Chapter 4 - CHAPTER 4:THE VEIL OF FORGOTTEN OATHS

Caelum staggered back from the obsidian mirror, the fragmented images still echoing in his mind—shattered reflections of a past and future he could neither fully grasp nor entirely dismiss. A cold sweat coated his skin; the trial of the mirror was not a physical test but something far more harrowing—a convergence of memory, fear, and identity.The stranger's voice cut through the thick silence. "Few emerge unchanged from the Mirror of Judgment. It strips away illusions and forces one to face the truth beneath the façade."Caelum clenched his fists, struggling to still the chaos within. "What truth? I don't even know who I am." His voice was rough, laced with frustration and a desperate hope."Neither do I," came the reply, "but the Citadel holds pieces of the puzzle. Forgotten oaths, ancient pacts, and bloodlines cursed by fate. You are bound to this place not by chance but by design."The walls themselves seemed to pulse, the ancient enchantments resonating with Caelum's awakening power. The runes on his amulet glowed faintly, syncing rhythmically with the beating of his heart—as though the artifact and the Citadel communicated in a language lost to time.They ventured deeper into the fortress's labyrinthine corridors, where dim torchlight flickered over murals that depicted tragic epics and blood-soaked revolutions. Shadows danced over images of kings and tyrants, saints and sinners, their faces frozen in expressions of despair and defiance.In an antechamber lined with ancient tomes and scrolls, the stranger halted. "Knowledge is both salvation and damnation here," he murmured. He reached for a dusty volume bound in cracked leather, its pages yellowed but inscriptions sharp, written in a script that shimmered as if alive.Caelum leaned closer. The air grew dense, thick with the weight of revelation. "This… this speaks of your lineage," the stranger said solemnly. "Of a bloodline marked by the Forsaken Path. Powers inherited and cursed—the legacy you cannot escape."Caelum's mind reeled; pieces of names and places whispered to him in half dreams—tongues of a forgotten tongue, promises broken, battles lost and won centuries ago. Darkness was not merely around him—it lay within.A sudden clatter echoed nearby. Shadows shifted. From the darkness emerged a figure robed in midnight—a scholar or assassin, Caelum could not tell. Their eyes gleamed with cold calculation beneath a hooded visage."You seek answers," the figure said, voice smooth as silk but sharp as a blade. "But some truths risk undoing the soul. Beware the choices you make."Tension ignited like wildfire. Caelum stepped forward, resolve hardening. The road ahead was perilous, paved with betrayal and shadows deeper than the night itself.But the Forsaken Path left no room for retreat.