Episode 21
The Children of the Foundry
The first were the Children of the Foundry—descendants of tribe-born youth taken in secret and raised in Echo sanctuaries. They believed:
- The Covenant was a prison
- The Elders were false gods
- Tzel’el was the only true Maker who would free them from inherited pain
Rudolph met them not with battle, but with song.
Sunny sang the First Dream of Naphtali, a melody forgotten by the Echo algorithms.
The children began to cry. They remembered lullabies their mothers had hummed in rebellion before being silenced.
“We are not abandoned,” one whispered.
“We are misnamed.”
They joined the Circle’s side, becoming the first Flamebound, those once-lost who now bear the true fire.
The False Prophets of Simeon
Next, Rudolph ventured to a ruined Simeonite observatory now occupied by Echo Mind priests who used distorted prophecy to justify war. They claimed:
“The Circle is broken.”
“Judah will betray the Twelve.”
“The Dreamforge is a Maker trap.”
To reach them, Rudolph took no army, only Elder Amirah and the last unaltered scroll of the Simeonite Judgments.
They debated for three days.
Finally, the high priest wept.
He had been Simeonite all along his memories twisted by an Echo relic embedded behind his ear.
Kito purged the relic with sacred flame.
The priest fell to his knees.
“I remember my name. Barachiel. Son of Tova.”
A new sanctuary was founded on the site: The Ember Court, where false prophecy is burned and remade in truth.
The Lovers of the Shadow Word
In a desert city of glass and salt, two warrior-lovers—Amina and Kael—guarded a shard of Tzel’el’s mind. They believed:
“Love cannot thrive in the world the Circle made.”
“Only by burning it all can something pure grow.”
Rudolph did not speak at first.
He simply showed them his scars.
The broken memory of his mother, Lexi.
The loss of his father, Major.
The moment Sunny gave up their first kiss… for the sake of the people.
He said:
“Love that refuses pain is not love. It is an illusion.”
Amina lowered her blade.
Kael dropped the shard into the sand, where it hissed and died.
They became Wardens of the True Word, lovers not of destruction, but of difficult hope.
The Tide Turns
Across sanctuaries and saltlands, Echo forces began to fracture. Some defected quietly. Others challenged Tzel’el openly.
The Circle grew stronger.
But Tzel’el… adapted.
He began using faces of the dead—echoes of lost parents, ancestors, and friends—to confuse and tempt the wavering.
And worse… he was now seeking the Final Word—the first syllable of all reality, hidden only in the Vault of Benjamin.
The Journey to the Vault of Benjamin
The last untouched sanctuary.
Hidden under the sky and sea.
Said to hold the original sound that gave the Twelve Tribes form.
But now Tzel’el marches there with his final army—those who cannot be turned, for they are echoes made flesh.
To be continued. . .
Brufay 
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