Some truths are not revealed by gods, but by sleep that bleeds…
"There are two worlds. The one you shape.
And the one that whispers to you while you sleep — shaping you back."
— The Dream-Weavers of Hollowwake, burned from history by Soltharyn priests
I.
Kammy never asked for the curse.
It came to her when she first held a blade made of regret — a weapon carved from the bones of those who had died screaming her name, begging her to stop.
That was before Embersong.
Before Reginal.
Before she became something other than girl, other than soldier.
The curse entered her like smoke through a cracked window — quietly, and then all at once.
She began to dream.
Not in color. Not in sound.
But in memory.
Memories that did not belong to her.
II.
At night, she fell into the Dream-Curse Realm — a fog-drenched wasteland where mirrors did not reflect, but accused, and the ground pulsed like living skin beneath her boots.
There, she walked through futures.
Futures of blood. Of glory. Of regret.
She saw herself slitting the throat of a god.
She saw Milo weeping in chains.
She saw Reginal… crowned, but alone.
His eyes were black. His smile was wrong. His hands were no longer hands — they were sigils carved into flesh, always shifting, always hungry.
"This is not a throne," the voice in the dream whispered to her.
"This is a burial stone for every other world that might have been."
III.
On the seventh dream, Kammy found herself standing in a ruined chapel made of teeth.
Inside, she met a version of herself she could barely recognize — older, wiser, broken.
The older Kammy carried no blades.
Only a scar where her heart used to be.
"You let him go too far," the echo said.
"You let him become the God-Fang. You didn't pull him back."
"I believed in him," Kammy whispered.
"So did I. And now I kneel to no man… because there are no men left. Only what he became."
The chapel shook.
Then the sky peeled open.
And Kammy woke up screaming.
IV.
When she rose from her bed in the Emberhall, drenched in cold sweat and dagger in hand, Milo was already there — sitting against the wall, wide-eyed.
"Let me guess," he said.
"You saw it again."
Kammy nodded.
She looked toward the great hall, where Reginal stood alone, staring into the fire as if the flame was asking him questions he hadn't answered yet.
"He's changing," she said.
"We all are."
"No. This is… different. The First Fang whispers to him. But something else is starting to shout."
"Then we shout louder," Milo said.
"No," Kammy whispered. "We remember who he is. So he doesn't forget."
V.
And that night, before the battle for the Golden City began, Kammy left a single message beneath Reginal's blade.
It read:
"If the day comes when you forget yourself…
I will remind you.
Even if I must kill you to do it."
END SIDE CHAPTER.
The Dream-Curse deepens… but Kammy does not break.
⚔️ CHAPTER VIII — The Golden City and the Godless Crown
Coming Next: The siege of Soltharyn. The sun-god still lives. But Reginal is the storm that eats stars.