Volume 2 – Inheritance of Fire
Chapter 9 – Fractures in the Crown
Part 3 - Naomi Cont.
Naomi continued, her voice low and filled with a raw, honest ache.
"There are four high enclaves in my domain. One remains loyal. One has fallen to a prophet who's crowned himself the Voice Ascendant. The third has turned inward, sealed itself off from all outside influence, claiming a divine silence. And the fourth…"
She paused.
"…is waiting. Watching. Listening to see who emerges with more authority—me or the flames."
Darius's jaw flexed. "And you?"
"I travel constantly," she said. "Ministering. Healing. Clarifying. But every sermon is now a gamble. Every word I speak could be used by one faction to justify their actions against another. I preach peace in a language that's being weaponized."
She turned to me then. Her voice dropped to a near-whisper.
"But when I speak your name… when I say I walk beside the High Magus of Hollowreach… they pause. The divisions do not vanish—but they hesitate. Just long enough to hear the next sentence. I find it amazing that the ones who had our bodies before established a link, and now i know this is something i can trust instead of just hoping in."
I swallowed, recognizing the power in that hesitation.
The other three stared at each other. Darius and Soren slightly confused, but Ezra had a dim smile like he already knew.
"I don't think they follow me anymore," Naomi said. "Not truly. Not all of them. But they're watching who I choose to stand beside. And that, Caelan, makes you the tether now. Not me."
She looked at each of us in turn, her voice steady now.
"If this order is going to survive, it cannot be mine alone to carry. Its heart must be bound to something deeper than prophecy and ash. To something living. Strong. Real."
She placed her hand lightly over the center of the war table.
"Hollowreach is not just a kingdom. It's becoming a symbol. And symbols can either start wars… or end them."
"You each hold pieces of power," I said. "But none of you rule."
They bristled.
"I don't say it to shame you," I continued. "Only to point to the reality. You inherited influence. You manage chaos. I inherited a throne."
I stepped to the edge of the map, tracing the shape of Hollowreach with a single finger.
"The people bow when I pass. The taxes flow, though not without strain. The roads are broken, the walls crumbling, the council corrupt. But I am king. Not a shadow king. Not a merchant prince. Not a prophet or warden, and i have begun strengthening this kingdom."
I turned back to them. "You know it too. That's why you're here."
Darius said nothing. Ezra crossed his arms. Soren nodded slowly. Naomi closed her eyes.
"You rule a kingdom," she whispered. "The rest of us only influence the ones under us."
"So what do we do?" Darius asked. "Return home? Build a safer neural link, go back to our lives, let this world rot the way it already was?"
"If we leave," Ezra added, "our echoes remain. Power vacuums. Names that draw blades."
Soren leaned back. "If we stay, we make war. Whether we want to or not."
Naomi looked up at me. "Then the question remains, Caelan."
I waited.
"Do we go back to safety… or do we forge a kingdom out of the fractured world that called us here?"
The runes pulsed softly beneath our hands. The air waited for an answer.
But none came.
Not yet.