Kaelen left the Obsidian Crypt precisely at midnight. The knoll was cloaked in the heavy, chill silence of the night. He moved not as a man, but as a sliver of shadow, utilizing the inherent obscuring properties of his Blue Rank Transfiguration magic. The goal was the Shadow Ward Tower, a small, isolated structure at the farthest edge of the Varr estate.
He moved cautiously. While the primary Obsidian Estate wards were still intact (his father, the Archmage, was not yet deceased), they were designed to detect chaotic magic, not the controlled, familiar Aether flow of a Varr heir.
He reached the tower within the hour. It was a squat, four-story stone cylinder, its exterior carved with intricate, dormant wards that hummed with low-level protective energy. Kaelen bypassed the outer, standard array with a focused whisper-rune, creating a minuscule tear in the magical fabric that allowed him to slip inside.
The interior was dusty and smelled of old parchment and ozone. The only light came from the faintest moonlight filtering through the high, narrow arrow-slits. The Aether Key was hidden on the third floor, inside a hidden compartment within the main ward control hub—a complex puzzle Kaelen had known since childhood.
He ascended the spiral stairs, his mind a steel trap focused only on the mission. He could feel the pervasive energy of the wards pressing against his own magic—a passive resistance that indicated the wards knew he was Varr, but not the authorized controller.
On the third floor, he found the control hub: a large, circular obsidian table covered in rune sequences. The activation sequence for the Aether Key's compartment was a memory puzzle tied to the Varr family's history, disguised as a common ward maintenance sequence.
The third stone from the north, activate the Fire-Mirror Rune, then the Water-Shroud Rune, and finally, the Earth-Bind Rune, followed by the ancestral motto.
Kaelen placed his hand on the obsidian table. The surface instantly registered his bloodline, glowing faintly blue. He began the sequence, his fingers moving precisely to trace the runes.
"Fire-Mirror," he murmured, channeling a controlled spark of Aether into the appropriate rune. The table flashed crimson.
"Water-Shroud," he continued, the crimson giving way to an ethereal white.
As he was about to activate the final rune, the temperature in the room plummeted. A cold, alien energy—not the familiar Aether, but something tainted and dark—swept through the tower. Kaelen instantly recognized it: Dark Aether Runes, the signature of Prince Valerius's chief intelligence agent.
Seraph.
The young Green Rank enforcer hadn't just observed Kaelen's retreat; he had immediately tracked Kaelen's destination using an advanced detection charm—a method Kaelen hadn't accounted for because it hadn't appeared in the novel until years later.
Seraph's voice, amplified by a short-range sound rune, echoed from the tower base. "Master Varr. I had not expected the Obsidian Archmage to be so predictable. I assumed you would flee to the Western Marches. Instead, you raid your own defenses."
Kaelen cursed silently. Seraph was fast and clearly equipped with gear Valerius hadn't deployed in the original timeline.
He had no time for subtlety. He slammed his hand onto the final rune. "Earth-Bind! Veridian must fall!"
The ancestral motto, an ancient, treasonous Varr declaration, completed the sequence. The control hub gave a loud, mechanical thunk, and a small, triangular compartment slid open, revealing the object of his mission.
The Aether Key was indeed a masterpiece: a small, dark obsidian feather, perfectly sculpted and radiating a pure, high-level white Aether that felt soothingly potent. Kaelen snatched it, tucking it immediately into a warded inner pocket of his cloak.
Seraph was climbing the stairs rapidly now. Kaelen could hear his heavy, leather armor and the sporadic bursts of Green Rank energy disrupting the air.
Kaelen spun around, leveling the Obsidian Staff. He didn't have to kill Seraph, but he had to escape without leaving a trace of the Key.
As Seraph reached the second-floor landing, Kaelen unleashed a rapid succession of three powerful spells—a Fire Bomb (Red Rank, a classic distraction), followed by a massive Earth Tremor (Blue Rank, designed to collapse a section of the staircase), and finished with a tight Wind Shroud around himself.
The Fire Bomb exploded, showering the staircase with harmless sparks but blinding Seraph momentarily. The Earth Tremor followed, ripping the stone steps apart and sending a cascade of debris down the well of the stairs.
Kaelen leaped over the chasm of debris, crashing through a narrow third-floor window, the Wind Shroud softening his impact on the dense earth below. He was running before the shattering glass had settled.
He heard a frustrated shout from the tower, followed by a heavy magical blast—Seraph was already clearing the debris. Kaelen didn't look back. He had the Key, but now Seraph knew his objective was rooted at the estate.