Episode 6
Every gift has a shadow.
Minerva had warned him long ago that not every Maker walked in light. Some let the blood twist them, fed their gifts with fear, pride, and pain. These weren’t just people who lost their way; they left it, built their paths out of broken oaths and forgotten names.
They were called the Fallen Makers.
And now, they wanted Rudolph.
A Stranger in Town
It started with a woman named Eris Bell, a well-dressed “historian” who showed up in town talking about ancestral preservation and “unlocking suppressed talents.”
She opened a storefront on the edge of Bellamy Street called The Reclaimed Path. Books lined the walls. Charms and talismans hung from the ceiling. People began to gather. Folks who’d once been skeptical of Rudolph, suddenly drawn to something… other.
Sunny said the energy inside felt wrong. “Like bones humming underground.”
Rudolph went to see for himself, and Eris was waiting.
“You’re late,” she said, smiling like she knew a secret. “Your father was more punctual.”
That froze him.
She stepped closer. “You think you’re the only one with the Maker’s blood? No, child. There were many of us. Still are. But we didn’t all agree with the way things were meant to be.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Helping,” she said sweetly. “This town has power beneath it. Old power. You’re just a key. But some of us are doors.”
Minerva’s Truth
That night, Minerva sat Rudolph down and told him everything.
In the last Maker’s War—long before Major was even born—a faction split off. They believed the gifts should be used for conquest, not protection. They wanted to build empires, not mend broken things.
“They called themselves the Foundry, thinking they could forge a new order from the ashes of the old,” Minerva said. “Your grandfather helped seal them away after they tried to tear through the veil and steal power that wasn’t theirs.”
“But some escaped?”
“Some were born after. Raised in silence. Hidden. Taught to hate us.”
An Attack Close to Home
One evening, Sunny was ambushed while walking home.
Not by a creature from the veil, but by people.
Three figures cloaked in black, moving like shadows. One spoke in a dialect only the old books used. They tried to take her, not hurt her, but claim her.
“Your voice can wake what sleeps,” one hissed. “Come with us willingly, and you’ll learn what real power sounds like.”
She fought them off with the song Minerva had taught her, shattering a nearby lamppost with the resonance.
Rudolph found her trembling but alive.
“They knew me,” she whispered. “Not just my voice. My blood.”
The Battle for Bellamy
It was no longer just about defending against otherworldly threats. Now, Rudolph faced enemies with Maker blood, people who could bend metal, conjure illusions, and speak ancient words meant to break instead of build.
One of them, Jorell, had the power to disassemble objects mid-air. Tools. Buildings. Even spells. He called Rudolph a “False Heir.”
“You think blood makes you worthy? We were chosen by will. Not an accident.”
Rudolph and Kito fought him in the town square one stormy night, spell versus spell, staff against swirling air. In the end, it wasn’t power that won.
It was a piece of carved wood Rudolph had given to a boy weeks ago, a charm that blocked the unraveling spell long enough for Rudolph to strike.
Because true power, he realized, wasn’t in overwhelming force.
It was in the intention of what you create.
Aftermath
Eris disappeared. The shop closed overnight.
But the Foundry wasn’t gone.
They had tested Rudolph, and he had passed.
Next time, they wouldn’t come with warnings.
Next: The Lineage Wakes
As Rudolph’s bond with the town deepens and he learns more about the Foundry, he discovers a secret hidden beneath Minerva’s home, an ancestral forge that can awaken deeper powers within him… but only if he’s willing to face his fear.
To be continued…
Brufay 
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