My Shard Bearer System - Elias's Legacy
Chapter 116: Flock of Feathers

Chapter 116: Flock of Feathers

The video began to play.

They were already standing there.

Seven of them. Spread across a raised platform, each spaced just far enough apart to carry presence. Different heights, builds, stances—but all still. No shifting. No nerves. Just eyes on the camera, like they could see through it.

Elias’s gaze locked on the woman in the center. Tall. Towering, almost. Blue hair draped clean down her back like silk cut from ice. He didn’t know her name, but something about the way she held her shoulders—it wasn’t new. Not a soldier. Something older. Maybe military once. Maybe something worse.

Behind her, her Ikona floated silently. Wide-bodied. No legs. Long arms that hung lower than they should. Its fingers didn’t stop moving.

She raised her arm slowly. Held something.

A head.

It dripped from the base. Short dark hair. Familiar jawline. Dragnovik.

Kikaru’s breath caught. Paul stepped forward, but didn’t say a word.

The woman dropped the head without a word.

It hit the ground and rolled into the light.

"Your warden sends his regrets," she said. "He died like a loyal dog. Loud. Proud. Wrong."

The screen lit back up.

Elias leaned forward without thinking.

They were already there—seven of them. No formation. Just standing apart on cracked tile, each facing the camera in their own way. Some straight. Some angled. One with arms crossed like this wasn’t worth their time. They didn’t speak at first.

Then the woman stepped forward. She was tall. Maybe taller than Kikaru by a full head. Blue hair. Straight. Fell past her waist. Military boots. Civilian jacket. One glove on.

She pulled a chair into frame. Flipped it backward and sat down with her arms resting across the top. No rush. Like they had all the time in the world.

"Cycles," she said. No greeting. Just that. "Every few years, someone new takes the crown. New promises. New problems."

Behind her, one of the others stepped aside. He dragged a body into view. The clothes were half-burned, soaked through. Another body followed—dropped face-first. Then more. Each one with less care.

Elias didn’t count them. He didn’t want to.

"We got told it would be different after the war," she went on. "After the invasion. After the dust settled."

She tilted her head back, stretched her neck once, then leaned forward again.

"But here we are. Same names. Same chains. Just painted nicer."

Her voice was steady. Flat.

Kikaru hadn’t moved.

"We’ve taken Vardency," the woman said. "Not claimed. Not declared. Taken."

She nodded once, like that settled it.

"If you want to live under us, you’ll work. Clean. Carry. Fight. That’s the deal."

Behind her, someone crouched beside the body pile and started pulling tags off uniforms. Tossed them onto the ground. No words.

"If you stand in the way," she said, eyes still on the lens, "you’ll end up the same."

No hand wave. No gesture to the corpses. Just the sentence.

"We didn’t pick this. The world made it this way. So we’re making it ours."

Another figure in the back muttered something, but it didn’t carry. One leaned on a weapon. One just watched, arms hanging loose.

"If there’s anyone listening with a shard," she said, "and you’re tired of being a project—come find us."

Her face didn’t shift.

"We’re not family. We’re not heroes. But we don’t lie."

That was it.

The screen dimmed slightly, then held on static for a moment before shifting back to black.

Elias didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath until he let it go.

He cleared his throat, hand pressing lightly to his chest. Still watching the screen, still thinking it might turn back on.

"Well, shit," he muttered, glancing toward Geras. "Feels like everyone hates the military these days."

Geras didn’t answer at first. Just looked at him. Then exhaled through his nose.

"There’s twenty billion people on this planet," he said. "Someone’s always going to be pissed. Especially when the ground keeps shifting under them."

He adjusted the cuff of his sleeve, voice flat but not defensive.

"Most regions support what we’re doing. Logistics, supply chains, infrastructure... our ability to track and balance product flow keeps things stable. That matters more than people like to admit."

Paul raised an eyebrow but didn’t speak.

"It’s not perfect," Geras added. "Greed still finds a way in. Corruption too. But the alternative is letting everything collapse."

He turned back to the console.

"What that group’s done... what they’re doing. We can’t afford to brush it aside. There are over two million Federation troops stationed across Vardency. And if this keeps up, they’ll be slaughtered in waves."

Kikaru’s arms stayed folded. She didn’t argue.

"Do we even have the bandwidth for this?" she asked. "We’re still dealing with Silas. Vincent. And that woman who took the other Warden."

Geras nodded once.

"That’s why we commissioned twelve. Some of them’ll be focused on Vincent and Silas’s group—tracking, probing. The rest are getting pushed out to the fringe zones. Trying to find more shard users."

He scratched his chin. "Ever since the frequency shift, we’ve lost track of new ones. Signal’s scrambled. Science team’s working on it, but it’s not stable yet."

Kikaru didn’t shift her stance. Just stared at him.

"So you didn’t bring us in just to give a status report," she said. "You showed us that clip for a reason."

Geras met her eyes and nodded once.

"Yeah," he said. "I did."

His hand hovered near the console for a second before settling flat.

"A few months ago, I didn’t have to make these calls. I was just focused on throughput. Tens of millions rotated through under my watch—training, assignment, deployment. I stayed behind the curtain."

Paul didn’t move. Just watched him.

"Then the shards hit. And suddenly all the old systems didn’t fit anymore. Someone said I had a softer tone than the other Wardens. That I could adapt."

Geras shrugged once.

"So I’ve been adapting."

Geras looked at him.

Not the group. Just Elias.