Location: Grand Council Chamber, Freehold Estate | Doha, Mortal Plane
Time: Late Afternoon, Hours After the Explosion
They came in waves.
First, the inner circle—elders who'd served Za'thul for decades, their faces carved from years of political maneuvering and calculated cruelty. Elder Morven, Elder Tessa, and Elder Korren. Faces Jade would've recognized if she'd been there to witness them gathering like vultures around a dying dream.
Then the branch family heads. Over fifty of them, filtering into the Grand Council Chamber with expressions ranging from confusion to calculation. Each one represented a bloodline, a faction, a piece of the complex web that held the Freehold clan together through power and fear and the promise of shared glory.
Za'thul stood at the head of the chamber—a massive room, really, with vaulted ceilings and columns carved from volcanic stone that seemed to drink in light rather than reflect it. The air tasted of old incense and older secrets, of decisions made in this space that'd shaped provinces and toppled rival clans.
The temperature was rising. Had been rising since Za'thul entered. His Inferno essence leaked out in waves despite his attempts at control, making the stone walls shimmer with heat-mirages and turning the gathered crowd's breath shallow.
Kato stood to his right. Silent. Watching. Calculating how this catastrophe might be turned to advantage. Because that's what Kato did—found opportunities in disasters, angles in tragedies.
"Is this everyone?" Za'thul's voice was flat. Empty. The voice of a man who'd aged twenty years in a single afternoon.
"Seventy-nine present," Elder Morven confirmed, consulting a list. "Branch Head Tao sends regrets—his wife is in labor. Branch Head Wei is traveling in the eastern provinces. Everyone else is here."
Seventy-nine people. Seventy-nine voices that would decide whether to hunt down and kill a fifteen-year-old girl.
The chosen one.
The prophesied savior.
The child they'd spent ten years destroying.
Za'thul's hands clenched. Released. The wood of the podium beneath his palms was starting to char, thin tendrils of smoke rising as his control slipped fraction by fraction.
"Seal the doors," he ordered. "What's discussed here doesn't leave this chamber. Anyone who speaks of this outside will be executed for treason. Their families will share their fate."
Silence crashed down like a guillotine blade.
The doors boomed shut. Heavy bars slid into place with final, terrible sounds. And seventy-nine people sat trapped in a room with their clan leader's barely-controlled rage and the weight of prophecy fulfilled in the worst possible way.
"You all felt it," Za'thul said. Voice still flat. Still empty. "The golden light. The power surge. The signs we've waited a thousand years to witness."
Murmurs rippled through the chamber. Excitement. Hope. The beginning of questions about which child had been chosen, which family line would claim eternal glory.
"The Divine Tome activated," Za'thul continued. "The prophecy came true. Dragon blood touched the sacred page. The worthy soul came of age. The tome woke from ancient sleep and bound itself to one of the Freehold line."
The murmurs grew louder. More excited. Several branch heads were leaning forward, eyes bright with anticipation.
"The dragon manifested," Za'thul said. "Formed from all eight essences at once—something that shouldn't be possible according to every law of cultivation we know. Inferno, Torrent, Verdant, Terracore, Metallurge, Galebreath, Radiance, Voidshadow. All of them swirling together in perfect harmony."
"Impossible," someone breathed.
"The Path to Immortality appeared," Za'thul continued, voice gaining a terrible weight. "The gates opened. The bridge stretched toward the Immortal Realm. Everything the prophecy promised. Everything we've dreamed of for a thousand years."
The chamber erupted. Shouts of joy. Celebration. Branch heads embracing, elders weeping openly. The moment they'd all been waiting for—the fulfillment of destiny, the promise of glory eternal.
Za'thul waited. Let them celebrate. Let them taste hope before he poisoned it.
Then he slammed his fist on the podium. The wood exploded into flames—actual flames, Inferno essence igniting the ancient oak like it was kindling. The fire spread across the surface, consuming, destroying.
The chamber went silent.
"The tome chose Jade," Za'thul said. Voice like death itself. "The Voidforge child. The slave we've kept in the pits for ten years. The daughter I condemned alongside her mother. She's the chosen one."
You could've heard a pin drop in the vacuum of that silence.
Then chaos.
"That's impossible!"
"She's Voidforge! She can't even cultivate!"
"This must be a mistake—"
"How could the tome choose an abomination?!"
Za'thul let them rage. Let them deny. Let them cycle through the same emotions he'd experienced in the medical hall—disbelief, denial, desperate rationalization.
Finally, he raised his hand. The gesture was small but absolute. Silence fell like an executioner's blade.
"Elder Morven," Za'thul said quietly. "Tell them what Edvard witnessed."
Elder Morven stood. His face was pale, but his voice was steady as he recounted Edvard's testimony. The frame-up scheme. Saphira pushing Jade. Blood touching the tome. The activation. The runes disappearing into her skin. The dragon. The gates. Every impossible, undeniable detail.
The chamber listened in growing horror.
"But she's Voidforge," Branch Head Chen said, voice shaking. "She has no Crucible Core. How—"
"Dragon blood," Elder Korren interrupted. "The prophecy never specified cultivation ability. Just dragon blood and a worthy soul. She was born with amber eyes—our bloodline. The magic didn't manifest, but the blood remained true."
"The tome recognized her," Elder Tessa added quietly. "Chose her. Bound with her. The signs don't lie."
Branch Head Yao stood, face flushed. "Then we make amends! Send envoys! Offer tribute! She's the chosen one—we should be celebrating, not—"
"Celebrating?" Za'thul's laugh was bitter as ash. "You think she'll forgive us? You think ten years of torture can be apologized away with pretty words and gold?"
He turned to face the assembly fully. And for the first time, they saw the despair written in every line of his face.
"I'll ask you all a question," Za'thul said. Voice soft. Dangerous. "The same question Kato asked in the medical hall. Will she forgive us?"
Silence.
"Let me help you answer," Za'thul continued. He began pacing, each word measured and heavy. "One year ago, I caught her stealing moldy bread from the kitchens. Bread we would've thrown to the pigs the next day. And what did I do?"
No one answered.
"I had her stripped," Za'thul said. "Tied to the whipping post in the main courtyard. Public punishment. A lesson to the other slaves about the consequences of theft." His voice cracked slightly. "Thirty lashes. She was fourteen years old and weighed maybe eighty pounds. But I ordered thirty lashes because the law demanded punishment, and I was—" He stopped. Swallowed. "—pragmatic."
The chamber was deathly quiet.
"She didn't scream," Za'thul continued. Voice hollow. "Not once. Just bit down on a leather strap and endured. After the tenth strike, I saw her knees buckle. After the twentieth, blood was soaking through her torn shirt. But she didn't beg. Didn't cry out. Didn't ask for mercy."
He stopped pacing. Stood facing them all.
"And when we finally cut her down, you know what I saw in her eyes?" Za'thul's voice was barely a whisper. "Pure hatred. Crystallized. Absolute. The kind of hatred that doesn't fade or forgive or forget. She looked at me like she was memorizing my face. Making a promise."
Branch Head Lin shifted uncomfortably. "That was one incident—"
"One?" Za'thul's voice rose. "ONE? Let me tell you about another incident. Ten years ago, when she was just five years old and her Kindling Day revealed she was Voidforge."
He turned to Elder Korren. "You were there. In this very chamber. When we voted on Shyenho's fate."
Elder Korren's face went gray.
"Adultery," Za'thul said. "That was the charge. Bringing shame to the clan by birthing a Voidforge child. As if that was somehow her crime rather than just..." He stopped. "Regardless. We voted. Show of hands. Thirty-seven for execution. Five against. Three abstentions."
He let that sink in.
"And I ordered Jade brought to witness," Za'thul continued. Voice gaining a terrible weight. "Forced her to stand there in the courtyard and watch as her mother was stoned to death. Every thrown rock. Every scream. Every moment of agony. I made sure she couldn't look away."
Several branch heads had gone pale.
"Do you know what Shyenho's last words were?" Za'thul asked. "She called Jade a monster. A changeling. Said she wished she'd never been born. And Jade—five years old, mind you—just stood there with those amber eyes and watched her mother die hating her."
The silence was suffocating.
"That's who we made her," Za'thul said quietly. "Ten years in the slave pits. Beaten. Starved. Humiliated. Denied basic dignity. Treated worse than animals. And now she's the chosen one. With power beyond our comprehension. With the Divine Tome bonded to her soul. With the Path to Immortality open before her."
He leaned forward on the charred podium.
"So I'll ask again. Will she forgive us?"
"No," Elder Tessa whispered. "She'll never forgive us."
"Exactly," Za'thul said. "Which leaves us with two choices. We can scatter. Disband the clan. Split the families and run. Hide in different provinces and pray she never finds us or chooses mercy over vengeance."
He paused.
"Or we kill her before she becomes powerful enough to destroy us all."
The chamber erupted again. Shouts. Arguments. Branch heads on their feet, demanding to be heard.
"You're mad!" Branch Head Wei called. "Kill the chosen one? Every hidden sect, every ancient family—they'll turn against us! We'll be cursed!"
"We're already cursed!" someone else shouted. "We tortured the prophesied savior! The damage is done!"
"If we kill her, at least we survive!"
"If we kill her, we doom our souls!"
Za'thul let them argue. Watched factions form. Watched fear and self-preservation war against religious dread and social consequences.
Finally, Kato stood.
The chamber went quiet, waiting.
"My son," Kato said, voice steady, "lost everything in that explosion. His Crucible Core is destroyed. Sixteen years of cultivation, gone. He'll fall to thrall status. Maybe end up in the slave pits himself."
He paused, letting that image settle.
"And you know what he realized?" Kato continued. "What it feels like to be powerless. To be at the mercy of everyone stronger than you. To know that the people you hurt will remember. Will come for you. Will make you pay."
His eyes swept the chamber.
"That's our future if we let her live. Every single person in this room has contributed to her suffering. Whether through direct action or silent complicity. We all voted on Shyenho's execution—or stood by while others did. We all benefited from a system that kept her in chains. We all knew what was happening in those slave pits and did nothing."
Branch Head Zhao stood. "But the Huntsmen—they won't take a contract on someone the Dark Forest protects. And if she's the chosen one—"
"The Dark Forest doesn't know that yet," Kato interrupted. "She's fifteen. Barely awakened. Still weak. If we act now, before she grows strong, before the hidden families realize who she is—"
"It's too late for that," Elder Morven said quietly. "The realms awakened. The prophecy fulfilled sends ripples across dimensions. They already know. They're already watching."
"Then we have even less time," Kato shot back. "Every day she lives is another day she grows stronger. Another day closer to when she returns with power beyond our imagining and makes us pay."
He looked at Za'thul. Something passed between the brothers. Understanding. Agreement.
"I vote we hunt her," Kato said. "Hunt her now. Kill her before she becomes our doom. It's the only way to protect the clan."
Za'thul nodded slowly. "The question before this council is simple. Do we hunt and kill Jade Freehold before she returns to destroy us? Show of hands. Those in favor?"
For a long moment, no one moved.
Then Elder Korren raised his hand. Slow. Reluctant. But raised.
Branch Head Wei followed. Then Branch Head Chen. Then more. Each hand rising like a confession, like an admission of guilt that could only be answered with more guilt.
Za'thul watched them vote. Watched seventy-nine people choose survival over redemption. Choose murder over mercy.
When the count finished, it was clear.
Sixty-five for the hunt.
Twelve against.
Five abstentions.
"The motion passes," Za'thul said. Voice hollow. "The hunt order is issued. Jade Freehold is marked for death by her own clan."
He looked out at the assembly. At seventy-nine people who'd just condemned the prophesied savior.
"May the gods have mercy on our souls," he whispered. "Because she certainly won't."
The chamber emptied slowly. Branch heads filing out in silence, faces drawn. No one celebrated. No one felt righteous. They'd all felt the weight of what they'd done—voting to kill the chosen one because they'd made her hate them too thoroughly for any other option.
Za'thul remained at the podium long after everyone left. Staring at the charred wood beneath his hands. At the ash and ruin of what should've been triumph.
A thousand years of waiting.
And when the prophecy finally came true, they'd twisted it into tragedy.
The irony would've been poetic if it wasn't so utterly, irreversibly catastrophic.