The letter arrived in a raven's claw.
Its seal was old—wax stamped with the Crown of Thorns, an emblem Kael hadn't seen since he was a boy hiding behind the palace pillars. It meant only one thing.
The royal bloodline knows he's alive.
The Gathering Storm
Kael stood over a ridge, overlooking Elarion, the last city before the capital. Its spires shimmered like gold teeth in the fading light, but beneath the beauty lay corruption—another nest of cult influence, hidden in silk robes and cathedral walls.
Nira scanned the letter again. "So the king offers you a pardon. A seat at his side."
Kael laughed bitterly. "He offers a leash."
"Why now?"
"Because the cults are afraid. Because the people are whispering my name in the streets. Because they're starting to hope."
Ash, leaning against a boulder, cracked his knuckles. "Hope is dangerous. Kings kill hope before it grows teeth."
Inside Elarion
They entered the city under false names.
While Raen and Iris blended into the market crowd, Kael and Ash approached the Temple of the Hollow Sun—a supposed sanctuary, but Kael could feel it. The same sick heat, the rot behind the walls, the presence that echoed in his blood.
Inside, masked priests chanted softly. One of them turned to Kael with a too-wide smile.
"We've been expecting you, Godborn."
Kael's blade was already halfway drawn.
But before steel clashed, Ash grabbed his shoulder. "Wait."
A trap. But not yet sprung.
The priest stepped forward, holding a box. Inside—an old, rusted sigil fragment, carved with the mark Kael had seen in his visions: The Ashen Gate.
"You don't know who you are, do you?" the priest whispered. "Not really. But we do. And we remember your kind."
Kael's pulse thundered.
The gate wasn't a metaphor.
It was real.
And it was opening.
Iris's Discovery
Elsewhere in Elarion, Iris found a secret: a codex of prophecy hidden in the library's restricted vaults. Written in the same ancient tongue Kael had spoken, it told of the Ashborn King, who would rise when fire met blood.
But the last line chilled her:
"He will either save the realms... or unmake them."