Tribal Sign-In: Immortal At The Start

The room fell silent, and it was clearly visible that Zaelyane no longer wanted to talk about the rune circle or diagram that Bael wanted to develop.

However, Bael wasn’t ready to step back so easily either.

He looked at the two nobles and said, "Young masters, can you please leave us alone for some time?"

Henry and Jareb, who could feel the sharp mood quickly, nodded their heads and strode towards the door without any problem.

As they were about to leave, they stopped at the door and asked, "Should we wait outside?"

Bael shook his head and responded with a smile, "No. You can go anywhere you want, I’ll find you."

The two heirs looked at him in confusion for a moment, but having heard more than required absurd things, they stepped out of the room. "Alright."

Bael watched the door for a few moments and turned to face Zaelyane, stilling on the bed’s edge with a flat expression on her face.

He thought about what to say to her, but there was really nothing he could say to change her mind; however, he did have something that could help him do so.

"Make your decision after seeing this," he said as he knelt on the floor and took out the shadow soldier armour from his inventory.

Witnessing him doing so, she raised an eyebrow and asked, "How did you..." but upon seeing the dark symbols inside the armour, the words died down, and her eyes turned sharp.

"Where did you get this?" she asked sharply as if the armour had touched some hidden nerve.

’That’s what I was expecting,’ he thought as he rose to his feet and answered while rubbing his chin, "At the camp, we got into confrontation with some weird beings that looked like shadows, and they wore these."

At his words, Zaelyane clenched her fists and audibly gritted her teeth.

Noticing her reaction, Bael thought, ’She is reacting too much...’

He folded his arms across his chest and asked with a raised eyebrow, "What’s wrong?"

Zaelyane twisted her gaze towards him and stated, "Do you still remember I had said that I don’t know the identity of the three?"

Bael frowned, and he asked, "Why are you talking about them...?"

Even though he understood why she was doing it, he didn’t want to believe that everything — Dhaevrak’s imprisonment, the civil war, and the duke’s betrayal — was done by them.

However, the truth won’t change according to his wishes.

Zaelyane lifted her hand and pointed at the armor almost reluctantly as she spoke, "Those symbols... as you may have already guessed, are runes, though they are different from the symbols Mother had carved."

’Runes? Then why can’t I understand them?’ Bael questioned himself, but as he had no answer, he asked Zaelyane, though differently, "I’ve learned all the runes that the elves knew of; how come I’ve never seen these before?"

Zaelyane nodded and said, "It’s just as I said. They are different from actual runes. They are more like shadows of runes — They replicate actual runes to such an extent that they have become them. You cannot understand them without understanding shadows."

A frown appeared on Bael’s face, and he asked, "What does that have to do with them?"

Zaelyane met his red eyes and spoke, "One of them rules over shadows... He is also the one I want dead."

’A being that rules over shadows... a god?’ Bael wondered, but the thought itself that he shook his head and remarked inwardly, ’Why would a god imprison Dhaevrak? It makes no...’

However, just as he was about to finalize that thought, The Remnant and Haden’s words replayed themselves in his head.

They are our enemies.

The Remnant and Dhaevrak belonged to the same mother or monarch.

As the realisation hit him, his expressions turned grave, and he mumbled, "It can’t be..."

"What’s wrong?" Zaelyane asked worriedly.

He looked at her and contemplated whether to tell her, but since he wasn’t sure of the possibility he had just formed, he shook his head and said, "It’s nothing."

Zaelyane stared at his face for a few moments and simply nodded, her gaze returning to the armour once again.

’Let’s focus on the present,’ Bael remarked inwardly and said, "I need you to help me make it otherwise; a lot of people would lose their lives to the living shadows."

A contemplative look appeared on her face, and she sighed. "It’s not that I don’t want to help you; it’s simply impossible to replicate that sorcery."

Bael pressed his lips into a thin line and muttered with clenched fists, "We gotta try... There has to be some way."

A deep sigh escaped her lips, and she shook her head, "It’s not—"

"You know how it works, don’t you?" Bael asked with a serious expression.

She frowned. "I do no—"

"Aren’t the royal daughters supposed to know its function?" Bael stared into her eyes with no emotions visible on his face.

Zaelyane forced out an unusual chuckle and responded playfully, "As you can see, I am not a royal daughter."

"Don’t lie to me," Bael muttered and stepped closer.

His shadow dwarfed her as he spoke, "You were supposed to be the royal daughter instead of Malikeya, but you left... however, you still would’ve trained in the sorcery that the royal daughter uses."

Zaelyane’s expression turned dark, and she lowered her head.

Bael turned around and stated, "Do not lie to me, Zaelyane. If you wish to gain for me, you also have to offer me your help."

Hearing those words, the dam keeping her emotions back broke, and she lifted her head. A furious expression overtook her beauty, and she growled,

"Offer? I’ve offered you everything I could!! What have you done for me? Where is my revenge?! All you do is take and take and take, but when have you ever given me anything?!"

She shot up to her feet.

"You asked me to help create that herbalist front, and I did. You wanted to cure your little girlfriend, so I showed you the way to my home. But what have you done for me?!"

Bael turned his head towards her and replied flatly,

"I’ve given you nothing yet because you yourself don’t know who you want me to kill. You don’t even know what kind of being it is — and while you’ve been waiting for results, I’ve been putting everything into finding that out myself. But for you, all that matters is what can be seen on the surface."