Location:Unnamed mountain spine north of the CindermarchWeather: Windless. Soundless. The sky does not move here.
Orien stood alone at the edge of the stone basin — a hollow carved into the bones of the mountain, miles above the tree line. No path led here. No record named it.
And yet she had followed the thread to this place without a map.The leyline had pulled.
Above her, the cliffs rose like jagged wings. At their base was a smooth wall of blackstone — no symbols, no cracks, no doors.
But she could feel it.
The hum beneath her boots.The coil in her blood.
He was buried behind that wall.
Thaleon the Bound.
The last to wear the Hollow Crown.
The one who had shattered it.
The one who had tried — and failed — to carry the world's weight without becoming its cage.
Inside the Wall
She did not knock.
She did not speak.
She pressed her palm to the stone — not with strength, but with resonance.
Her body carried three fragments of the Crown now. The leyline recognized her.
The wall unsealed with a sound like a held breath finally exhaled.
Darkness bled out — slow, thick, and cold.
Orien stepped inside.
The Chamber of Stillness
There were no torches. No wards. No guardians.
Just a corridor of smooth black glass that absorbed all light and gave none back. The air pressed in like velvet soaked in snow.
At the far end, she found it:
A single stone bier.
Upon it: a body, preserved without magic.Skin pale. Hands folded. No decay.As if he had only just closed his eyes.
But there was no crown. Only a small, scorched indentation above his brow. A circle burned into the stone.
And on the far wall — just as the Accord file had said — the writing carved from within:
Let none wear it again.Let none unchain the chained.
Beneath it: the scratched eye.
What She Came For
Orien did not touch the body.
Instead, she knelt beside the bier and placed the third fragment — just acquired from the ruins of Delharis — beside her own.
She arranged them into a triangle.
And she listened.
A low, rhythmic sound thrummed from below.
Not a heartbeat.
Not breath.
A voice, trapped somewhere beneath the world:
"One wore me and wept.""You carry me and do not tremble.""Why?"
Orien closed her eyes.
"Because I won't wield you," she whispered."I will break you."
The fragments glowed. Not with power — with resistance.
But they did not reject her.
A Final Glimpse – Eyes That Opened Too Late
As she turned to leave, she paused — because the air shifted.
And behind her…
Thaleon's eyes opened.
Not fully. Just a sliver.
Dead eyes.But not empty.
And as the door sealed behind her once more, she heard — or thought she heard — a voice that was not hers:
"You do not know what waits at the center."
"But you will."