is already a sin."

Vyth could find no words. He simply stayed beside him. Because though he was no longer sure what the future would bring, he knew that if he left Kierg alone now, it would begin something that could never be undone.

The morning was cool and filled with wind. Vyth walked alone toward the deserted hills where one of the Guardians’ old training grounds once stood. The walls were moss-covered, and grass and weeds grew between the cracked stones of the practice field. Few had come here even in the past, and now it had been completely forgotten.

Only Kierg had chosen it for himself now.

Vyth approached slowly. From afar, he could already hear the faint hum of dark magic vibrating through the air. A pulse ran through the land.

When he saw Kierg, he swung his arm through the air in a single motion. Shadows burst from the ground, coiling like serpents through the air. One struck a training dummy, tearing it from its stand and shattering it.

Kierg’s dark clothing stirred in the swirl of air created by the magic. His eyes glowed red for a brief moment. He did not notice he was being watched.

Vyth stepped closer and cleared his throat.

"I did not think I would see you training again so soon." he said softly.

Kierg did not look up right away. He only spoke when the magic faded around him.

"At least no one forbids it here." he said quietly. "Here there are no eyes watching. Only me..."

Vyth looked around. The ruined training ground was silent. In the distance, crows were calling.

Kierg slowly walked to the edge of the field, where an old, rotted bench lay among the grass. He did not sit down. He just stood behind it, staring at the horizon.

"When I do not sleep at night... I study. I observe. My body is changing, Vyth. My mind too. Sometimes I feel like I am no longer the one I once was."

"But you still fight. For the people."

"Not everyone believes that." Kierg replied bitterly. "Many only see the darkness that surrounds me. Not what I am trying to keep away with it."

Vyth stepped closer, trying to meet his gaze.

"And you? Do you still see the one you once were?"

Kierg was silent for a long time.

"There are moments." he said at last. "But they are becoming rarer. Shorter."

There was no complaint in his voice. Only acceptance. A quiet acceptance that made Vyth’s stomach tighten.

"Why do you not come back? I will talk to Aryn, maybe she can ease the restrictions..."

"I do not want to go back." Kierg cut in, his voice carrying a faint edge for the first time. "Not while they look at me as if I were a monster."

Vyth shook his head.

"But not everyone. Llyris, and I... we still believe in you."

Kierg slowly turned toward him then. His eyes were dark, deep, and tired.

"And how long?" he asked quietly. "How long will you believe, when I myself am no longer sure who I am?"

Vyth could not answer.

They stood there on the old stones, two former allies, two friends who had once walked the same path, but who might no longer be walking in the same direction.

The quiet footsteps echoed through the Temple halls. Since the events of the past days, knocks, pleas, and accusations had become a common sound behind Aryn’s door. Guardians came and went, their faces filled with worry, their eyes with distrust. Not everyone spoke their thoughts aloud, but no one looked at Kierg the same way they once looked at Amarah.

Vyth stood at the far end of the chamber, silently watching as another Guardian left Aryn’s room. The High Priest’s face remained calm, but tension rested heavily on her shoulders.

"That will be all for today." she said when she noticed Vyth. "Come in."

Inside, the room was quiet.

"Rumors? Accusations?" Vyth asked as he took a seat.

Aryn nodded. "More and more every day. The Guardians are no longer just asking questions. Some are demanding that I act."

"The incident with the boy... it frightened them." Vyth said softly.

"Not only that." Aryn replied, lowering her gaze to her hands. "They see that he has changed. They see what he does, where he goes, and that he is still here."

Vyth said nothing.

Aryn sighed, then for a moment met his eyes. "If this continues, we will not be able to avoid calling the Council."

The words struck Vyth. He knew what that meant.

"There is no need for the Council." he said quietly. "He is still the same person. Only different. He is fighting. And if he is left alone, it will only push him further away."

Aryn stood in silence for a while, as if searching for the right words, but in the end, she said nothing more. Her eyes lingered on Vyth’s face for a brief moment before she spoke softly.

"I only wanted you to know which way things are heading. And to make sure you do not face it when it is already too late."

Her words carried no accusation. They were calm, but painfully so, as if even she no longer knew what the right path was.

Vyth lowered his gaze, but did not speak.

That night, Vyth walked the streets alone. He still believed in Kierg. But he no longer knew how long that belief could last.