(Starla)
The journey from the Last Stronghold to the Wall took nearly an hour on foot.
The path wound down from the mountain, through rocky terrain that tested my already-weakened legs. Azkan walked at a pace that was clearly slower than his usual stride. I could tell he was adjusting for me. He wasn’t very pleased about it, though, I suspected. He wanted to reach the Wall quickly, and I was slowing him down.
Still, I appreciated the gesture. Even if he would never admit to making it. From what I understood of him, he was too proud and took set in his ways.
"Tell me about the Last Stronghold," I asked, just to divert his mind and kill this tension-filled silence.
"The Stronghold was built five hundred years ago," Azkan began, his voice carrying back to me as we walked. "When the Wall was constructed, the Wardens needed a fortress from which to guard it. The Stronghold was carved from the mountain itself, stone by stone, by the first dragon lords who swore to protect the boundary."
"And your family?" I asked, trying to keep my breathing steady. "Have you always been Wardens?" I watched my step so I wouldn’t trip.
"Since the beginning." His voice was proud and haughty. "My bloodline has guarded the Wall for five centuries. We were the first to swear the oath, and we will never break it."
I nodded. Five centuries of service. Five centuries of hatred toward humans, cultivated and passed down through generations.
No wonder he didn’t trust me. I was everything his family had been taught to hate. Humans were like vermin for Beastworld. If the disease hadn’t been killing their guides, they would never accept us.
We walked in silence for a while, the Wall growing larger on the horizon. It rose from the earth tall, old and terrifying. Black stone gleamed in the morning light. Carved in it were various symbols that pulsed with faint energy. Its surface was smooth in some places, scarred in others, evidence of centuries of battle, of attempts to breach what had been built to keep the worlds apart. There were watch towers built with Sentinels and guardians inside, keeping watch.
As we drew closer, I could feel it. The magic. It hummed in the air, a low vibration that made my skin prickle and teeth grind.
"The Wall’s magic is strongest near the base," Azkan revealed, glancing back at me. "It can be...uncomfortable for those who aren’t used to it."
"I’m fine," I lied through my chattering teeth. The vibration was making my head spin, but I forced myself to keep walking.
We reached the Wall’s base, and I stopped, staring up, feeling like a tiny dot.
The Wall was truly magnificent.
I had imagined it a thousand times. A barrier of stone and magic, separating two worlds that had once been one. But my imagination had been pale compared to the reality.
"Impressive, isn’t it?" Azkan’s voice was heavy with emotions. "Five hundred years of hatred, carved into stone."
I tore my gaze away from the Wall and glanced at the tall Beastman beside me. I had to crane my neck to glance in his direction. He was standing a few feet away, his back to me, his eyes fixed on the towering structure.
"Five hundred years," I repeated. "That’s a long time."
"Longer than you can imagine." He reached out, his long fingers brushing the stone. "Longer than I have been alive, and I have lived three centuries."
Three centuries. The number echoed in my mind. He had been alive for three hundred years. He had watched his brother suffer for a century. He had spent longer alive than my entire family line had existed.
And I was dying at twenty.
Ah! The irony of it wanted to make me bitterly laugh.
"What happened?" I asked quietly. "A century ago. What happened to Aksel?"
He went very still at my question and slowly turned his head. His eyes angrily blazed at me as if I had offended him by asking this question.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because I touched him and I felt something." I stepped closer, careful to keep my distance. I knew better than to touch him without his permission. "He was in so much pain. Not just physical, something deeper. Something that had been festering for a long time."
The anger didn’t seep slowly onto Azkan’s face. It rapidly twisted his sharp and hauntingly handsome features. The scar under his right eye, running across his cheek, made him appear terrifying and yet utterly handsome in a roguish way.
I thought he might refuse, might shut me down with that cold mask he wore so well. The mask that had slipped.
Then he gritted his teeth: "There was a human girl."
I felt my heart stop. This story was going to be devastating; I could already feel it.
"A century ago, before the Wall was reinforced, there were... crossings. Small ones. Gaps in the barrier that allowed passage for those who knew where to look." His voice was distant, hollow. "Aksel found one. He had always been the kind one, curious one about the world beyond. Saw goodness in your kind. And he found her. A human girl."
I didn’t speak; I didn’t dare. I simply listened with a thudding heart.
"They fell in love." The words were bitter, laced with his raw pain. "He trusted her. He brought her here, showed her our world, our people. He planned to mate with her, to make her his."
Something cold settled in my stomach. I already knew where this was going.
"She was a spy." Azkan’s voice finally cracked. "Sent by the human Wardens to map our territory, to find our weaknesses. She used him. Used his love for her. And when she had what she needed, she betrayed him."
"How?" I whispered, my throat clogged.
"She poisoned him." Azkan turned to face me, and his violet eyes were blazing with uncontained fury. "Not to kill him but to trap him. The poison locked him in his beast form. Made him feral. Made him lose everything he was. She did it so the human armies could attack while we were distracted."
I felt my legs go weak. I stumbled back, my hand finding the stone of the Wall for support.
"I am so sorry." My voice came out weak. He ignored me.
"The attack failed," Azkan continued, his voice laden with emotions. "We pushed them back. But my brother, my twin, was destroyed. His body survived, but his mind didn’t. And I have been watching him suffer for a hundred years because of a human’s betrayal."
The words hung between us, heavy and damning. The silence that followed made my ears ring.