Blackstone was never quiet.
Even in the dead of night, the keep breathed — iron groaning as it settled, slaves coughing through sleep, embers crackling in forgotten hearths.
But tonight...
Tonight was different.
The silence felt wrong.
Tense.
Like a blade drawn, waiting for blood.
Kaia moved like smoke through the halls — silent, untraceable.
Her claws had been dulled. Her strength, worn thin by weeks of labor.
But her instincts?
Unbroken.
She was Frostfang.
Even if the world had tried to strip it from her.
Kaia found him alone in the upper sanctum — the heart of rot pulsing behind silk-draped arrogance.
Kaia struck before the Overseer could scream. One moment he was turning toward the sound of footsteps — the next, her blade was buried beneath his ribs.
Rei followed a step behind, just in time to see the life drain from the Overseer's eyes.
No hesitation. No wasted motion.
Kaia twisted the knife with a hunter's precision, her breath calm as snowfall.
"This is for my grove," she murmured.
The Overseer collapsed in a tangle of silk and blood, fingers twitching once before going still.
Rei stared — not in horror, but in understanding.
Kaia didn't look back. "Come on," she said. "We're not done."
Rei obediently followed — quiet in ways he didn't yet understand.
His bare feet padded across stone, his breath steady, body tight with awareness.
No blade in hand — only echoes.
Memories that weren't memories.
Steel clashing. Timing. Twin swords flashing through air.
Not training.
Muscle memory.
A forgotten dance.
Kaia glanced back at him. His eyes weren't wild.
They were sharp.
Focused.
And beneath that focus… something ancient stirred.
"Stay close," she whispered.
"If we're separated — follow the cold."
Rei furrowed his brow. "The cold?"
"I'll leave a trail."
She didn't explain. She didn't need to.
They reached the cell yards first.
Only one guard — now slumped at the gate, lifeblood soaking the stone.
Kaia dragged him into shadow, wiped her blade clean, and moved on like snowfall across stone.
Rei knelt beside a cell.
Inside — a beastkin boy, small and starved, curled into himself.
Behind him, an older man with a limp stared back.
Their eyes met — no words. Just understanding.
"They'll slow us down," Kaia said, cold but not cruel.
Rei's jaw tensed.
"No one gets left behind."
Kaia looked at him sharply. But said nothing.
A moment later, the cell door creaked open.
The group grew.
More beastkin. A few humans. Even a mute woman with brands across her throat and fire in her eyes.
Not all would make it.
But some would.
And some was enough.
Then—
The bells.
A sharp screech, metal on metal, echoing through the corridors like banshee wails.
Kaia hissed a curse under her breath.
"We're out of time."
Rei turned to her, voice low.
"Take them. Go."
Kaia stiffened. "What are you doing?"
"I'll draw them off."
"That's suicide."
"Maybe." He tapped his chest. The brand pulsed faintly beneath his tunic.
"But I'm marked. Might as well make it mean something."
She stared at him.
Measured the madness in his eyes.
And saw that it wasn't madness.
It was conviction.
A pause. Then, softly:
"Don't die."
He gave her a crooked smile. "Not planning to."
She vanished down the side corridor, vanishing into stone with the rescued.
Rei turned toward the sound of boots.
The guards came fast.
But the Void moved faster.
It didn't scream. It didn't roar.
It guided.
His limbs were no longer his — they were instruments.
The brand flared violet. Shadows coiled at his feet like wolves.
He struck.
Wild. Messy.
But effective.
One fell.
Then another.
Steel rang. Blood sang.
**
Beyond the Keep, across the black dunes…
A figure in bone-white robes stood watching.
The fires of Blackstone cast long flickers in his hollow eyes.
He held a crystal to his ear.
A voice, crackling with static and divination:
"The Riftborn awakens."
"Should we intervene?" a second voice asked behind him.
The robed man smiled — slow and thin.
"No…
Let him run.
Let him bleed.
Let him remember."