The wind howled over the frozen spine of the Rimefang Mountains.
High above the cloud line, tucked into the sheer cliffs where mortals dared not climb, lay a ruin older than language—a shattered ziggurat once used to bind Titans in slumber. Now, its altars burned again with purple flame.
Maeryn knelt at its center.
She was bleeding. Not from wounds of flesh, but from the strain. The Titan Essence writhed inside her—half-woken, half-chained. It was power unlike any she had touched. Power that resisted her, even as it empowered her.
Her shadow warped unnaturally across the stone.
"You're early," came a voice from the dark.
Maeryn didn't turn. "I came because I lost. Because he was stronger. Again."
A woman stepped from the void—a tall, elegant figure cloaked in robes woven from starlight and silence. Her mask gleamed silver, and her presence pulled heat from the air. "Loss is not failure, Maeryn. It is the cost of transformation."
"I gave it everything. The Titan's breath, the corrupted marrow, my own soul—and still, Alaric stood."
"Because he has not yet chosen his burden," the woman said. "You have."
Maeryn looked up. Her eyes were glowing cracks in her face. "Then help me win."
From the shadows behind the masked woman stepped four others.
Voidbinders. Cloaked and marked by their domains—Entropy, Hunger, Silence, and Time.
"You're no longer a stray," the masked leader said. "You've bound yourself to something vast. We accept your place among us, Maeryn. From this moment, you are no longer a rogue flame. You are a Blade of the Deep Void."
The stone beneath Maeryn's knees pulsed.
And she smiled, finally.
Calven's Rest – Council Quarter
Alaric stood before a tribunal of silver-robed councilors, his arms crossed behind his back. He wore no armor now—only ceremonial blacks marked by the Crucible's insignia. His aether still flickered faintly, even in stillness.
"I reported the Voidbinder infiltration four days before the Titan Vault opened," he said, voice calm but sharp. "You did nothing."
A murmur passed through the gathered nobles.
Lord Varen stood at the center of the dais. He wore a gentle smile, the kind that rarely meant kindness.
"Bold words, Alaric. But you're still a Mythforged apprentice. You have no jurisdiction to make accusations of Council negligence."
"And yet I'm the one cleaning up your mistakes."
Lysera stood nearby, silent but watching. She knew this game—how truths became inconvenient when politics took hold.
Varen stepped forward, lowering his voice. "You're a weapon, Alaric. We don't blame the weapon for the fire. We simply choose when to unsheathe it."
"I'm not your blade," Alaric said, stepping closer. "Not anymore."
A sharp breath echoed through the hall.
Varen's eyes darkened. "Careful. That sort of defiance makes enemies."
Alaric didn't blink. "So be it."
Later – The Training Grounds
Kael stood shirtless under a massive iron rod as it crackled with lightning—his wind core thrumming, guiding the strikes toward his body before deflecting them outward. Controlled chaos danced around him.
"You're pushing harder than usual," Lysera said from the steps nearby.
He grunted. "Gotta keep up."
She smirked. "You're not behind."
"Alaric's Mythforged. You're a mirrorblessed assassin. And me? I've got a trial I barely survived and a core that burns hotter every day. If I don't master it..."
"It'll master you?"
Kael nodded. "Storms don't obey."
"Then maybe don't tame the storm," Lysera said. "Become it."
Somewhere East – Edge of the Cracked Sea
Maeryn stood alone beneath a starless sky.
The Voidbinder expedition behind her had unearthed something vast—an obelisk taller than a mountain, pulsing with time-locked aether. Glyphs drifted in and out of phase. The air hissed with ancient intent.
"Ready?" asked the masked woman, stepping beside her.
Maeryn nodded. "Let them chase relics and rules. I'll forge a new truth."
Behind her, Titan-forged armor wrapped around her limbs like living obsidian.
She turned toward the sea.
"I want him to see it. The world he's trying to save? I'll show him what it becomes when we stop pretending it's worth saving."