ria stood silent f

rs passed it by with hushed prayers or curses, depending on which gods they still be

ndisturbed, b

hing grew

-

red throne room where Elirya once ruled

fi

li

se

ident. Left be

h necrotic power. His spirit was gone, devoured-but the magic, the knowledge, had soaked into the stone.

ld fo

-

ed beneath the sunless sky. She didn't cry when her mother died of frostbite. Didn't scream when her father fed himself t

barefoot. The dead

wat

e b

-

ombs, she fo

ouche

ope

on, her failures. She saw Kael, felt his rage like a sun bene

she l

a small

f Velmori

-

built

ca

the l

fragments of will and memory, too shattered to serve, too potent to forget. She gave them form-not flesh, but

calle

-Sove

en. Not

thin

-

ty and tyranny, Avelune rule

ked no

broken provinces-those same five t

ed by grief or loss. They stoo

stion in t

d? What if memory was sovere

Kael once walked to kill a q

old. Not

remem

no longer wal

lked to