Thalric Deepcurrent's Arc

Chapter 10 of 11

The crown pulsed in his hands, its cold fire spreading through his blood. But even as the connection surged back to life, Thalric felt something else. A pull. The power he'd reclaimed wasn't resting in the crown. It was moving. He followed the sensation deeper into the trenches, the crown burning cold against his chest where he'd strapped it. The channels carved into the tower floor had been feeding somewhere, and now he could trace the flow. The current led him down through a ravine he'd never seen marked on any map, past stones that bore no crest or warning. At the bottom, hidden behind a curtain of black kelp, stood a hall of crystalline walls that caught the crown's light and threw it back in a thousand colors. The vaulted ceiling glowed with panels that pulsed in rhythm with the artifact against his chest. This wasn't a council building. The symbols carved into the threshold were Deepcurrent marks, worn smooth by time but unmistakable. His bloodline had built this place. The council had drained the crown's power here, into the hall's foundation, trying to claim what his family had created. Thalric stepped inside and felt the stolen energy recognize him. The walls blazed brighter. The crown's pull intensified, drawing the siphoned power back from the stone, reclaiming what had been taken. He planted his feet and opened himself to the flow, letting three generations of theft pour back through the artifact and into his blood. It hurt. It burned. But when it finished, the hall went dark and silent, emptied of everything the council had stolen. The crown in his hands no longer pulled. It rested, whole again, its purpose fulfilled.