THE SERPENT'S LEGACY ( WHISPERS OF THE PAST )

No dust had accumulated over Caspian's compound, the mock light casting stretched, distorted shadows on the battlefield of the conquered. The dark illusion had faded, leaving no more than the actual detritus of their horrific struggle. Sophia lost, her face a landscape of broken dreams, the dead piece of the Serpent's Eye by her side a reminder of her losing battle to become a master. Bianca loomed over her, her chest still firmly pumping, the initial anger which had spurred her struggle slowly wearing off into a foul resentment, resentment still. Luca summoned Bianca tightly, relief at the conquering of a nagging fear of the Serpent, and its irreparable heritage. Caspian's plans had been thwarted, but the Serpent's cry can yet potentially reap others, a blacker notion even. Isabella and Dante patrolled the borders of the compound, closing it off and taking care of any of their wounded friends who had been with them. The warlords of the region, held together in the past by Caspian's charisma, were in disarray, their own recent consolidation torn asunder by his death. The power vacuum loomed over them, waiting to release a new cycle of violence, something they all knew all too well. What do we do with her?" Luca's gaze turned to Bianca, his eyes falling to Sophia's shattered form. Bianca looked down at her half-sister, a broken mix of pity and anger on her face. "She made her choices, Luca. She chose the darkness." "But she's family," Isabella interrupted, speaking softer than usual. "Stained, yes, but family.". Their shared weight of blood, the same thing that had made them strong and weak, hung suspended in the air. Their sister bonds, sister against sister, had been equally corrupted by the Serpent's curse. "We can't have her on our backs anymore," Dante said in a matter-of-fact tone. "She knows the power of the shard. That will not be easily placated." And so, after a bloody debate, they made their agonizing decision. Sophia would be returned, not as a prisoner to be punished but as one that had to be restrained, a wayward element that could not be allowed to run wild. The slumbering Serpent's Eye shard would be incarcerated, another piece of the lethal jigsaw puzzle they were still constructing. The victory was subdued, the triumph marred by the reality that their struggle was far from ending. The power of the Serpent was such a hidden venom, which at any time could strike again. Locally, measures were taken to reassert order and to cover up for the vacuum that had resulted from Caspian's disappearance. Isabella and Luca were busy with measures, utilizing available networks and acquaintances to suppress any rebellion that might arise. Bianca was kept in custody, though what had happened to Sophia had mentally traumatized her quite badly. Luca found her one evening in his study, the scent of old books and fine wood a poor comfort after the lingering fear. She was cross-legged on the floor, going through her grandfather's notebooks, her brows knitted in concentration. "Anything?" Luca sat down next to her on the floor. Bianca's head lifted, her eyes blazing with weary determination. "More fragments. More evidence of the activity of the Serpent ongoing. One would have hoped our people grasped the repeating nature of this darkness. That it would come back.". She showed him a sentence about the awakening of the other fragments of Serpent's Eye, buried and concealed around the world, and all having some share of the original power. Awakening was taking place. Caspian and Sophia were not aberrations; they might be merely the start of a general awakening. "There are others," Luca breathed, the importance of this new knowledge seeping into him. "Others who would be drawn to this power." "And the journal speaks of guardians," Bianca continued, another line forming. "People or entities who have vowed to protect the shards, to ensure that they fall into no wrong hands." Its extent had only increased exponentially overnight. They were no longer only entangled in local struggles for power; they were now entangled in a centuries-old global war against an unseen enemy. Weeks went by, days went by, of following and inquiring sensitive questions. They had been listening to stories of people who appeared to possess incredible powers or hold finesse power, the ghost of a whispering shadow of what they found with Caspian and Sophia. The search for the remaining pieces of the Serpent's Eye had begun, and others who had been attracted to them, had managed to initiate it. That evening, a mysterious letter arrived for Luca, bearing a signature – an eye shining vividly in the center of a serpent curve turned into a ring. The letter itself was vague, speaking of an underground organization, guardsmen who had lingered in the background. Wary and inquisitive, Luca consented to a clandestine meeting at a neutral location. There, they were met by a woman called Elara, her eyes light and piercing, her presence appearing to hold an ancient wisdom. She bore witness that the guards were real, a secret order sworn to free the world from under the rule of the Serpent. Elara found Serpent's Eye to not be one piece but a number of pieces of shards bound together in one so that every shard contained a part of an ancient power. What it was supposed to do, and what actually was supposed to happen to them by the guardians was not that they were to destroy them, but rather break them up and isolate them from those who would misuse them to themselves. She warned Luca and his believers that yes, the awakening continued to grow, fueled by those of the Serpent lineage and drawn to the power of the shards. Caspian and Sophia were mere foreshadows of this awakening. Elara offered them an alliance, a union of strength and intelligence in the war they were fighting with the legacy of the Serpent. The guardians saw Luca, with strength infused in him, as also having weakness infused in evil by virtue of his lineage. They wanted him to be given a more significant role in the war that would be fought. The call had been blessing and curse. To call upon the guardians was to take on a war of wider extent and danger than any they had ever imagined. But its alternative – to fight back the Serpent alone – was a blackly repugnant notion. Standing in front of Bianca and Isabella, set faces faltering into terror, Luca realized that they could no longer just remain there as the world unwound itself into the Serpent's snare. Their battle had only gained a larger platform for the world, and their family history had become the world's fate. Strands from their past were mounting, and the fate of their world was by the edge in their own hands.