The village ahead was silent but not empty
Kael could smell the rot before he saw the first body slumped against the well its skin peeled back by claw and heat as if something had wanted to erase its name from the world
Needle stayed behind a fallen cart his small hands shaking as he gripped the broken wood Kael didn't tell him to stay the boy had learned on his own how to fear
Ash covered the ground not from fire but from magic burned too hot to leave anything behind a cursefire blast Kael remembered the markings remembered the way the towers burned the night his kingdom died
They moved slowly through the village each step careful every door pushed open was a gamble between empty and enemy
In the center was a tree nailed with heads no ropes just iron nailed through skulls with sigils carved beneath them
A warning or maybe a message
Kael touched one of the sigils and it flared warm his brand pulsed in response
They were watching again
A woman's voice rang out from the chapel not soft but full of hate
If you've come to loot you'll leave with arrows in your back
Kael raised his hand showing the brand
I didn't come to steal I came to bury
Silence then the chapel door creaked open and she stepped out armor dented sword cracked hair like smoke her eyes locked on Kael not with fear but with judgment
You're cursed she said
And still alive he answered
She nodded once that was enough
Name's Vael former knight of the South Wall
Kael
Just Kael
They buried the villagers together every body wrapped in cloth every grave marked with a word even if it was just Mother or Brother
Vael watched him with strange eyes
You're not just surviving you're remembering
Kael said nothing but the weight in his chest agreed
Needle helped carry small bones when he could never crying just staring
That night they sat by a fire that barely burned and shared silence like old soldiers
Vael finally spoke
The gods didn't die they were murdered and the ones who did it walk this land now
Kael looked into the fire
Good then they can bleed
---
Mini Side Story – The Boy Called Needle
Before Kael found him Needle had another name
He lived in a village now bones under ash his mother sang to him every dusk her lullabies thick with stories of stars and wolves
When the slavers came his father ran first
Needle did not cry he just stopped speaking
The men who took him laughed when he bit one so they named him Needle for the sting
He bit all of them until his teeth cracked
They stopped laughing after that
When Kael came for him he didn't trust him not at first but the moment Kael shared his last piece of bread something shifted
Not trust not hope just recognition
Monsters didn't share food
But broken people did