View source for Opalina (prime)/The Hall of the King

=The Hall of the King=

{{creative-work
|title = The Hall of the King
|type = essay
|author = Opalina Jalcon
|author-displayed = [[Opalina (prime)|Opalina Jalcon]]
|date = 7-22-2026
}}

''From the journals of Opalina Jalcon- 2002''

The light should have been comforting.

It poured through the ice in radiant shafts, washing the chamber in brilliant white until I could scarcely keep my eyes open. At the center stood a simple altar, untouched, immaculate, before a mural so immense it seemed to watch every soul who entered. The air thrummed with power—not cruel, not gentle, simply absolute. It felt older than kingdoms and colder than winter itself.

I searched.

Around the altar.
Behind it.
Beneath it.

Nothing.

No hidden passage. No forgotten inscription. No clue to explain why my heart had begun racing before I'd even crossed the threshold.

Then the voice came.

Not through my ears.

Through my mind.

"We have now been released... but just because we are free, we will not relinquish our hold upon you. We shall return."

Ice ran through my veins, but not from the chamber.

From them.

I growled like a cornered beast, more instinct than thought. Anything to drown out that impossible whisper. My own voice followed, louder, stronger.

"You have no hold on me."

The words echoed through the chamber.

I needed to hear them as much as whatever haunted me did.

Draques arrived then, as if Koar Himself had answered an unspoken prayer. He wrapped me in a brief embrace before drawing his lute. Soft notes drifted through the frozen hall, wrapping around me like a warm cloak. The melody slowed my breathing, quieted the panic clawing at my ribs.

For a heartbeat...

...the darkness retreated.

Then the voice laughed.

"I shall continue to grasp at you as long as your lifeforce remains strong. You shall not hide. You CANNOT hide from us."

My fists clenched.

I could feel it probing, pressing against every crack in my resolve, searching for fear like water finding a fracture in stone.

"I must search," I whispered aloud.

There had to be something here.

Some answer.

Some way to break whatever tether these things believed they held.

Draques prayed.

His voice carried Koar's name through the chamber, and with it came a peace I could actually feel. It settled over my shoulders like unseen hands bidding me stand firm.

"You cannot touch us," I answered the voice.

Not because I entirely believed it...

...but because I refused to let it hear uncertainty.

"I will not be yours. Ever."

Draques looked at me with growing concern.

"Is one of the Nine speaking with you?"

"Yes," I admitted. "Gotta search."

How strange those words sounded against the enormity of what was happening.

As though finding a hidden compartment in the wall could somehow silence an ancient evil whispering inside my skull.

But rogues solve problems.

We search.

We pry.

We find what others overlook.

Somewhere there had to be a weakness.

A lock.

A hidden mechanism.

Something.

"Got to find a way..."

"...to break them."

He never questioned me.

He simply opened himself to the journey, joining my side without hesitation.

That loyalty steadied me more than I could ever tell him.

Then...

The voice returned one final time.

"We shall see, my dear. We shall see. You will not hide and I shall find you soon. I must feed more upon your lifeforce."

My stomach twisted.

It wasn't making threats.

It was making promises.

I growled again, refusing to give it silence.

"I will not share myself with you."

"I am not for you."

The words came from somewhere deeper than courage.

From defiance.

From stubbornness.

From the simple truth that my soul belonged to no darkness.

Draques laid another blessing upon me.

Pure white light shimmered around my body.

Koar's guidance.

Koar's protection.

Faith wrapped itself around me like polished armor, invisible but unmistakable.

"It's frustrated," I finally realized aloud.

The hunter had failed.

For today.

"But not finished."

Neither was I.

The battle was no longer against hidden passages or forgotten relics.

It had become a war for something far more precious.

My own mind.

My own spirit.

And if these shadows believed they would someday claim me...

...they had gravely underestimated the woman they had chosen to haunt.

I am Opalina Gemiena.

A rogue who survives by finding the unseen.

Let them come.

I'll be searching for them, too.