Chapter 5 Council Of Thorns

The council chamber was a cavern of shadows and steel. The walls stretched high, carved from black stone that seemed to swallow the firelight rather than reflect it. Long iron torches burned along the edges, their flames spitting as though angry to be trapped inside. In the center stood the council's table,an enormous slab of oak scarred by centuries of arguments and blood-oaths.

Around it sat the kingdom's most dangerous minds. Twelve men and women, each cloaked in authority, each sworn not to loyalty, but to survival. The Council of Thorns had always lived up to its name,sharp, beautiful, and deadly to anyone who dared touch it.

At the head of the table sat Lord Karthan, the High Chancellor. His beard was streaked with silver, but his eyes carried the weight of iron, steady and unyielding. Beside him, the Oracle's empty chair remained untouched, a silent reminder that prophecy still ruled over reason.

The chamber buzzed low with conversation until Karthan raised a hand. Silence fell like a blade.

"The shadows stir again," he said, voice gravelled but strong. "Our spies bring whispers of unrest. Villages speak of signs,falling stars, sudden storms. And you all know what the prophecies say."

A murmur rippled through the table. Everyone knew the words, though none dared repeat them aloud. The cursed child. The fall of crowns. The blood that would drown a kingdom.

Lord Seryn, a hawk-eyed general, slammed a gauntleted fist onto the oak. "Whispers breed rebellion. If the people believe the cursed child still lives, then faith will rise against the throne. We cannot allow hope to take root. We must cut it out before it grows."

"Cut what?" sneered Lady Veyra, her voice sharp as broken glass. She leaned back in her chair, her jeweled fingers drumming against the wood. "We've been hunting ghosts for two decades. Every shadow is declared dangerous, every misfit branded as prophecy. Yet here we sit, crown intact, no cursed child in sight. Perhaps it was nothing more than superstition."

General Seryn's eyes flared. "Superstition does not summon falling stars. Superstition does not carve fate into the skies."

Karthan's gaze slid over them both, quieting the tension. "And yet... there is one name that returns again and again, no matter how many times we bury it."

The chamber seemed to tighten.

"Rehitt."

The name dropped like a stone into still water. Several council members shifted uncomfortably, while others leaned forward, hungry for blood.

Lady Marisol, cloaked in crimson, let out a slow hiss of breath. "I thought she was dealt with. Erased. Sent to rot in some forgotten corner of the woods."

"Exile is not erasure," Karthan said coldly. "So long as she draws breath, prophecy has teeth. And now, the people begin to speak of her again. They whisper that she walks beneath the stars, that the forests protect her, that fate bends to her steps."

A younger lord, Cassian, sneered. "Children tell ghost stories. Farmers cling to myths when crops fail. We cannot allow rumor to dictate the kingdom's law."

"Rumor," countered Seryn, "is the spark that sets rebellion alight. Do you wish to wait until those whispers turn into armies chanting her name?"

The debate grew sharper, voices clashing like swords in the chamber.

"She's one girl, broken and cast aside," Lady Veyra snapped. "Even if she lives, she cannot unseat a crown guarded by fire and steel."

"Or perhaps that's what makes her dangerous," murmured Marisol, her eyes gleaming. "Those forgotten often rise with sharper claws. A ghost child turned queen,that is a tale people will die for."

The words thickened the air. No one wanted to admit it, but they all felt the tremor of unease beneath their ribs.

At the far end of the table, Lord Erian, the oldest among them, finally spoke. His voice was soft, but every syllable carried weight. "We have tried to silence prophecy with swords. We have tried to outlast it with patience. But the stars keep speaking. Perhaps the question is not how to kill her, but what price must be paid if she lives."

A cold silence followed. No one wanted to consider that prophecy could not be outrun.

But Karthan did not flinch. "Whether she is child or woman, ghost or flesh, it no longer matters. Rehitt exists in the minds of the people. That is enough to make her real. And if she is real, then she is a threat."

Seryn leaned forward, voice like iron striking stone. "Then give me leave to hunt her. I will scour the forests, burn every village that shelters rumor, drag her name into the dirt where it belongs."

Veyra laughed bitterly. "Ah yes, burn the kingdom to save it. A brilliant strategy. Why stop at the forests? Why not burn the capital too, in case she hides under the throne?"

Seryn's jaw clenched, but he did not strike back. Karthan raised a hand before the argument could sharpen further.

"No rash flames," he ordered. "Fire breeds more stories than it destroys. We need precision. Silence that leaves no echoes."

Marisol's crimson lips curved into a smile. "Then perhaps the answer is not an army, but a knife. A single cut in the dark, quiet enough that no bard ever sings of it."

The thought lingered, tempting, poisonous.

But then, from the shadows near the door, a messenger hurried in. His cloak was damp with rain, his eyes wide as though the storm itself had chased him. He dropped to one knee before the council.

"My lords, my ladies... news from the northern watch." His voice trembled. "A falling star was seen last night. It landed beyond the Blackwood, near the old exile cabins. Villagers speak of a girl... with dark hair and eyes like storm clouds. They swear she was marked by the light."

The chamber erupted.

Chairs scraped, voices rose, the council splintered into chaos. Some shouted for war, others for caution, others still for denial.

Karthan's fist slammed onto the table, silencing them with a thunderous crack. His voice was steady, colder than the stone walls around them.

"Enough. The whispers have grown into proof. The cursed child is no longer myth. She lives."

The words settled like poison into their veins.

Marisol's smile sharpened. "Then the game begins."

Seryn stood, his armor glinting in the firelight. "Say the word, Chancellor, and I'll bring her head before this table."

But Karthan's gaze was unreadable, his silence heavier than stone. His mind was not on Seryn's sword, nor Marisol's daggers. It was on something far more dangerous.

"If the prophecy lives through her," he murmured, "then killing her may only fulfill it faster. Perhaps her death is the crown's true ruin."

The council froze.

For the first time, the unshakable High Chancellor sounded uncertain.

Erian's voice, quiet as wind through a graveyard, cut through the silence. "Then perhaps the greater danger is not her life... but our choice. If we act wrongly, we may be the very hands that deliver this kingdom into fire."

The torches hissed, spitting sparks into the heavy air.

Outside, thunder rolled across the skies, shaking the chamber as though the heavens themselves listened.

And in the echo of that storm, one thought burned into every mind at the table.

Rehitt's name was no longer forgotten.

It was alive.

And it was coming for them.