Chapter 641: The Garden of Bones

Varon did not seem to find Kael’s last sentence amusing.

In fact, he kept staring at the First Archive page as though expecting it to disappear, be corrected, or—by some mercy that clearly was not coming—reveal that the loss of Aldren’s authority had no consequences beyond Meridia.

The inscription remained far too firm for that.

AUTHORITY DEPENDENCY: INTERRUPTED.

Irelia reached the page before Kael did.

She did not touch it. She only crouched enough to observe the new lines beginning to appear beneath the title.

The First Archive did not explain danger, did not provide instructions, and certainly did not seem interested in making things easier for them.

It merely recorded what had changed.

"Varon," she said without taking her eyes off the page. "Start from the beginning. What is the Garden of Bones?"

The agent kept his lips shut.

Kael turned toward him.

"We don’t need to make this part difficult."

"You’re going to torture me?"

"No."

Varon looked surprised.

Kael pointed toward Umbra, who was still keeping one of the agents hanging upside down at the back of the hall.

"But I can let her invent ways to make you uncomfortable while Irelia repeats the same question until you lose your mind."

Umbra tilted her head.

"I like that option."

Irelia did not even look at either of them.

"Garden of Bones."

Varon breathed through his nose and finally gave in.

"It isn’t a garden. Not in the way the name suggests. It is a funerary region built beneath Vael’s old eastern frontier. The kingdom lost tens of thousands of men in that area during the final wars. Some battles happened over the same fields for generations, until there were more bones in the ground than stone."

Kael became serious.

"How many dead?"

"Recorded? Nearly twenty-four thousand."

Some of the humor left the room.

Sylphie slowly released Kael’s arm and turned her attention to Varon.

Seraphine, who remained beside Irelia, no longer looked concerned only about Vael’s history.

Twenty-four thousand dead stopped being an old record when someone said an order was still keeping them buried.

"Continue," Kael said.

"The project began after the Third Eastern War. Vael could not clear the battlefields. Families demanded bodies, commanders wanted weapons recovered, and priests claimed that so much accumulated death was distorting the region. So they began organizing the remains. Bones of identified soldiers were buried in rows. The unidentified were placed in separate pits. Trees were planted to mark each unit."

Umbra made a strange expression.

"So there is a garden."

"There is now," Varon replied. "It wasn’t planned that way."

Irelia noticed something.

"The trees are markers."

"Yes."

"For people?"

"For regiments."

Kael looked at the page.

The drawing of bones along the margin no longer looked decorative.

"Why would a preservation archive become involved with this?"

Varon took a moment.

"Because the dead were still carrying orders."

Kael frowned.

"Explain that better."

"Vael soldiers made military oaths bound to sovereign authority. Not simple promises. They were campaign contracts. As long as a recognized commander transmitted an order in the name of the Crown, the soldiers received reinforcement of mana, endurance, and the ability to keep fighting even while wounded. It was a system designed to prevent lines from breaking."

"Then they died," Sylphie said.

"Yes."

"And the contracts remained?"

"Some of them."

Kael closed his eyes for a second.

"Of course they did."

Varon continued, now more quickly, perhaps because explaining was less uncomfortable than remaining under everyone’s gaze.

"For most, the contract simply faded when the soldier died. But during the last campaigns, there was a problem. The final order given by eastern command was transmitted directly through Aldren’s authority."

Irelia already looked like she did not like where this was going.

"What order?"

Varon answered:

"Defend the frontier until relieved."

No one spoke.

Kael looked at the page again.

"Who relieved them?"

Varon did not answer.

He did not need to.

Aldren had died.

His succession had been interrupted.

The Hollow Throne had preserved his authority for almost two centuries.

And now that authority had ended.

"So the Throne wasn’t ordering the dead to remain buried," Kael said slowly. "It was the only recognized sovereign still capable of keeping that order suspended."

Varon nodded.

"The order was not being executed because the command remained incomplete. As long as Aldren continued to exist as sovereign, the soldiers waited for dismissal or a new instruction."

"And now?"

The question came from Seraphine.

Varon looked at her.

"Now there is no recognized authority above them."

Irelia understood before Kael did.

"They return to the last valid order."

"Yes."

Defend the frontier until relieved.

Kael rubbed the back of his neck.

"The dead aren’t simply going to stand up."

Varon hesitated.

That was enough.

"Varon."

"Not like ordinary skeletons."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"The contracts do not restore people. There is no complete consciousness in most of them. The Garden preserves military function, motor memory, unit structure, and obedience. Bones belonging to the same regiment can..."

He stopped.

Kael waited.

"...reorganize."

Umbra looked at him.

"That is a very polite way of saying the skeletons get up."

Varon closed his eyes.

"Yes."

Kael sighed.

"Thank you."

Irelia walked toward the documents still scattered around the former Hollow Throne.

Meridia’s crisis had not disappeared simply because another one had presented itself.

The calcite was still trying to reorganize legal records without a central authority, and abandoning it now could turn property, civil rights, and even the legitimacy of the council into real problems.

She looked at Kael.

"You cannot run off."

"I know."

Irelia kept looking at him.

"You said that too quickly."

"I really do know."

Sylphie stepped closer to him.

"Where is the Garden?"

Varon answered.

"Almost two hundred kilometers east of Meridia. The old frontier became rural territory. There are three villages nearby and a small town farther north."

"Population?"

"Maybe six thousand people across the entire region."

Kael became serious.

"Amelia."

He pulled out the crystal.

The connection took only a few seconds.

Amelia appeared seated at a desk, surrounded by far too many papers for someone who probably had not slept as much as she demanded everyone else should.

"Did you solve the Throne?"

"Yes."

"Good."

"There’s another problem."

Amelia closed her eyes.

"Of course."

Kael showed her the Garden of Bones page.

Her expression changed as he explained.

She did not interrupt until she heard the number of dead, the military contract, and the final preserved order.

Then she set the pen down on the table.

"You remain in Meridia."

Kael opened his mouth.

"Remain."

"I didn’t say anything."

"Your face did."

Irelia discreetly raised one hand, satisfied that she was not the only one who used that accusation.

Amelia continued:

"Violet will send teams to evacuate the nearest villages without entering the funerary region. Yggdrasil can observe natural changes from a distance. Elion will analyze the First Archive page from here. You finish Meridia’s legal transfer before touching another project."

Kael looked at Irelia.

"How long?"

"If the system cooperates, one hour."

"It doesn’t cooperate."

"Two."

"Great."

Sylphie narrowed her eyes.

Kael corrected himself.

"Then we assess."

"Better."

The Garden of Bones page vibrated.

Everyone looked.

A new inscription appeared.

LAST SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY: ENDED.

Then:

MILITARY ORDER: NO DISMISSAL INSTANCE.

And finally:

EXECUTION RESUMED.

Kael stared at those three words.

"Amelia."

"I saw."

The communication crystal beside her lit almost immediately.

Another image appeared, unstable, probably transmitted from one of the eastern posts.

Violet emerged in the light, wearing armor and already moving.

"We have activity."

"How much?" Kael asked.

"Yggdrasil felt the trees changing."

"How?"

The answer came from Yggdrasil herself, appearing in the background of the transmission.

"The roots are releasing the dead."

Kael went still.

Yggdrasil’s small red-haired form looked much less amused than usual.

"This is not ordinary necromancy," she continued. "The trees grew around the bones for centuries. Part of the remains are incorporated into the roots. Now each marker is separating whatever belongs to the regiment it represents."

Sylphie understood.

"The trees are sorting the bodies."

"Yes."

Umbra grimaced.

"I don’t like organized trees."

Yggdrasil looked directly at her through the crystal.

"Neither do I."

Violet interrupted:

"The first village is already being evacuated. The second team is heading south. No dead are visible yet, but the ground is moving in several places."

Kael looked at Varon.

"How long between activation and unit formation?"

"I don’t know."

Kael’s sword slid a few centimeters out of its sheath.

Varon raised his hands.

"I genuinely don’t know. The project has never been activated this way since it was created."

"Then who does know?"

Varon fell silent.

Kael noticed.

"There’s someone in the Garden."

"A custodian."

"Name."

"General Edras Morn."

Irelia raised her eyes.

"General?"

"He is not a current general. It is the title of the custodian."

Kael took a deep breath.

"Alive?"

Varon hesitated again.

Umbra laughed without humor.

"He does that a lot."

"Varon."

"Partially."

Kael remained silent for several seconds.

"I’m becoming impressed by the number of states between alive and dead this organization has discovered."

"He has a body."

"That didn’t answer the question."

"The body is renewed."

"How?"

Varon looked at the Garden page.

"With bones."

Silence returned.

This time, even Umbra had no comment.

Irelia walked up to him.

"You said the dead don’t have complete consciousness."

"They don’t."

"But the custodian?"

"He uses preserved fragments of officers to maintain command knowledge. He is not a specific person. He is a function built to understand the contracts, identify regiments, and prevent old orders from conflicting."

Kael felt the same irritation he had felt when discovering the Archivist.

Another function using people as components.

"So Edras Morn isn’t a name."

"It was the name of the first general buried there."

"Of course."

The First Archive page reacted to the name.

CUSTODIAN: EDRAS MORN.

STATUS: ACTIVE.

FUNCTION: ORDER INTERPRETATION.

Kael stepped closer.

"Can he dismiss the dead?"

Varon answered.

"He does not possess authority."

"Can he reinterpret?"

"Yes."

That changed everything.

Kael looked at the order.

DEFEND THE FRONTIER UNTIL RELIEVED.

"Which frontier?"

Varon blinked.

"Vael’s eastern frontier."

"It no longer exists."

Irelia went still.

Seraphine looked at Kael.

He continued:

"If the custodian has to interpret old orders under current conditions, then he has to decide where a frontier that disappeared one hundred and seventy-four years ago is located."

Varon went pale.

Irelia understood the consequence.

"He could use the last map recognized by Aldren."

"Or any later record he considers territorial continuity."

Kael looked toward the city above them.

Meridia had been built over Vael.

Parts of the old kingdom had been divided among modern territories.

If the Garden decided it needed to defend the original frontier, that did not mean keeping the dead in some remote field.

It meant marching.

"Amelia," Kael said.

"I’m already searching the maps."

"Not just the old ones. I want every version of the frontier recognized by the Hollow Throne since Aldren’s death."

Irelia added:

"And every territorial dispute that occurred during that period. If the Throne recorded any of them as unresolved, the custodian may consider them active."

Amelia called to someone outside the image.

Papers began moving.

Yggdrasil spoke through the other crystal.

"Kael."

He looked.

The forest behind her had changed.

The ground was open.

Not like graves being dug from below.

The roots were simply pulling apart, removing soil with disturbing precision.

Between them, bones were slowly beginning to emerge, some still separated, others moving closer together.

An entire tree trembled.

Dozens of roots lifted a collection of ribs, arms, legs, and skulls belonging to different people, arranging everything around a rusted suit of armor buried at the center.

The hand closed.

Then the arm.

The figure of bones stood.

There was no light in its eyes.

No flame.

No visible spirit.

Even so, it turned precisely toward the east.

Another figure rose.

Then another.

Violet appeared beside the transmission.

"We have confirmation."

Kael stared.

The dead did not roar.

They did not attack one another.

They did not wander without direction.

They formed a line.

The first rank positioned itself before the trees.

The second emerged behind it.

Corroded weapons were pulled from the earth and fitted into hands built from the bones of more than one body.

Then all of them stamped their feet at the same time.

Once.

The earth trembled.

Varon went pale.

"First Regiment."

Kael looked at him.

"How many?"

"When it was buried?"

"Yes."

Varon answered quietly:

"One thousand two hundred."

In the crystal, more trees began opening their roots.

Kael looked back at Irelia.

"How long to stabilize Meridia?"

She was already gathering the documents.

"One hour."

"Do it in forty minutes."

"Kael."

"I know. Without destroying the legal chain."

She took a deep breath.

"Forty-five."

"Deal."

Sylphie looked at him.

"You are not running there alone."

"No."

"Nor using the Step to cross two hundred kilometers."

"I know."

"Nor—"

Kael raised one hand.

"I really know."

She studied his face and, this time, seemed to believe him.

In the crystal, the First Regiment turned in perfect synchronization.

Not east.

West.

Toward Meridia.

Varon lost all color.

"That should not be happening."

Kael watched the rows of dead begin marching.

"Then it looks like we found our first question for the general."

The Garden of Bones page wrote a new line.

FRONTIER INTERPRETATION COMPLETE.

DEFENSIVE DESTINATION: CAPITAL OF VAEL.

Kael looked toward the city above their heads.

Meridia.

The old capital.

And slowly exhaled.

"Of course."

This time, no one laughed.