Chapter 22: Chapter 22: The Man Who Waits
[Scene: Unknown Region – Temple of the Hollow Veil]
FX: Wind passes through iron chimes. A bell tolls beneath the earth. Somewhere deep below, something breathes. 🔔🌫️
[Visual: The camera pans through a ruined sanctuary carved into the side of a black mountain. Bones and wax mark the floor. An altar glows faintly.]
[A cloaked man kneels at the center of the room.]
[His robes are stitched with language no mouth can speak. His face is hidden — but where his mouth should be is only a sealed, golden chain.]
[Narration Voice – calm, deep]:
"When the echo sings again… the door will reopen."
[He rises as a silver bowl begins to tremble. Inside, a black crystal floats — reacting to something across the world.]
Hollow Voice from the dark:
"She carries Me now."
*[The man places his hand over the crystal. Instantly, the scene around him warps. The bowl becomes water. The water becomes a mirror. In the mirror, he sees — Elara. Sleeping. Breathing. Alive.]
[Man's Voice – silent, inside his mind]:
"So the girl of ash lives. And she carries the shard."
[Scene: His Memories – Flash Cut]
FX: Screams. Chains being tightened. The soulforge glowing white-hot.
[Visual: The man, younger, once wore white robes. He watched as a child was bound to a chair. Elara. But she didn't remember him then.]
"You survived what she did not. She was the first echo. You are the last."
[Back to Present – Temple Chamber]
[Man takes the crystal and places it inside a pendant. The moment he does — black vines crawl across his hands, binding his arms like sleeves of bone.]
[Voice – Hollow King's echo]:
"Go to her."
"She will not run. She wants peace. She wants to sleep."
[Visual: The man turns, cloak flaring like wings. His footsteps make no sound. Every time he walks, the candles dim.]
His name is Mordain. Once a priest. Now a vessel.
Not to possess. Not to destroy. But to become her guardian… until the Hollow King can take her himself.
[Scene Shift – Mistlands (Far North)]
[Visual: Kaelith's campfire flickers in the dark. Elara sleeps, unaware. Just beyond the trees… Mordain watches from a branch.]
FX: Owl hoots once. Wind falls silent.
[Mordain, inside his mind]:
"Still breathing."
"Not yet ready. But soon…"
[Scene: Mordain whispers a forgotten rite — and a scar appears on Elara's shoulder as she dreams. She doesn't wake.]
[Kaelith shifts but doesn't notice.]
[Scene: Final Visual – Mordain vanishes into the mist, leaving a single black feather on the ground.]
[FX: Bell tolls faintly. 🔔 Far away. Then silence.]
⚔️ TO BE CONTINUED…