Chapter 7 Summary: Milagonia discovers a hidden li
Author:unloginuser Time:2025/03/29 Read: 2136Chapter 7 Summary: Milagonia discovers a hidden library in the city, where she finds ancient texts and scrolls that hold the secrets of the city’s past. She begins to uncover a dark history of corruption and deceit.
Chapter 7: Whispers from the Stone Heart
The cobblestones under Milagonia’s boots were slick with a recent rain, mirroring the slickness of deceit she’d begun to suspect gnawed at the heart of Porthaven. The city, once a beacon of shimmering spires and vibrant markets, now felt…off. A subtle dissonance hummed beneath the surface, a tremor in the seemingly flawless façade. It had started with the missing merchant, the hushed whispers in the taverns, the unsettlingly vacant gaze of the city guard captain. But the truth, Milagonia felt, lay hidden, buried somewhere within Porthaven’s ancient stones.
Her hunch led her to a place mentioned only in hushed tones – the forgotten quarter, a warren of crumbling buildings clinging to the city’s western edge. It was here, tucked behind a crumbling apothecary, that she discovered it: a heavy oak door, almost swallowed by creeping ivy, marked only by a tarnished silver crescent moon. It creaked open with a groan that echoed the city’s own weary sigh, revealing a spiral staircase descending into darkness.
The air grew cool, heavy with the scent of aged parchment and dust motes dancing in the weak light filtering from a single shaft high above. At the bottom lay a vast chamber, a hidden library carved into the living rock. Rows upon rows of shelves stretched into the gloom, crammed with leather-bound books, rolled scrolls tied with faded ribbons, and curious artifacts – a shimmering orb, a chipped obsidian statue, a tarnished silver quill that seemed to thrum with faint energy.
Milagonia’s fingers trembled as she ran them over the spines of ancient texts. The titles were written in a script she didn’t recognize, yet somehow understood. One caught her eye: The Shadow Council of Porthaven. As she unfurled the brittle scroll within, words flowed into her mind, not through sight, but through a direct understanding, a magical whisper in the silence.
The scroll detailed a horrifying truth. Porthaven, far from being a beacon of light, was founded upon a dark pact. Generations ago, the city’s founders had made a deal with a shadow entity, drawing upon its power to build their magnificent city. But the price was steep – the souls of the innocent, sacrificed in elaborate rituals held beneath the city’s very foundations. The Shadow Council, a clandestine group of powerful mages, had perpetuated this dark legacy, their corruption weaving itself into the very fabric of Porthaven’s existence.
Milagonia unearthed further evidence – accounts of silenced dissenters, twisted experiments in necromancy, and the horrifying truth behind the missing merchant: a sacrifice to appease the shadow entity. The scroll described the entity’s growing hunger, a hunger that could only be sated with a sacrifice of unimaginable scale.
Emerging from the library, the setting sun cast long, ominous shadows across the cobblestones. The city no longer shimmered; it seemed to leer at her, its beauty a cruel mask hiding a festering wound. The whispers in the taverns were no longer hushed; they were screams, echoing the dark secrets she now possessed. Milagonia knew her quest had just begun. She had uncovered the truth, but the fight to save Porthaven from its own shadowed heart had only just begun.
