Soul's Eye

Chapter 4: Run east

~Lance Aurora~

A day had passed since the rain of light.Since the fall of the city.

Nothing remained.Everything had vanished—swallowed by a sea of rubble.Among the broken ruins of the wall that, just yesterday, had proudly encircled the city, only silence lingered.

The air was heavy, saturated with ash.It grew heavier with each step I took toward the city center.

I had no destination.No orders. No mission.No reason to walk in that direction.I wandered, like a ghost...In search of something I couldn't name.Peace, maybe.Forgiveness, more likely.

The city was unrecognizable.What remained were only echoes—memories drowned in dust.

The streets I once knew by heart had become foreign.Stalls overturned. Monuments gutted. Trees uprooted.Everything around me felt hostile. Wrong.

'If the city had fallen...Then my oath—my life—had lost its meaning.'

That thought pierced me.Like a blade to the gut.

Memories rose like a tide.Fragments of a life now too calm, too close. Too recent to be memories.

Late-night talks with the lord in the great hall, always ending in laughter.Stolen escapades with the young master—just to see how far we could get before the guards caught us.Training sessions at dawn, where we pushed each other until we dropped.The warmth of shared meals with Elya and the others, before the world demanded our armor.

'Gone. All of it. They must have died in the disaster.'

It was obvious. 'The young lord... he was still too young to master his essence. He stood no chance.And Elya... she would've given her life for anyone. That was who she was.Always the first to protect.Always the first to sacrifice.'

A bitter smile touched my lips.I held back the tears, not because I was strong—But because I didn't have the energy left to cry.

'Damn it...'

I passed the market square.The ground was torn open, cobblestones scattered like bones.Stalls reduced to kindling.Banners blackened by flame.Shreds of fabric still fluttered in the wind like dying birds.

And the smell—Burnt paper.Charred wood.Flesh.

'Don't stop. Keep walking.'

I told myself that, over and over.But then I saw it.A flicker of movement, just as I turned the corner.

Something stirred beneath a mound of debris.

I froze.My breath caught.

Slowly, I looked down—afraid of what I'd find.A shape shifted weakly under the rubble. A hand.

"Who's there?"My voice cracked in the emptiness.

No reply.

I moved closer, cautious. My legs tensed. My instincts screamed.Essence rushed to my arm without thought—coating it in frost.Cold clarity.

Then—coughing.Ragged. Desperate.Coming from behind a fallen beam.

I limped forward.The sound grew louder.Then a whisper: hoarse and broken.

I dropped to my knees and pushed debris aside.

A child.Alive.

No older than Abel.Face smeared with ash, eyes wide and unfocused.

His lips moved, but the words were nearly lost to the wind.

"S... save them."

I leaned closer. "Who? Who do you mean?"

I expected nonsense.The babbling of a soul already halfway gone.But then—

"The men in black... they—they took the survivors."

I went still.A jolt shot through my chest.

Survivors.

It didn't matter how slim the chance was.That single word lit a fire in me.

'Elya.Abel.The Lord.'

They might still be alive.

"Where?" I asked, gripping the boy by the shoulders.Every second mattered. Every breath could be the last.

He coughed again, nearly collapsing."East... toward the outer wall. But they... they killed the rest. I barely escaped."

I swallowed hard.The words hit like stone.

I pulled a water pouch from my belt and handed it to him.He drank, hands trembling.

"Stay here," I said. "I'll come back for you."

A lie.I didn't know if I could return.I didn't even know if I would survive the next hour.But he needed hope.And I needed to move.

I stood.Pain screamed up my leg.I turned east.

Ash swirled in the air, clinging to my lashes.The sky above was a strange, washed-out gray—too quiet, too calm, like the world was holding its breath.

'Please be alive.'

The eastern quarter.Once the heart of the old city.Now just ruins.Its narrow alleys were swallowed in shadow.Stone walls blackened with soot.The roofs collapsed.But there were signs—movement. Recent.

Every step echoed.Not a bird. Not a whisper.Only the wind moving through hollow bones.

I ran. No—limped.My side had been bleeding since dawn. My knee throbbed with every step.

But I didn't stop.

Footprints in the soot.Smudged drag marks in the dust.Blackened circles melted into the stone. Not fire. Not natural. Essence—focused, lethal.

Whoever passed through here… they were powerful. Precise.And not kind.

I slipped through alleys, climbed broken stairways, letting the silence close around me.

Then—I saw them.

Heavy tracks. Fresh.

I dropped behind a shattered column, heart in my throat.

Two figures in black.Their armor had no crest, no mark of allegiance.

One of them carried a child over his shoulder.Brown hair. Medium length. Tangled.

'Young lord?!'

My breath stopped.I leaned forward instinctively, but my body reminded me—I was injured.Unarmed.Alone.

I couldn't fight them. Not yet.

I bit my lip until I tasted blood.This wasn't the time to die.

Not when he was so close.

'No. I wasn't going to lose them. Not all of them.'

I stayed hidden.Watched them disappear down the far alley.

Then, once the shadows swallowed them, I stepped out.Fists clenched. Jaw locked.

'I will find you, young lord. No matter what it takes. I will protect you. Even if it costs me everything.'