The sea turned to blood at dusk.
Sunrei gripped the ship's rail as the water darkened beneath them, the waves churning crimson under a sickly yellow sky. The change had come suddenly one moment clear blue, the next this unnatural hue that made Kaelis's knives tremble in their sheaths.
Ryna stood at the prow, her tattooed arms raised. The Pillar approaches.
Sunrei's golden brand pulsed in time with the ship's progress, each throb sending liquid fire through his veins. He'd seen this place before not in memory, but in dreams. A tower of black stone rising from the sea, its surface carved with faces he almost recognized.
Liri clutched the ship's mast, her silver hair whipping in the growing wind. Something's wrong.
The words had barely left her lips when the screaming began.
Not human.
Not animal.
Something in between.
The Pillar wasn't a ruin.
It was a cage.
The black stone monolith rose from the blood-dark waves, its surface writhing with chains not iron, but something organic, pulsing like veins. And at its base, half-submerged, floated the bodies.
Dozens of them. Hundreds.
Each branded.
Each alive.
Their mouths moved in unison as the ship drew near, their voices blending into a single, hollow cry:
Prince.
Kaelis drew her knives. We should turn back.
Ryna's crew fell to their knees, their tattoos glowing faintly. No turning back, Ryna whispered. "Not now.
Sunrei's golden brand burned, its light cutting through the unnatural dusk. The branded ones recoiled, their hollow eyes fixed on his wrist.
One broke free of the chains.
Then another.
Then
All of them.
The battle was brief and brutal.
Sunrei fought with more than steel his golden brand lashed out like a whip of liquid fire, searing through the branded ones as they clambered aboard. They didn't bleed. They dissolved, their forms unraveling into black mist that stank of rotting flowers.
Kaelis fought back-to-back with Liri, her knives finding the gaps in the branded ones' defenses. They're not trying to kill us! she shouted over the chaos. They're herding us!
Sunrei realized she was right.
The branded ones weren't attacking they were corralling, driving the survivors toward the Pillar's base, where the chains hung slack.
Waiting.
Ryna appeared at Sunrei's side, her tattoos now glowing violet. You have to go inside.
Sunrei's brand flared. Why?
Her answer chilled him:
Because you're the key.
Then she pushed him overboard.
The water wasn't water.
It was memory.
Sunrei sank through layers of time, his golden brand lighting glimpses of moments he'd never lived:
A silver-haired child pressing a brand to a kneeling man's wrist.
A tower rising from the sea.
A voice whispering: This is how we survive.
He hit solid ground gasping, his brand searing against his skin.
The Pillar's interior stretched before him a hollow cylinder lined with more chains, more bodies. But these were different.
Older.
At the center stood a single figure.
A woman.
Her back turned.
Her silver hair streaked with gold.
Sunrei's breath caught.
Lina?
The figure turned.
Not Lina.
Lithriel.
But not as he'd last seen her.
This version was younger.
Whole.
Her wrists bore no brands.
Her eyes held no madness.
Only sorrow.
Hello, Sunrei, she whispered. You're just in time.
Then she stepped aside
Revealing the First Brand.
Not broken.
Not scattered.
Waiting.
The First Brand hung suspended in the air, its jagged edges gleaming like fresh forge-work. It pulsed in time with Sunrei's golden mark, the rhythm making his teeth ache.
Lithriel no, this version, this before-Lithriel reached for it. It was never meant to chain the Maw, she said softly. It was meant to become it.
Sunrei's brand flared in protest. You're lying.
Am I? She gestured to the walls.
The chained bodies stirred, their faces turning toward him.
Sunrei's stomach dropped.
Every one wore his face.
You've done this before, Not-Lithriel whispered. A thousand times. A thousand failures.
She touched the First Brand.
Let me show you.
The vision struck like a hammer blow:
A tower rising.
A brand splitting.
A prince kneeling.
A voice his voice whispering:
Next time, I'll remember.
Sunrei gasped back to the present, his knees hitting stone.
Not-Lithriel watched him, her eyes ancient. The cycle doesn't end, Sunrei. It resets.
The First Brand pulsed.
Unless you break it.
Sunrei's golden brand burned hotter than ever before.
He knew what he had to do.
The Pillar screamed as Sunrei reached for the First Brand.
Not-Lithriel made no move to stop him.
Kaelis and Liri burst into the chamber, their weapons drawn, their faces bloodied.
Too late.
Sunrei's fingers closed around the First Brand
And the world ended.