Chapter 278: They Gave Them Purpose

Words : 1070 Updated : Oct 1st, 2025

Chapter 278: They Gave Them Purpose Lilith nodded once. "And he opened it." "But it wasn’t his plan," Isabella added, voice quiet, but certain. "He didn’t have the vision." "No," Elowen said. "He was used." She let that sit. Not for dramatic effect, but because the next sentence needed space. "And the worst part?" Her gaze swept across the room—not accusing, not uncertain, just clear. Solid. "They used his mother’s story to do it. Twisted was the one thing that held that family together. The one pure act. The one piece of dignity. Turned it into fuel." No one argued. Because there was nothing to argue with. Liliana didn’t speak. But her face tensed. Her hands stayed folded, but one thumb pressed harder into her palm. And Elowen rose—not in anger or urgency, just with the stillness of someone who had said what needed to be said. "They were never meant to rise," she said, voice firm but calm. "But the cults didn’t care about their place. They didn’t care about legacy. Or power. Or bloodlines." She glanced at Seraphina. "They cared about numbers." And the Kobolds, overlooked for generations, had plenty. The silence afterward didn’t thicken or sting. It just remained steady. The kind of silence that understands something ugly has just been said out loud, and no one wants to be the first to move past it. Seraphina was the one who finally broke it. She stood up with quiet ease, adjusting the hem of her blouse as she did. Her tablet stayed in her hand, fingers moving across it, smooth and practiced. She glanced once at Isabella, then met Lilith’s eyes. "They weren’t just used," she said softly. "They were structured. The cult didn’t just take advantage of their population. They used them as a logistical net." Lilith leaned forward slightly, crossing one leg over the other, not out of elegance but focus. "Logistics, how?" "Transport," Seraphina replied. "Storage. Data cover. Paper trails that blended in with old regional systems. We were searching for rituals and forgotten shrines, but we should have been looking for cargo paths." She turned the screen of her tablet toward Lilith. Maps filled the air. Marked routes. Warehouse schematics. Time stamps. Flickers of movement, long since scrubbed from official archives but not from her private logs. "One of the Grayson holdings was based in an old resettlement zone," she continued. "On paper, it was city-governed. But everyone on the ground was a Kobold." Liliana narrowed her eyes. "Registered?" "That’s the strange part," Seraphina said. "Yes. Fully. Proper titles. Renewed every two years without fail. Nothing hidden." "But?" Isabella asked. "But," Seraphina tapped to the next page, "there were four warehouse listings. Three were dormant, and one was very active. On the books, it had no official partners, no exports, no imports, but the loading logs showed movement." Isabella stepped forward, arms loose at her sides. "That’s the one I traced." Seraphina nodded and passed the tablet. Isabella flipped through with one hand, her expression unreadable. "Manifest logs showed names," she said. "Human names. Not aliases. Not generic stock IDs. Actual identities. Adults. A few teenagers. Two children." Lilith’s hand curled tighter around her armrest, her expression still neutral—but her fingers didn’t lie. Seraphina kept her voice clinical. "They were subjects. Acquired from outside the main cities. Mostly fringe towns. Little settlements without beacon coverage or system pings. Places the Association barely acknowledges. Places no one checks when someone vanishes." "They were supplying the cult," Elowen said. Her voice was quieter now, but sharper. "And this wasn’t a one-time act." "No," Seraphina confirmed. "It grew. First, they offered storage space. Then minor access. Then a hall for rituals. A wing for testing." Isabella tapped a new image on the tablet—this one a blueprint. It was a simple, modest building—not underground, not heavily fortified. "These weren’t dungeons," she said. "They were living quarters. Converted rooms. Basement storage in Grayson homes. They didn’t hide it under a stone. They hid it behind hospitality." "And the other Kobold branches?" Lilith asked, her tone clipped now. "There were others," Seraphina answered. "But none escalated like this. The Graysons were the only ones to offer blood." Elowen raised her head. "Why?" Seraphina looked at her directly. "Because they offered their children." A pause. Then another. This time, no one tried to break the silence. It didn’t ask for an answer. It just existed. "They were the first," Isabella said, voice low. "To give up their own. Not outsiders. Their own blood. Crossbreeds. Disobedient daughters. Sons with too much emotion. Anyone even slightly ’impure.’" Liliana’s jaw tensed. "And the mother?" "Locked away," Seraphina said. "She tried to stop them. She reached out to an old contact. They found out. She was beaten. Her wing was sealed. They told the house she had gone mad. That she needed rest." "But she hadn’t," Lilith said quietly. "No," Isabella confirmed. "She was trying. One last time." Lilith’s fingers tapped gently now, a slow rhythm against the carved wood of her chair. "And Lucas?" Seraphina took a quiet breath. "He found out." Those three words changed the room. "He confronted his father. Fought him. Loud. Public. Woke the house. The guards didn’t intervene. Some were afraid. Some agreed. He made it to the private vaults. Tried to destroy the records. Then he disappeared." "Where did he go?" Elowen asked. "We’re not certain," Seraphina said. "But timelines suggest he reached the outer ring. Close to when he met Ethan." Isabella added, "Grayson never filed any reports. Didn’t request a trace. No blood beacon activation." "He expected the cult to clean it up," Lilith muttered. Seraphina gave a small nod. "He thought Lucas was no longer useful." Liliana’s voice dropped. "So he left his own son to be erased." No one argued. Lilith rose from her seat now. Her movements were smooth, not sharp. Her expression didn’t twist. She just stood tall, straight, and calm. For the correct order please visit "The Kobolds didn’t rise through conquest," she said. Her voice didn’t carry rage. It didn’t need to. Truth didn’t need to shout. "They rose through numbers." She paused, eyes drifting toward the soft flickering center light in the room. "And the cult gave them something worse than hunger." No one interrupted. "They gave them purpose." The quiet after wasn’t delicate. It was heavy in a way that didn’t scream. It just... remained.

Chapter 278: They Gave Them Purpose

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