MARKED FOR PRETEND - Chapter 50: Chapter 50

Keeper POV – High Seer Rael)
The scrying bowl shattered the moment her name was spoken.
Crimson shards spilled across the temple floor. The flame at the center of the sanctum hissed and died, snuffed out without a breath.
Rael stood still, his silver robes stained red, fingers twitching with the aftershock of prophetic backlash.
The room a hollow, domed chamber known only to the High Circle trembled beneath his feet. Magic warped at the edges. Something old had been disturbed.
“What did you see?” a voice asked behind him.
He didn’t answer.
Because what he saw wasn’t supposed to be possible.
⸻
Chelsea Krippa was alive.
Not just alive — awakened.
Her mark had burned through the veil, her wolf had been named, and Kaelvarin sealed for centuries had responded.
“Kaelvarin cracked,” Rael said softly. “That power was not just hers. It answered to her.”
“Impossible,” the other seer whispered. “She is only half—”
“That half is the reason the realms are trembling,” Rael snapped. “She is the bridge. And she’s no longer passive. She’s becoming.”
Silence fell.
The air grew thick with something colder than magic.
⸻
From the shadows, another figure stepped forward one cloaked in black, face hidden behind a red veil.
“Then it’s time,” the figure said, voice low and ancient. “We’ll call the Shadowblood Pact.”
Rael turned sharply. “We swore never to awaken them. Their kind is too destructive.”
“So is she,” the veiled one replied. “You felt it. She shattered your wards from another realm. She won’t return willingly. And if she finds the Gate of Calling—”
Rael’s jaw tensed. “You think she’ll summon the wolves and the witches together?”
“She doesn’t need to summon them,” the figure said. “They’ll come to her. Because of who she is. Because of what she carries.”
Rael looked down at the broken bowl.
The water was still glowing.
A name shimmered faintly, scrawled in runes beneath the glass.
Nyra.
The Silent Flame.
Born to divide or bind the worlds.
He turned away, face pale.
“Send word to the Red Fang,” Rael ordered. “And bring me the one they buried beneath the Nine Stones.”
The other seer flinched. “But she’s—”
“Buried, not dead. And she’s the only one who’s ever survived Kaelvarin’s collapse.”
⸻
As the torches flared back to life, Rael’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“If Chelsea Krippa becomes what the prophecy fears… we will not just lose balance.”
“We will lose control.”