The Phantom of the Veil
There is a place in 4EverMore where even the bravest dare not tread. A forgotten ruin, veiled in mist and myth, known only as The Shrouded Keep.
The castle stands silent. Empty. Yet, it is never truly abandoned.
For within its walls, a shadow lingers.
A man. A phantom. A specter of sorrow and devotion.
They say he was once a knight—Sir Evander, sworn to protect the kingdom’s most precious treasure. Not gold. Not power. But a princess.
Princess Isolde, the jewel of the court. Her beauty was legend, her kindness unmatched. But it was her love for Evander that sealed her fate.
She was promised to a king—a cruel, aging ruler who sought her hand for a political alliance.
She did not love him. She did not even fear him.
She only loved Evander.
And he loved her.
A week before her wedding, the lovers made a choice. They would flee.
But the king was not so easily deceived.
Before dawn broke, his men descended upon them. Isolde was taken. Evander was slain.
Or so they thought.
His body was never found. Only his sword remained, bathed in blood, resting upon the castle’s threshold as though left behind in silent defiance.
However, The wedding, it never took place.
For on that night when the torches died and the candles flickered out from the darkness, a voice whispered through the halls of the kings Castle.
“She was never yours to take.”
The king was gone by morning.
The guards searched the kingdom.
They never found him.
Ever since that night those who wander too close to The Shrouded Keep still hear the echoes of Sir Evander. The whisper of steel being drawn. The sound of a name spoken with devotion and rage.
Some say he waits for her still, his soul bound to the keep, unwilling to rest until Isolde returns to him. Others believe he walks the world as a ghost of vengeance, punishing those who steal love from the innocent.
But the most terrifying tale of all?
Some claim to have seen him.
Not as a phantom. Not as a memory. But as a man, unchanged by time, untouched by death.
Still waiting.
Still watching.
Still whispering her name.
And woe to any who dare stand between him and his love.
Yet… there is one thing none can explain.
If he came for her that night… why did he leave without her?
Perhaps when Evander arrived, what he found was not the woman he had fought for, but a ghost of the girl she had once been.
Or maybe she had never been there at all?
Or perhaps… just perhaps… she was waiting for him somewhere else all along.
Perhaps she still is.
Perhaps she was never truly lost at all.
Perhaps, within the heart of The Shrouded Keep, where no living soul dares to tread…
She stands beside him still.
Waiting.
Watching.
And woe to any who would try to steal love from the hands of fate again.
When the full moon rises over The Shrouded Keep, maybe it’s not just Evander’s voice that echoes through the halls… but hers.
No one really knows.
🖤🩸
