The wind across the Hollow Spiral shifted.
It carried no scent.
But Kael felt it all the same.
A presence older than vengeance.
One he once bled beside.
And bled because of.
---
He stood at the edge of a field where stars had once rained like broken teeth. The ground here had not healed—not since that day. Craters scarred the stone. Bones, half-turned to ash, remained embedded in the cliffside walls.
This was the battlefield of Erothis Prime.
The place where trust had burned.
The place where he died the first time.
---
He didn't flinch.
But something behind his gaze shifted. A flicker.
The past wasn't knocking—it was kicking down the door.
---
⟢ Elsewhere, Underneath Time
The First Betrayer walked the nightwinds.
Every step drew sparks.
He was not cloaked in power—he was made of it. Shaped from the marrow of gods who had trusted too deeply, sculpted by oaths once whispered at the ends of dying galaxies.
And in his chest, the wound Kael had given him still burned.
> "He lives."
> "And he remembers," he murmured.
> "Good."
He looked upward, toward the Hollow Spiral where Kael stood.
His silver eyes narrowed.
> "Then let's remind each other what we became."
---
⟢ Now
Kael moved into the shattered atrium of the fallen observatory.
Ancient gears turned despite being broken. Floating prisms spun in shattered rhythms. Echoes of long-dead star monks lingered as whispers in the dust.
But Kael heard none of them.
He heard only one voice.
> "You once called me brother."
The words weren't spoken aloud.
They were etched across the sky.
Kael did not reply.
He walked onward.
But the pull grew heavier.
Each step dragged the weight of memory, and with it came the pain not even gods could erase.
---
⟢ A Memory Rekindled
A flash.
Two figures—Kael and the Betrayer—standing beneath a sky of black suns.
Blood on their hands.
Victory at their feet.
And a promise:
> "No matter what comes, we stand together."
That promise died not long after.
Not in battle.
But in betrayal.
---
Kael paused before the old celestial altar.
Carved with symbols that once bound their oaths.
Now? Dust.
He stared.
His voice came low.
> "I will not mourn you again."
The altar cracked.
The symbol shattered.
And somewhere, not far away…
The First Betrayer smiled.