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Chapter
Chapter-014
Chapter 14: Rhythm of Steel Morning light came through Claude's window with the familiar warmth of routine. A week had passed since Sara's examination, since the warning about extraction and harvesting. A week of careful normalcy, keeping secrets tight and voice partnership quiet. Claude dressed in the clothes Arwen had set aside for training. They were simple, comfortable, mended twice but clean. The forge hammer was already ringing outside. Dad would be busy with commission work. 'Just another training…-
42.3 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
Chapter-013
Chapter 13: The Healer's Warning Three days passed. Claude counted them. Dawn to dusk to dawn again. Seventy-two hours of pretending the schoolyard incident hadn't fractured something fundamental in Kirana's careful normalcy. Nobody talked about it directly, which made it worse. Master Trent resumed lessons with forced cheerfulness. Children avoided Claude with elaborate casualness, not running away but just always needing to be somewhere else when he approached. Even the market changed. Vendors still sold…-
42.3 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
Chapter-012
Chapter 12: Breaking Point School felt wrong. Claude couldn't explain it. The classroom looked the same, wooden benches worn smooth by generations, Master Trent's slate board covered in morning arithmetic, sunlight filtering through shuttered windows. Yet it felt wrong. Children clustered in tight groups, whispering. Their eyes cut toward Claude, then away when he looked back. The morning lessons proceeded with careful normalcy that felt choreographed. It was like everyone was pretending. Rudi sat beside…-
42.3 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
Chapter-011
Chapter 11: The Quiet Garden The singing led him there. Claude was taking the long way home, avoiding village square, avoiding other children, avoiding questions about yesterday's garden flooding at Satria estate. The forest edge path was quieter with fewer people and fewer God's Eyes. There were fewer demands to pretend normalcy. Then he heard it, soft and melodic. Words in a language Claude didn't know but somehow understood the emotion behind. It was an Elvish lullaby. His mother used to hum different…-
42.3 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
Chapter-010
Chapter 10: Water and Recognition Rudi found Claude during morning break. Not in the schoolyard where most children played. Not in the village square where merchants called their wares. But behind the school building, sitting alone on the low stone wall that separated Master Trent's property from the forest edge. He was hiding. Claude had been hiding a lot lately. "Hey," Rudi said casually, like finding someone sitting alone behind a building was perfectly normal. Claude looked up. The gloves felt tight on…-
42.3 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
Chapter-009
Chapter 9: The Lost Joy The puzzle sat on the kitchen table like a promise. It was Claude's favorite, the complex one Dad had made last month with hand-cut wooden pieces that formed an intricate village scene. It usually took hours to complete, and Claude loved that. He loved the slow work of trying pieces, discovering patterns, and feeling that spark when sections finally clicked together. That was his favorite part, the way his thinking could get quiet and focused on just the puzzle and his hands and the…-
42.3 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
Chapter-008
Chapter 8: Memories' weight Thomas found him behind the forge. He wasn't working or practicing, just sitting on the stone wall and staring at his hands like they belonged to someone else. "Son?" Claude's head snapped up, guilty and caught. "Sorry. I was just..." What? Thinking about three dead men living in his skull? Wondering which thoughts were his anymore? "Resting." Thomas wiped soot from his hands with the rag that lived in his belt. The forge heat made the air shimmer while hammer sounds echoed from…-
42.3 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
Chapter-007
Chapter 7: The Wrong Sky The morning looked wrong. Claude couldn't explain it better than that. The sky was blue, too blue maybe, with the shade just slightly off from what his memory insisted it should be. The sun rose from the eastern horizon like always, painting the clouds in shades of orange and purple that looked more performed than natural. Birds sang while merchants set up stalls in village square with practiced efficiency that suggested choreography learned over generations. Everything looked…-
42.3 K • Ongoing
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