Kaelen's response was immediate and terrifyingly efficient. He didn't waste a second confirming Elara's identification of the guard, Seraph. The chilling realization that their intervention had accelerated the timeline—bringing an enemy enforcer into play far too early—spurred him into action.
"He's an Adept," Kaelen hissed, grabbing Elara's arm with bruising speed. "Mid-Green Rank, specialized in detection runes. He saw the afterglow of the Transfiguration."
Before Seraph could voice his suspicion to Captain Borin, Kaelen activated a high-level concealment spell. A thick, opaque shroud of dark Aether, almost like smoke, erupted around Elara and him, completely obscuring them from sight.
"Hold your breath," Kaelen commanded, pulling her across the rough stone.
They weren't merely hiding; they were moving. Kaelen used his Blue Rank Peak advantage to run along the crumbling rampart wall, placing his feet where the stone was weakest, knowing Seraph would check the strongest foundation first. Elara stumbled but kept pace, relying entirely on Kaelen's iron grip to guide her blindly through the darkness.
Below them, the chaos intensified. Borin's guards were still searching for the mythical thieves who abandoned the ore, unaware that the real threat had been a silent Master Arcanist and the scent of dark magic.
"Lord Kaelen Varr!" Seraph's voice cut through the clamor, sharp and focused, directed not at the scattering guards but up at the ramparts. "You have achieved Blue Rank. Bold, considering your late father's legacy. But Blue Rank is not subtle, Master Varr. Your afterglow is a beacon."
Kaelen stopped suddenly, pulling Elara into a small, broken section of a watchtower. He cancelled the concealment spell, letting the ambient darkness of the ruin hide them.
"He knows my rank and my identity," Kaelen muttered, his eyes gleaming with barely suppressed fury. "Not only did we fail to maintain anonymity, but we have directly challenged Valerius's chief intelligence asset."
"Wait, why did he call you 'Lord Kaelen Varr'?" Elara asked, her voice tight. "In the book, Valerius didn't confirm your power level until two years later."
"My rebirth changed things. My accelerated rise was noted by the Collegium—I am already a political threat to Valerius. He simply didn't have enough proof to move against me yet," Kaelen explained, his mind racing. "Now he does. Seraph will report the use of Blue Rank Transfiguration magic on an illegal shipment. Valerius won't care about the Thunder Ore; he will care that an Obsidian Archmage is actively dismantling his financial network."
Kaelen scanned the fortress courtyard. Borin was still raging, directing his guards toward the mythical thieves. Seraph, however, had moved away from the group and was now casting a complex Green Rank detection rune, scattering sparks of emerald light to trace Kaelen's path.
"We move now. He can't track us beyond the Ironwood Gap without significant resources," Kaelen said.
They scrambled down the back face of the fortress, Kaelen using simple Earth Runes to soften their landing. They sprinted away from the fortress, heading deeper into the rough terrain of the mountainous region, towards the only safe place Kaelen knew—a hidden family crypt in the Obsidian homeland.
They ran until the luminous glow of the Aether Blooms from the Whisperwood was a faint silver smudge on the horizon. When they finally stopped, collapsing behind a natural rock barrier, Elara was breathless, leaning against a cold slab of stone.
"We failed," she managed, wiping dirt from her face. "We didn't buy time; we started the war."
Kaelen, surprisingly, was calm. He was panting slightly, but his mind was already rebuilding the strategy. He activated a small, self-heating rune on his hand to warm himself and Elara.
"We did not fail. We learned the true state of the battlefield," Kaelen corrected, his expression grimly determined. "Valerius now knows I am a threat, and I know he has Seraph, his master enforcer, in play three years too early. The stakes have exponentially increased, but we have destroyed his immediate revenue stream and secured the information that Seraph is his scout. The game has changed from stealth to open, strategic warfare. It is a necessary shift."
"So, what's the next move? Valerius will respond with overwhelming force."
Kaelen looked toward the vast, dark distance that separated them from the Eldorian capital. "Valerius will not send an army, not yet. That would expose his Thunder Ore operation. He will send an assassination team—a specialized unit led by a man named Gideon. We need to get to the Obsidian Crypt and prepare our defenses before Gideon arrives."