As Asher handed the sixth Sovereign Key to Valeris, the world beyond the Ashen Conflux stirred with unease. The death of Zar-Kethel, the Keeper of the Gluttoned Seal, sent ripples through the arcane and spiritual realms, unsettling those attuned to such disturbances.
****
Back in the realms beyond shadow—where the void hummed in disharmony, and stars died with songs unheard—the Devourer Cult watched.
Not through eyes.
But through mouths.
Countless, watching mouths—carved into obsidian altars, stitched into robes, etched into flesh—turned silently toward the Ashen Conflux. There, where the Maw of Chains had fallen and now where Zar-Kethel had been unmade, the threads of prophecy frayed.
A high priestess knelt beneath the gullet-shaped altar, her skin tight over a hundred hungry eyes. "The sixth mouth has been sealed."
A writhing figure above her—half-rotted, crowned with tongues—let out a long, rasping moan. "The Gluttoned Seal… devoured from within."
