Chapter 4: The Seeds of Death
The night sky over Delhelm had darkened not with clouds, but with a strange stillness. The wind refused to blow. The stars blinked out, one by one, as though nature itself were holding its breath.
Isen stood at the edge of the old eastern woods with Orien, Aiden, and Tenley. Behind them, Ivy remained in the palace to tend to the rising sick. Rumors of strange flowers growing wild had spread—flowers that reeked of blood and rot.
They were here to investigate.
---
Tenley led the way through the thickets, sword at her back, her senses sharp. "They said it started near the stream," she whispered.
The further they walked, the more the forest changed.
The birds had stopped singing.
The leaves were browning… but it wasn't autumn.
Finally, they found it.
A clearing of black-veined flowers, their roots glowing faintly beneath the earth, pulsing like veins. The air around them shimmered with a pale mist. One flower, in full bloom, opened with a slow hiss, releasing a puff of gray spores into the air.
Aiden coughed, immediately covering his face.
"Step back!" Isen ordered, shielding his son and stepping forward with Orien.
"These are no ordinary plants," Orien murmured. "This is magic. Old… foul magic."
Tenley pulled out a vial and captured some of the spores.
Isen narrowed his eyes. "This… this is like the flower Aiden found in the greenhouse. And the same mist the beggar described."
A low voice echoed around them.
"You've found his garden."
They turned sharply—swords drawn.
Out from the trees came an old man, cloaked in gray, blind in one eye, holding a staff wrapped in dried vines.
"Who are you?" Isen demanded.
The old man gave a dry smile. "One who remembers. I was a servant… of King Theodore."
---
Back in the palace, Ivy sat by Elia's bedside. The healer's breath was shallow, her skin hot to the touch. Ivy brushed a damp cloth across her forehead, heart aching.
Then… the necklace around Ivy's neck pulsed.
Her vision blurred.
And suddenly, she was in another place.
Dark. Cold.
She stood in a chamber of stone. On the walls—Theodore's crest. And on the ground—dozens of seeds, glowing softly with black light.
At the center stood Theodore himself, draped in royal crimson, eyes mad with hatred. Ivy realized it was a memory—a magical imprint left behind.
> "If I fall," Theodore growled to the shadows, "then let this kingdom fall with me. Let them choke on my curse. These seeds… shall bloom long after I'm gone."
He laughed. "And when the eclipse rises again, they'll awaken."
Ivy gasped.
The eclipse… the one that happened the night Isen returned.
The night everything changed.
---
Back in the forest, the old man leaned on his staff. "Theodore knew he couldn't defeat you all. So before he died, he performed one last ritual… He scattered enchanted seeds across Delhelm—seeds of death."
He pointed to the misty flowers. "Now they awaken. Fed by the magic of this realm. They were designed to wait… and then rot everything from within."
Isen clenched his jaw. "So this isn't a plague. It's a curse."
The old man nodded. "And only the blood that ended him… can end it."
All eyes turned to Isen.
---
That night, the four returned to the palace.
Ivy met Isen on the balcony. Their faces were pale from what they had seen.
"I saw it," Ivy whispered. "In a vision. The seeds… he cast them with his blood. His rage."
Isen nodded grimly. "He's haunting us from the grave."
Tenley stepped forward. "If these flowers bloom across the kingdom, we need to find them. All of them. Before it's too late."
"But we don't even know how to stop them," Orien said. "Fire won't work. Magic spreads them. And touching them infects you."
Aiden, who had been silent till now, stepped up.
"I… I might know where one is."
They looked at him in surprise.
"In the royal library. There's a sealed door behind the old statue. I found it once by accident… and there was a glowing vine inside. I didn't understand what it was."
Isen exchanged a glance with Ivy.
"That could be one of the seeds," Ivy whispered.
Aiden looked up at them, eyes serious. "Let me help. Please."
Isen knelt beside him. "We'll go together. But only if you stay close."
Aiden nodded.
The battle had returned.
Not with swords. Not with armies.
But with roots… and poison… and the curse of a dead king.