Chapter 103

Chapter 103 The Call to Arms Kaelos's POV The message crystals arrived within hours of each other, their soft chiming filling my study with urgent harmonies that set my teeth on edge. First Esra's, pulsing with the deep green light of growing things twisted wrong. Then Callista's, sharp and silver like moonlight on steel. Finally, one I hadn't expected—Ruvan's crystal blazing with the golden fire of Astorian battle-magic. I touched each in turn, letting their recorded voices fill the pre-dawn silence of Blackthorne's highest tower. Esra's message came with images that made my hands shake—forests that grew in impossible spirals, animals moving in patterns that hurt to perceive, and underneath it all, a presence vast enough to swallow kingdoms yet subtle as morning mist. *"We leave for the Star Shrine at dawn,"* her voice concluded, tight with controlled fear. *"If you don't hear from us in seven days, assume the worst and prepare for something that makes the Order look like children pla