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

Sentinel's voice cleaved through the silence like the crack of a judge's hammer.

"We should move now."

The words weren't loud, but they landed with absolute authority, no room for delay, no space for doubt.

"We have to return to the Alchemical Chamber. Cassandra's recovery is still uncertain... and the boy has answers we haven't heard yet."

Alice didn't move. Her brows knit slightly as her gaze shifted toward Thorne and Elias, quiet surprise flickering across her face.

"The boy?" Her tone wasn't loud, but it carried a chill of disbelief. "You actually found him?"

Thorne gave a short nod, chin dipping with measured weight. He shifted his stance slightly, arms falling loose at his sides. "Yeah. Calls himself Eddy. Human. Clever. Little too observant for someone who should've been scared out of his mind."

He paused, his gaze drifting to Elias briefly before adding,
"He's the exact opposite of what we expected. But he's the one who figured out how to kill that invader during the first attack. How he saw it, or what exactly he was seeing—no clue."

Alice's arms crossed, jaw clenched. She didn't look surprised, just deeply unsettled, like a storm cloud gathering just behind her eyes.

"I figured you found him the moment you came through those doors," she said, voice low and steady. "But I didn't think you'd actually bring him here."

Her gaze snapped to Elias, then Thorne, sharp enough to cut.

"I'm not questioning what he did. I'm questioning why no one asked the obvious. You met him. You saw what he did. So why didn't you ask him then?"

Before anyone could speak, Aiden stepped forward. One hand dragged through his hair as he exhaled sharply, the sound almost a growl of disbelief.

"Wait, wait—hold on."

He pointed a finger at Thorne, then at Elias. "You brought him here? Inside the Sanctum?"

His voice cut sharper now, edged with restrained frustration.

"I knew you were tracking him down, but I thought the point was to learn what he knew. Not hand him a seat at the war table."

He gestured around at the chamber, the gilded stone and vaulted archways looming like silent witnesses. "Do you even know how this looks? To the council? To the nobles already sharpening blades behind closed doors?"

His eyes flicked toward Sentinel, then back again.
"They already think we're unstable. And now there's a human walking among the most guarded halls we have, someone who, let's be honest, knows more than he should."

Lyric didn't flinch. Her arms folded across her chest, but her posture didn't tense, it settled.

"He didn't ask to be brought in."

Her tone was even, clipped. "He refused—twice. We convinced him. Because he helped when no one else could."

Her gaze didn't waver as she met Aiden's stare. "Vampires were dying all around us. And he didn't run, not even when he knew exactly where he was."

Her gaze swept across Alice, sharp but calm.
"He's human, surrounded by creatures who could end him in a heartbeat. And still... he chose to speak."

She paused, her voice thinning to a razor edge.

"He saw what none of us did, and instead of hiding, he told us. No hesitation. No deal. Just... tried to help."

Alice's fingers tapped once against her arm. Her voice cut in, not angry, but pointed. "And how exactly did he see it?"

She looked between them, eyes narrowing. "No training. No ties. Not even a trace of aura, from what I saw. And yet somehow, in the middle of panic and smoke and blood, he spots the invader's weak point like it was written on its forehead?"

She shook her head. "That's not instinct. That's knowledge. And if we don't ask him where it came from, we're fools."

Elias shifted, stepping forward so his voice met all of theirs. "We're asking. And we will keep asking."

His gaze swept between them. "We're not ignoring what it means. We're not placing blind trust."

A pause. His voice leveled, weight steady behind it.

"But when it counted, he made the right call. He acted. And he might have already seen pieces of what we're still trying to name."

Aiden's arms dropped. He didn't answer immediately, his jaw flexed, like he was biting back the instinct to argue. When he finally spoke, it was quieter, less heat, more warning.

"So we keep him close. Watch him. And if it turns out he's not what he claims..."

He left the rest hanging.

Lyric finished it without blinking. "Then we'll deal with it."

She exhaled, the breath tight in her chest. "But for now, he's not a threat. He's a lead. And leads are something we don't have enough of."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A beat passed, quiet, weighted.

Then Sentinel's voice cut through, calm and absolute. "It was my decision to bring him here."

He stepped forward slightly from where he stood with them, his presence already commanding but now unmistakably firm. His gaze swept the group, not harsh, but resolute.

"And it wasn't made lightly."

There was no shift in his expression, no room for argument in his tone.
"He may be human. But he's going to be more helpful than half the nobles whining in their seats. You'll need him in the battles ahead."

Silence followed.

Aiden didn't speak. Alice didn't either.

Neither agreed. But neither objected.

Not anymore.

Sentinel turned, his cloak flaring with the motion, boots echoing against the marble floor.

"And if your debate is over," he said, voice like stone, "we still have a volatile chamber, a barely conscious girl, and a human who may hold a key none of us understand yet."

He stepped toward the sealed doors of the Solstice Chamber.
For a breath, the room held still, then he pressed a palm against the runes embedded in the arch.

The doors groaned open, ancient mechanisms stirring with a low, metallic pulse.

He didn't hesitate.

"He knows something. We'll find out what."

And with that, he crossed the threshold.

One by one, without another word, they followed.

Their footsteps rang behind him, sharp and sure.

Not because the path was clear.

But because not moving meant letting doubt win.

Their footsteps echoed in low rhythm behind Sentinel's retreating form, shadows stretching along the corridor's stone walls like long, silent witnesses. The silence between them wasn't empty, it carried tension, a quiet storm building in every step.

Aiden drifted a half-step closer to Elias and Thorne, voice hushed but edged with a pointed curiosity that didn't bother masking itself anymore.

"Alright. What exactly did you ask him?"

He shot them both a sidelong glance.
"And more importantly... are you sure he actually knows anything? Or are we betting all this on a lucky guess?"

Alice walked alongside him, gaze narrowed. Her steps didn't falter, but her suspicion sharpened.

"Yeah. You keep saying he saw something. But did he say how? Or was it just instinct?"

Thorne let out a low, dry breath, something caught between amusement and disbelief. "Honestly?"

He shrugged, though the motion felt heavier now. "We don't even know what he knows."

Then, a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth, crooked, but lacking its usual ease.

"But he sure knows a hell of a lot about us."

That stopped Alice and Aiden mid-stride.

Alice's boot scraped against the stone, her spine snapping straight as her head turned. Aiden halted beside her, brows shooting up. Their eyes met—brief, silent exchange—before they both quickened pace to fall in step again.

"Wait—what?" Aiden frowned, glancing sharply at Thorne. "Knows what about us?"

Thorne didn't slow. His steps stayed even, hands swinging loose at his sides, but something in the way his shoulders squared gave him away.

"Well, for starters, he knew I can't shift into my dragon form."

Alice's eyes jerked toward him, narrowing. Her lips parted, then pressed thin.

"He what? That's not something a human should even guess. He shouldn't know you're a Dragonborn, let alone that."

Aiden's jaw tensed. His arms folded tight across his chest, like he was bracing for a blow.

"How the hell would he know that? How is that possible?"

From just behind them, Elias's voice slipped into the tension—calm, but not relaxed. It held weight, quiet and sure.

"He didn't just guess. He knew. And not just about Thorne's form."

His gaze drifted toward Thorne, then returned to the others with a steadiness that only made the unease worse.

"He knew why his family treats him the way they do. That the reason his siblings always taunt him, and his parents are disappointed in him, is because without his dragon form, they don't see him as a true Dragonborn."

The words dropped like stones in water.

The corridor suddenly felt narrower. Cold clung to the walls. No one moved.

Alice blinked, twice. Then slowly shook her head, her voice quiet with disbelief.

"He said that? Out loud?"

Thorne's laugh came short and flat. Not amused, just empty.

"Didn't flinch. Like he was reading it off a page."

His steps never faltered, but something behind his eyes pulled tight, like old armor cracking.

Aiden's lips twisted into something grim.

"Okay, that's not normal."

He turned to Elias, voice dropping.

"So either he's psychic... or someone fed him that intel. And I don't like either of those options."

But before Elias could speak, Lyric finally broke her silence.

She walked just ahead of them, but her voice drifted back, cool and steady, cutting straight through the air like a blade.

"No," she said simply, turning her head slightly toward them, her braid sliding over her shoulder.

"It's not psychic. And no one fed him anything."

She paused, just long enough to let the weight settle.

"He knows about all of us... because he's been seeing us in his dreams."

The group froze.

Aiden stared at her. "What?"

Even Alice's expression faltered, eyes wide, like her breath had just been knocked sideways.

Lyric's gaze turned forward again, quiet but sure.

"For a long time now," she said. "We were never strangers to him."

No one argued.

Silence unfurled around them like mist.

Their steps fell in quiet, deliberate rhythm, boots clicking softly against the cold stone floor. The corridor stretched ahead, dim and rune-lined, with each wall casting long shadows that moved beside them like silent companions.

The weight of Lyric's last words hung thick in the air. No one spoke.

Up ahead, Sentinel walked with purpose. Then, he slowed slightly.

He didn't turn, didn't raise his voice. His tone was low, but it carried.

"Maybe," he said, calm and steady, "the boy has some kind of special ability."

That single sentence seemed to press pause on the air around them.

Their footsteps didn't stop, but the group instinctively slowed. Eyes drifted toward each other, glances exchanged behind furrowed brows.

Sentinel kept walking, his cloak brushing softly across the stone floor.

"Something even he doesn't know about yet."

Elias furrowed his brow and let out a quiet breath, like the thought was just now sinking in.

"Wait. You think he's... like us?"

Thorne gave a low sound in his throat. His lips twisted into something between a smirk and disbelief.

"A human Dragonborn?" He scoffed, but the edge of amusement in his voice softened the blow. "Yeah, that's a new one."

Sentinel didn't miss a step.

"I'm not saying he's one of us," he replied. His eyes remained forward, gaze sharp. "But dreams like that don't come to humans. Not without reason."

Aiden dragged a hand through his hair, frustration flickering across his face.

"Great. So either he's a walking prophecy or a ticking bomb."

Alice let her arms fold tightly across her chest. Her voice was low, clipped.

"Maybe both."

Lyric, who had been quiet, stepped closer to the front of the group. Her words came softer, but steadier than before.

"Whatever he is, he's here for a reason. And we can't ignore that anymore."

No one challenged it.

The corridor quieted again, their footfalls now slow and even. The air felt heavier, not with fear, but with something unspoken. Something waiting.

Then the hallway opened into a familiar space.

The doors of the Alchemical Chamber stood ahead of them, massive and dark, carved with glowing runes that pulsed with quiet energy. The stone beneath their feet warmed faintly as they approached, magic humming softly in their bones.

Sentinel stepped forward without pause. He lifted his hand and pressed his palm to the center of the arch.

Gold light flickered beneath his skin. Then silver. The runes responded with a low hum, like the breath of a creature just waking.

Stone shifted. Groaned. The doors parted.