The Protectors: Rising from Ashes [Progression Fantasy | Action-Packed | Epic Battles]

The courtyard still buzzed with distant murmurs and scattered footsteps, but Eddy barely noticed. His eyes lingered on the sprawled bodies of the bullies, glitter-streaked, groaning, and defeated. His jaw clenched, and his fingers twitched at his sides. A flicker of something crossed his face, there and gone, a tightness around the eyes, a brief pull of the mouth.

"We need to talk," Sentinel said quietly, his gaze not leaving the sprawled forms. "But not here."

"You're right," Eddy murmured, shifting his weight uncomfortably. He gave a quick glance around, voice low. "If someone sees us standing over them like this, it's not exactly an easy thing to explain."

No one disagreed. The silence spoke volumes.

He turned on his heel, nodding once, more to himself than anyone else. "Come with me. I know a perfect place."

He didn't wait for a response, just started walking. His steps were uneven, the limp subtle but unmistakable. The set of his shoulders was stiff, determined. The others watched him for a beat, then looked to Sentinel. When he followed, so did they.

Cassandra's brow creased. "Where's he taking us?"

"Should we even be following him?" Lyric muttered under her breath, glancing at Elias.

"Too late now," Thorne muttered with a shrug, falling into step behind Eddy. "Mystery limping boy's already halfway down the hall."

He looked back at the others, the corner of his mouth curling. "Besides, if this is a trap… he's just a human. What's he gonna do, limp menacingly at us? Honestly, I think he should be the one afraid of us."

Eddy paused mid-step, spine stiffening. He didn't turn right away. When he did, it was slow and measured. His face gave nothing away, but his voice floated back, cool, dry.

"He's not wrong," he said. "I can't even stand up to my own kind, let alone take on any of you."

He lifted a shoulder in a lazy shrug, lips twitching at the corner. "But for what it's worth… I'm not leading you into a trap."

A few more steps, then he cast another glance over his shoulder. Their hesitance hadn't gone unnoticed.

"I'm just taking you somewhere quieter," he added, voice edged with dry sarcasm. "Unless you'd rather spill secrets next to a bunch of unconscious glitter corpses."

That earned a snort from Thorne and a reluctant grin from Lyric. Even Sentinel's ever-watchful gaze softened, just slightly.

The path Eddy took was narrow, winding between old buildings and quiet corners most students ignored. Ivy crawled up stone walls, brushing their shoulders in places. Fallen leaves crunched beneath their feet, muffling the sound of the world they left behind. The further they walked, the more distant the campus became, as if swallowed by creeping green.

A crow burst from a nearby tree with a sharp caw, wings cutting the air before it vanished into the canopy.

They rounded a bend beneath a rusted iron arch, almost hidden by thick vines. Beyond it lay the clearing.

It felt untouched. A wide, ancient tree stretched overhead, its gnarled limbs swaying faintly, sheltering the space like it remembered when people still came. Stone benches leaned with age, half-swallowed by moss and time. Wildflowers pushed through cracks in forgotten paths, defiant and bright.

The clearing didn't just feel quiet, it felt secret.

Cassandra glanced around, a note of recognition lighting in her eyes. "You've been here before."

Eddy nodded, brushing his hand along the rough bark of the tree beside him as if grounding himself in the place. "Yeah. Found it by accident a couple years ago. It's tucked behind the campus, quiet and hidden. No one really comes out this far. You'd only find it if you were really trying to be alone."

Elias stepped beside him, boots crunching over scattered twigs, his gaze drifting upward as the breeze stirred the leaves above. Light filtered through in dancing fragments, dappling his face. "This place feels… forgotten."

Eddy gave a faint smile, eyes scanning the quiet glade as if seeing it for the first time through someone else's words. His voice dropped slightly. "Exactly. It's where I go when I want to disappear for a while."

Thorne shifted his weight and leaned back against the wide trunk of the ancient tree. Its bark pressed rough against his shoulder blades as he crossed his arms over his chest. "But why would you want to disappear?" he asked, his brows drawing in slightly. "Back on campus, everyone seemed wrapped up in their little worlds, laughing, joking, like nothing could touch them. Why choose a life on the outside?"

Eddy hesitated. His hands moved at his sides, restless, then stilled. He walked over to a weather-stained stone bench and sat with a quiet exhale. The surface was cool and rough beneath him, flecked with moss around the edges. "I don't really... have many friends. Never have."

He glanced down. "So I started coming here to just be. To think. To hide, really. It kept me away from the ones who liked to mock me. Made me less of a target."

Lyric stepped closer, crouching nearby with her arms resting on her knees. Her tone was soft. "But why? Why don't you have friends? And why were those boys bullying you?"

Eddy's smile came and went, faint and dry. "Everyone thinks I'm strange. Because I believe vampires, werewolves, fae, dragons, and witches are real. They say I live in fairy tales. That I don't know how to grow up."

He looked at his hands, fingers loosely laced. "So nobody really wants to be friends with the boy who talks about things no one else believes in."

He shifted slightly, eyes drifting toward the trees. "And those boys... Flint and his group... they always go after people who seem weaker. People like me. I've never been good at fighting back." He motioned vaguely toward himself. "I don't have the strength to stand up to them. At least not in the way they expect."

A quiet stillness followed.

Sentinel remained standing, posture still, gaze on Eddy. "But you didn't back down earlier. You stood your ground when they tried to humiliate you. You didn't give in."

Eddy looked up, meeting his eyes. His voice stayed firm. "I know I'm not strong the way most people expect. But I'm not helpless either." He tapped a finger to his temple. "I may not win in a fight, but I don't break just because someone tells me to."

The words lingered.

Elias stood nearby, hands tucked in his pockets, brow drawn. The others were quiet, watching Eddy — not out of pity, but caught off guard by something deeper. There was no power in him, no flare of magic. Just quiet conviction.

Sentinel's expression shifted. Cassandra, perched lightly on a low log, let her shoulders ease. They exchanged a brief glance, then looked to the others.

No words spoken, but the meaning hung in the air.

You see it now, don't you?

The five of them, each chosen and marked by something powerful, had lived under the weight of doubt. Judged. Rejected. Called weak. And slowly, they had started to believe it.

But here stood a human boy, slim, limping, bruised, who had every reason to break but never did.

He didn't need magic to be strong.

He simply refused to believe he was as small as the world told him to be. The silence held, heavier now, thoughtful.

Then Elias stepped forward, closing the space between them. His footfalls were quiet on the earth, his gaze not guarded but intent. He studied Eddy like he was trying to see through him, not with suspicion, but with need.

"Earlier, when those guys were mocking you, they mentioned vampires, witches, and the rest. You've talked about us like you've always believed. But how could you be so sure? You hadn't met any of us before now, right?"

Eddy shook his head. "No, I hadn't. But I never doubted you were real. I've believed in your kind for as long as I can remember."

The breeze stirred the high branches again, sending a hush through the trees like the forest itself leaned in to listen.

Sentinel tilted his head slightly, his silhouette shifting in the dappled light as he stepped to the side, his gaze narrowing. "Belief is one thing. But you speak like you've seen things others haven't. When did this start?"

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Eddy's eyes drifted away, drawn to a patch of filtered sunlight between the trees. "When I was five."

A beat. No one moved. Their breath seemed to pause.

Even Thorne, who had leaned casually against the trunk, straightened.

"I started having dreams," Eddy continued. "Not just flashes or stories. I saw places I've never been to. Creatures I couldn't have imagined on my own. Fae, dragons, vampires."

Thorne let out a short, incredulous laugh, but it didn't reach his eyes. His posture was taut now. "So you believed we were real… just from dreams?"

"At first, they felt like dreams," Eddy said quietly. "But as time went on, they started to feel real. I wasn't just watching. I was there. I could feel the air, the voices, the fear. Every night, it was the same. And when I woke up, it felt like I'd just left another world."

Cassandra stepped forward, the leaves crunching faintly under her boots. Her expression had softened, curiosity etched in every line of her face. "But you never figured out why? You never learned where these dreams came from?"

"No," Eddy replied, his voice lower now. "I tried. I read books, looked through old legends, asked questions where I could, carefully so no one thought I was losing it. But nothing ever made sense. No answers."

Sentinel took a slow step forward. The grass gave slightly beneath his foot, but his eyes never left Eddy. "What about your family? Did they ever mention anything strange? Anything that might explain this?"

Eddy looked down. "I don't have a family. I was told I was found after a car accident. The police couldn't trace any relatives. I've been in the system ever since."

The world seemed to still around them. A squirrel darted across a branch overhead, unnoticed. A single leaf drifted down and landed near Elias's foot.

Thorne uncrossed his arms, the movement uncharacteristically quiet. Lyric's hand touched her chest in a silent reflex, her eyes wide. Elias sat down slowly on the stone bench beside Eddy without seeming to realize it, his gaze on the ground. Cassandra's lips parted slightly, but no words came.

But Sentinel—he froze.

His eyes narrowed, breath catching in his throat. His body locked in place, as though a wire had pulled taut deep inside him. His jaw flexed once, and a sharp inhale cut through the air.

Vaelthar's voice echoed in his mind, tense and low: Mireon told us the same thing. The family we were looking for died in a car accident also. No records, no trail. Could he really be related to them?

This is another reason we got that he is the one we were looking for, Sentinel answered in thought, the weight of it pressing on his chest like a storm cloud ready to break.

He looked at Eddy now not as a boy… but as a key.

As a thread leading somewhere long buried.

Cassandra's voice broke the silence gently, softer than before. "You never learned anything more? Nothing about where you came from?"

Sentinel leaned forward ever so slightly, not breathing. His stance was no longer one of a guardian. It was of someone searching. Reaching.

Eddy gave a small shrug, his fingers tracing the edge of the bench beside him, rough stone warm from the sun. "Nothing. Just that the accident happened at night, and I was the only one found alive in the wreck. They say I was lucky. I guess I've never really believed that."

His eyes flicked up, scanning the faces in front of him — wide eyes, quiet tension, breath held on lips. He sighed. "You don't need to feel sorry for me. I've had enough of that. I'm used to it, and I don't want pity."

Sentinel said nothing.

But the silence he held wasn't still. It swirled with questions and realizations, heavier with each second. He studied Eddy now as if the boy's face might split open to reveal a truth he'd chased for years. Every word spoken earlier now seemed like a clue.

Lyric leaned in slightly, brushing back a strand of hair that had fallen loose. "We're not pitying you," she said gently. "But I need to ask. Back in Dusveil Mall, when we met… you said you'd seen us before. But we've never crossed paths. So how did you know us?"

Eddy's eyes met hers, calm and unwavering, before flicking to Thorne, then Elias. "Because I've seen you all in my dreams. For years now. Vivid ones. The kind that never fade when you wake up."

A silence hit sharper than the last.

Elias stiffened where he sat. Lyric blinked once, disbelief flashing across her face. Thorne narrowed his eyes, his arms folding again, not in dismissal, but protection. A wall going up, even as his mind turned.

"You've dreamed about us?" Elias asked, his voice low, careful, like the answer might tilt something out of balance.

Eddy nodded. "You three… and two others. The ones who were with you that day at the mall. I didn't know your names back then, but I knew your faces. I knew what each of you could do. And what each of you carried inside."

The words hung in the air like a spark waiting to ignite. The forest around them seemed to still, branches swaying no more, the hush falling like a velvet curtain—as if the very woods were holding their breath.

Cassandra stepped closer, careful, her fingers brushing against the pendant around her neck like it might ground her. Her tone was gentle, but her eyes probed deeper. "These dreams… were they just visions? Or did you feel something more? Like a connection?"

Eddy met her gaze. His brow furrowed slightly as he nodded, as if surprised someone had finally framed the feeling he hadn't been able to explain. "It wasn't just seeing. It was like… being pulled. Like I was meant to find you. All of you."

At that, Sentinel shifted. His body leaned in, arms folding tightly, and the angle of his head sharpened like a predator catching scent. Something in his posture hinted at a silent test, like he was weighing each word in gold.

Thorne scoffed. His boots dug slightly into the earth as he stepped ahead, the tension in his body stiff as coiled rope. Arms crossed, lips twisted in a crooked frown. "Look, I'm not saying you're high or hallucinating or anything," he muttered, "but come on. You're saying you dreamed about us before we ever met? That doesn't just sound weird, it's impossible. Stuff like that doesn't happen. Not even among our kind."

His eyes flicked to Elias, Lyric, and Cassandra. None of them spoke. Their gazes clouded with uncertainty, their brows drawn, like they were grasping for a thread they couldn't quite hold.

Eddy inhaled slowly, shoulders rising with the weight of what he was about to say. "I get it. I wouldn't believe it either. But will you believe me when I say this?"

He turned toward Thorne, gaze narrowing like a lens finding focus.

"You can't transform into your dragon form. That's why your kind mocks you. That's why your family doesn't see you as one of them."

The silence that followed wasn't empty, it was dense. A heavy pause dropped over the group like a storm cloud.

Thorne's breath caught halfway up his throat. His eyes widened, flickering not with anger, but recognition. His arms remained crossed, but his grip tightened so fiercely his knuckles paled. His jaw ticked, mouth parting slightly. For a split second, his mask cracked.

Even Elias's eyes darted to Thorne with a flash of surprise. Lyric blinked. Cassandra's head turned, mouth parting like she was about to speak, but didn't.

Inside Thorne, Pyrix stirred.

He speaks the truth, he murmured. No outsider should know this. No dreamer. Unless…

Unless it wasn't just a dream, Thorne finished, his mind reeling.

Cassandra barely whispered, "How could he know that…?"

But Thorne didn't move. Couldn't. The look Eddy wore, he wasn't bluffing. No triumph in his tone. No smugness. Just… quiet conviction.

Sentinel straightened, the air around him shifting subtly like gravity had doubled. His eyes narrowed, not with suspicion, but with dawning recognition. He breathed once, long and deep, barely audible over the hush.

Another reason, he muttered under his breath, gaze locked like iron. Another reason to believe he's the one we were looking for.

His heart thudded against his ribs, harder than before.

Yes, he answered the silent voice. And we're running out of time to find out.

The wind stirred through the branches, breaking the spell. A single leaf spiraled downward.

Sentinel stepped forward.

With that motion, it was like the woods leaned in again. The very air drew tight. Even the birds overhead seemed to quiet, their wings pausing mid-beat.

"Okay. One last question," he said. His voice was calm, but weighted, like a stone beneath still waters. "Is Eddy your real name? I mean, what's your full name? Do you know your surname?"

The others turned toward him slowly, confused by the shift.

Lyric's brow pinched, her mouth forming a question that didn't leave her lips. Thorne cast a glance toward Sentinel, wariness threading his gaze. Elias tilted his head, confusion etched across his features.

Cassandra moved beside Sentinel, her steps nearly silent. She looked at him, not with distrust, but with curiosity. "Why would that matter?" she asked softly.

But Sentinel didn't answer. Didn't even blink. Every muscle in his body was honed toward the boy in front of him, tension beneath skin, anticipation beneath stillness. Whatever answer was coming, he was bracing for it.

Eddy hesitated, head tilting slightly. His expression shifted, not fear, but the kind of confusion born of too many memories left in pieces.

"From what in the car accident remained, and what the cops found out," he began slowly, "my name is Edison... Edison Halesworth."

Sentinel stilled.

Not in the way a person pauses, but in the way time forgets to tick forward.

His chest stopped rising. His hands didn't move. His eyes, unblinking, bored into Eddy like he'd seen a ghost. Or a legend. Or both.

Sentinel, came Vaelthar's voice, rising like flame, that means our doubt was right. This boy is related to the Halesworth family. That means...

His expression darkened, not with fear, but with understanding steeped in reverence, ancient knowledge.

That means he is the one we have been searching for so long, and our search is complete today.

A ripple moved through the group like a silent quake.

Cassandra's brow furrowed slightly. Lyric took a small step back, her eyes narrowing in quiet curiosity. Thorne's mouth twitched as if about to say something, but he held back. Elias blinked, tilting his head, clearly confused by Sentinel's sudden change.

Eddy stood still.

No understanding in his eyes. Just the innocent confusion of someone unaware that fate had just spoken through his name.

Sentinel looked at him, unfazed by the others' expressions, as if he'd found a myth walking upright.

Before anyone could question him, he turned to the others, his voice clear and cutting.

"We're getting late. We need to reach the Sanctum before the Elders do."

The words sliced through the fog like a blade. The spell shattered.

Lyric blinked hard. "Wait—what? That's it?"

Elias stepped forward, his voice sharp with disbelief. "You were the one who couldn't rest until you had answers. And now that you might actually have one…"

Thorne shifted his stance, arms still crossed but tighter now. "You're saying we just leave? After all this?"

Even Cassandra drew closer. There was steel in her tone now. "But, Sir… we still don't know how he knew how to kill that invader. We haven't even begun to understand what he really saw."

They were no longer just voices, they were demands. A chorus of disbelief.

Only Eddy remained adrift among them, eyes flicking back and forth, trying to piece it all together. The air pressed too tightly around him, the storm not his but crashing over him all the same.

Sentinel's tone dropped, low but resolute. "The rest… we'll ask once we reach the Sanctum."

The forest paused again. Not silent, watchful.

Lyric glanced at Thorne. Thorne gave her a look, uncertain, but laced with silent worry. Elias's lips parted, about to speak—

"But how can we even…"

Sentinel raised his voice just enough to cut clean through. "He's coming with us. To Luminaries Sanctum."

The finality of it struck like thunder after the flash.

Lyric reeled, voice rising, "What?"

Thorne exhaled sharply, more scoff than breath. "You're serious?"

Elias turned to Eddy, blinking. "We're bringing him? Just like that?"

Even Cassandra, calm and composed, took a step back. "To the Sanctum?"

Eddy blinked. "Wait. I'm going where?"