Kaelen stood at the edge of the valley, looking back at what remained of Elderrest. The village was no more than a smoldering ruin, its skeleton reduced to ash and memory. There was nothing left to salvage, no trace of the life that had once thrived here, and yet, he felt the weight of it on his shoulders.
The air was thick with something unseen, like an echo that hadn't fully dissipated. His eyes narrowed as he gripped the hilt of Hollow Spine, the weapon that had become a part of him since that fateful night, the night it had found its way into his hands.
It had been what was left from his lineage. A weapon forged from the beast that had ravaged their kingdom long ago. The spine of that monstrous creature had been twisted into this form part blade, part whip and part curse.
The weapon's magic, deep and old, had always felt dormant, hidden beneath layers of history. At least, that's what Kaelen had believed. But now, something felt...different. The usual stillness in the weapon's weight was gone, replaced with an almost hum of life.
Kaelen glanced down at Hollow Spine. The edges of the blade shimmered faintly, almost imperceptibly, but enough for him to notice. A chill ran through him.
A small sound drew his attention back to the path ahead, the faintest scraping noise like a whisper in the wind. Kaelen's hand instinctively tightened around the weapon's hilt, his instincts flaring. He shook his head, as if trying to rid himself of a growing unease.
But he couldn't.
He felt it again,a pulse. Like the weapon itself had drawn from the magic that had bled into the world from the destruction of Elderrest.
Kaelen took a cautious step forward, then another, and another, until his boots sank deep into the damp soil. With each step, the pulse grew stronger, a distant resonance humming through him, and Hollow Spine seemed to respond. He could feel the shift in the air, something dark yet ancient stirring beneath the surface.
What the hell was this?
The ruins of Elderrest seemed to hold its breath as Kaelen moved through the fallen village, following the pull of the strange magic. His thoughts were clouded, distracted, but there was a quiet whisper in his mind, a sense that the weapon Hollow Spine knew more than he did.
It had absorbed something.
He didn't know what it was, but he felt its presence now, as if the very air carried traces of its power. The further he walked from Elderrest, the more pronounced it became. And then he realized: it wasn't just the runes or the remains of the village's destruction. The energy seemed to be centered on him, on Hollow Spine.
Something inside him shifted, but Kaelen remained oblivious to its full extent. The weapon had been linked to him since he had first taken it, but now it was beginning to awaken, pulling him closer to its secrets.
As he moved further, the pull began to grow more insistent. Magic, from a time long gone, now woke inside him, churning under the weight of his every step. But Kaelen didn't notice the subtle shift. He only felt an increasing heaviness, a presence creeping at the edges of his awareness.
The weapon's curse, inherited from a time long past, was waking. Slowly. Unseen. But it was beginning to answer the call of something far darker.
And Kaelen was unknowingly carrying its burden.