Dreich Cheerless's Arc

Chapter 6 of 10

The morning Dreich found the first seeker unconscious near the serpent's trails, she knew something had broken. The traveler lay face-down in the dirt, breathing but unresponsive. She dragged him back toward the market square and left him where others would find him. By afternoon, two more seekers stumbled away from the ruins, their eyes unfocused and strange. The defenses she'd built were turning against her network. The serpent's magic was stronger than she'd realized, and the shadows from her cauldron lingered too long in the morning light. Her allies were becoming victims instead of protectors. Dreich stood at the base of the damaged tower and watched three seekers leave without looking back. They didn't return the next day, or the day after that. Her fortress was driving away the only people who helped keep her enemies confused. The mirth spell sat in its chest behind the crumbling walls, but now those walls stood empty and exposed. She'd built her defenses too well, and the cost was the network that made them work. She tried to fix what she'd broken, dismantling the shadow spells first. The cauldron went cold and empty. She searched for the black serpent to redirect its paths away from the ruins, but it had disappeared into the earth. Without her network of seekers, she had no one to spread false information. Her enemies would hear about the abandoned ruins and wonder why everyone had left. They would come investigate. Dreich stood in the celebration room, staring at the chest that held the mirth spell. The bluish-green glow seemed dimmer now. One of the wooden guardians she'd placed near the forest entrance had toppled over during the night. She found it face-down, its arm broken off and lying in the dirt. Tree roots had pushed through the pedestal beneath it, cracking the base apart. The same eerie glow pulsed through the damaged wood. She left it there, toppled and broken, a reminder that her defenses had failed. The mirth spell was more exposed now than when she'd first arrived in Mirthwood Meadows. She had no allies left, no one to help keep her enemies confused. Her goal felt further away than ever. The fortress she'd built had collapsed from the inside, and she was alone again with her secret and no way to protect it. Desperate, Dreich crafted one last defense. She found a metal bottle in the market and spent three days carving false symbols into its surface. She made them glow like the real chest, adding designs that looked important but meant nothing. The bottle shimmered when she finished, its surface covered in fake engravings that caught the light. She placed it where her enemies would eventually find it, far from the real mirth spell. If they came now, they would take this decoy and leave. But even as she set the trap, doubt pulled at her. The toppled guardian near the forest watched her with its broken face, tree roots still growing through its base. Everything she built turned against her. The real mirth spell sat alone in the ruins while she relied on tricks instead of strength. Her enemies would come, and she had nothing left but lies and hope. To ease her growing fear, she tried to add beauty where there had only been failure. She built a fountain near the ruins' entrance, carving it from black marble into the shape of a raven. The same bluish-green glow radiated from the water as it flowed over the dark stone. The fountain looked elegant in the morning light, but it couldn't hide what she'd lost. Her network was gone. Her defenses had turned deadly. The toppled wooden figure still lay broken in the forest, and the decoy bottle sat waiting for enemies who might never believe it. Dreich touched the raven's cold wing and felt the weight of her mistakes. She'd built a fortress that destroyed itself, and now she faced her enemies alone with nothing but broken guardians and false hope to protect the one thing that mattered.