The White Betrayal

The White Betrayal
The walls of the hall were still trembling when Lila and Keal finally managed to step out. Smoke and dust covered their skin, stinging their eyes and almost choking Lila. 

Keal’s grip on Lila didn't loosen, almost bruising her with his claws. She could feel his agitation, the way every muscle in his body was one inch away from snapping. 

They stopped behind a fallen tree for a while. People screamed, sheltering for safety. 

“We need to move,” Keal said, scanning the wreckage. “Before more soldiers cut us off.”

Lila’s heart pounded in her chest. “Move where? Eldros won’t shelter us now. You heard her—Myra will see us dead before sunrise.”

His jaw clenched. “Then we don’t stay in Eldros.”

“You mean… leave the city entirely?” The thoughts alone left her dizzy, the last time she was beyond the gates, she was dragged in chains. 

Keal’s gaze met hers, fierce and unwavering. “There’s the southern pass. It’ll take us toward the coast. Fewer patrols. From there—”

“From there we’re running blind,” she cut in. “The Shades will follow. Darius will follow.”

“Better running blind than standing still for him to take you.”

The weight of his words pressed on her. Her palm went instinctively to her abdomen. The faint warmth of the Mark stirred beneath her hand not a movement, not yet, but an awareness.

She nodded. “The southern pass, then. If we can reach it before—”

The stone underneath their foot trembled again, a soft reminder that it was far from over. 

Keal glanced toward the gates. “We need a clear path. Stay close.”

They moved forward, clearing their path filled with debris and fallen trees. The smoke had cleared up and Lila could see now. Keal lead while she followed. 

Behind them, unseen in the drifting haze, Myra stood alone.

Her staff was lowered, the silver light gone. Her gaze remained fixed on the spot where Brann and other Elders had died. Blood was filled all over the place, seeping slowly into the broken ground. 

She had known Brann for forty years. She had seen him falter, grow cruel, grow blind to compassion but never had she imagined she would watch him die by the hand of the Marked. The death itself was not the worst thing.

The worst thing was the child.

Her eyes narrowed, not on Keal, but on Lila. The faint outline of the Mark on her neck pulsed with a light that only Myra could truly see. A tether. A thread binding what grew inside her to the thing beneath the city.

The cradle will open before the next moonrise.

Darius’s words weren’t bluster. She could feel it in the air, in the tremor of the ground. Myra had sworn her life to preserve the Balance, to ensure that what had been sealed beneath Eldros never rose. And now… that balance shifted in the womb of a mortal girl who didn’t even understand what she carried.

There was still a way to stop it. Forbidden. Dangerous. One the Council had outlawed before Myra had even taken her staff. But if it worked, the child’s essence could be drawn out, dispersed back into the threads. The vessel—Lila would live and the curse would be severed.

If it failed… both mother and child would be lost.

She closed her eyes for a single breath. Better their blood on my hands than the end of the world on my conscience.

When she opened them, she was already moving.

Lila didn’t notice her until it was too late.

One moment she was stepping over a fallen beam, Keal ahead of her, and the next a rush of cold air swept in from the side, a presence so sharp it cut through the heat and dust.

“Myra?” Lila’s voice caught as the Elder stepped into view, staff in both hands, her white hair catching the fractured moonlight.

Keal stopped instantly, shifting to block Lila from her. “You’ve made your choice,” he growled. “Get out of our way.”

“I can’t.” Myra’s voice trembled, but her eyes did not. “If I let her leave, everything falls.”

The tip of her staff began to glow, not a violent spark this time time but a slow, deliberate glow. Runes spiraled along the wood, each one brightening in sequence.

Lila stepped sideways, still behind Keal. “You think killing me will save Eldros? That’s not—”

“I’m not here to kill you,” Myra cut in. “I’m here to take the child.”

The words didn't sound like a negotiation, it was a decision she had made. 

Keal moved in front of her completely now, claws bared. “You won’t touch her.”

“It’s not her I mean to harm,” Myra said. “There is a way, a cleansing that can unbind what’s inside her. She will live. Eldros will live. But if you take her from here, Darius will have both mother and child before the moon is full.”

Keal snarled, stepping forward. “Enough.”

“You don’t understand what she carries!” Myra’s voice broke now, desperation cracking through the authority. “If the cradle opens, the thing inside her will answer. It will rise. And no wall, no army, no curse of yours will stop it.”

The silver threads multiplied, wrapping around Lila’s arms, her waist, cold and numbing. She could feel them probing deeper, seeking the Mark. A strange dizziness tugged at her, as though part of her was being pulled somewhere far away.

“Keal—” her voice was thin, frightened.

He didn’t wait. With a roar, he lunged for Myra.

The Elder swept her staff up in a sharp arc, and the silver light flared blindingly between them. The blast struck Keal square in the chest, hurling him backward into a cracked column. Stone splintered. He slumped but didn’t fall, forcing himself upright with a sound like an animal tearing itself free of a trap.

The threads around Lila were sinking deeper now, pulling not her body, but something within her, toward the glowing point of the staff. Pain bloomed sharp and deep, stealing her breath.

Keal’s claws raked the stone as he pushed forward again, eyes blazing gold and black. “Let. Her. Go.”

For the first time, Myra looked uncertain — not from fear, but from the force straining against her spell. “If you stop me now, we all die,” she warned.

Keal bared his teeth. “Then we die together.”

The silver light convulsed, sparks breaking off as his shadow loomed over her. Lila could feel the threads fraying, snapping one by one. Myra’s eyes widened as the last of the spell unraveled, the recoil striking her like a physical blow. She stumbled back, gasping.

Keal caught Lila before she could collapse, holding her upright. She was pale, trembling, the Mark on her neck burning with a heat that felt almost alive.

Somewhere beyond the ruined hall, the heartbeat from below thudded again, louder this time, and closer.

Keal’s gaze flicked toward the floor. “We’re out of time.”

And then the stone beneath them cracked wide enough for the first hand to reach through.