The fissure widened, heat rushing upward, the whispers howling louder. Ash and fire erupted from the earth, forming shapes too many to count.
Kael and Rayne stood side by side again, blade and fire ready. But her words still echoed in his chest, heavier than the whispers themselves.
The earth spat shadows clothed in flame. They had the outlines of warriors but no faces, their bodies crumbling ash and bone that never fell to the ground. Dozens, then hundreds. A host of Oathbound dead, conjured from the fissure like smoke given fury.
Kael raised Veindrinker, but the blade vibrated violently in his hands as if it recognized them, its edge humming like a living thing.
"Too many," Rayne hissed, fire spilling from her palm until her whole arm glowed with it. Her twin dagger flashed in her other hand, but her fire was the real weapon, her fury burning hotter than the earth below.
"They are not alive," Kael said, stepping forward despite the tremors in his legs. "Which means they can be unmade."
The nearest warrior lunged. Kael cut it clean through, and it dissolved into sparks. But where one fell, two clawed their way free of the fissure.
Rayne hurled fire that split a dozen at once, scattering them like windblown embers, yet more rose. The fissure had become a wound in the earth, bleeding flame and shadow endlessly.
"We can't hold them here," she shouted over their shrieks.
Kael knew she was right, but his mark was searing, every whisper urging him closer to the fissure, to kneel, to yield. His vision blurred with the hunger clawing at him.
Rayne saw it too. "Kael! Fight it!" Her fire cracked like a whip, cutting down a shadow that nearly reached him.
"I'm trying," he gritted out.
The battlefield twisted. For a heartbeat Kael was no longer standing on scorched rock but back in his mother's chambers as a boy, sweat soaking his sheets. His mother's hand pressed to his forehead, her voice a whisper sharp with fear. "Never let your father see you like this. Never."
The memory vanished as another warrior crashed into him. Veindrinker flared, and Kael drove the blade through the its chest. The mark on his own skin pulsed in answer.
Rayne fought near him, fire and dagger weaving together. She moved like the storm itself, too fast for the whispers to catch, too fierce to yield. Yet Kael could see the exhaustion creeping at the edge of her movements.
They couldn't survive an endless army.
Kael's gaze flicked to the fissure. The whispers didn't just urge him closer, they beckoned. Promising power, promising the army would bow if only he surrendered. He bit down hard enough to taste blood in his mouth.
"Kael" Rayne's warning cut across the din as two warriors broke through toward her flank.
He didn't think. He moved. Veindrinker carved them down, but one's claw raked his side, tearing him open with fire hot pain. He staggered.
Rayne's fire seared the wound closed before the ash warriors could finish him. For an instant their eyes locked, her flame reflected in his, his fangs just visible behind clenched teeth.
Her voice was low, raw. "Don't you dare give in."
Kael swallowed hard, nodding once,but his body trembled with the effort of resisting the whispers. The fissure roared wider, and from its depths a shape larger than all the others began to climb free.
Not a faceless warrior. No, this was something older. Something bound in chains of flightless metal, dragging a broken crown across its skull
The Oathbound King.
The chained figure dragged itself from the fissure, each step cracking the stone beneath. Its body was made of ash and bone fused together, its ribs glowing with embers, its empty sockets filled with fire. But It was the crown that held Kael's gaze. He knew that crown, it was part of the many stories his mother had told him on those nights when his fever burned the hardest. He knew now what stood before him. The crown, shattered iron and silver fused with something darker, a crown that whispered louder than all the other voices combined.
Rayne's fire faltered for the first time. "What in the gods' name is that?"
Kael's breath came harsh and uneven. "The Oathbound King." His voice was not fully his own. It was lower, raw, as though the whispers were crawling out through his throat.
Chains rattled as the King's head tilted toward them. Its mouth opened, a soundless scream tearing the air apart. The fissure answered, vomiting more soldiers, but these knelt in unison, as though welcoming their sovereign.
Kael staggered, his mark blazing scarlet through his shirt. Veindrinker vibrated in his hand, not resisting but revering. It bent toward the King as if bowing.
"No." Kael tried to straighten it, but his own body betrayed him, knees buckling. The whispers became words, half formed commands in a language he did not know yet somehow understood.
Kneel. Serve. Bind.
Rayne's fire cut across his vision, scorching the nearest soldier into ash. She grabbed his collar and dragged him upright. "Not now, Kael! Not ever!!"
Her touch burned hotter than the fissure. Her fire flared around both of them, forcing the whispers back a fraction. Kael gasped like a drowning man breaking surface.
The King moved, dragging its chaits across the ground. Every clang made Kael's mark sear, his fangs pushing harder against his lips. He shoved Rayne away before the hunger could turn towards her.
"Stay back!" His eyes burned crimson now, vision fractured between this battlefield and another. His grandfather's looming shadow, his mother's voice, the memory of blood on his tongue as a child.
The King's hand stretched out, not to strike, but to beckon. The soldiers parted to make a path.
Rayne stood beside him again, her fire surging higher until it lit the sky like day. "You are not his."
Kael couldn't breathe. "You don't understand..."
"I don't need to," she cut in, fury sparking off her words and maybe a hint of something deeper. "Because you are mine. Not his"
The words slammed through him harder than any whisper. His mark pulsed, his hunger twisted into something else, something he couldn't name nor describe.
The Oathbound King roared then, a deafening blast that made the fissure flare wide enough to swallow them all. Its chains rose, snaking through the air like living things.
Kael planted Veindrinker in the ground, forcing his knees to lock against the pull. He remembered his stories and how his mother spoke of the defeat of the King. The prince and the witch had bound the King, sealing him back into the abyss from which he came. "If we don't bind it here, it will never stop. Not in this lifetime. Not in the next."
Rayne's fire braided tighter around her dagger, her eyes blazing molten gold. "Then we bind it together."
The King surged forward, chains whistling through the air, soldiers rising to shield their sovereign.
And Kael realized too late what the whispers had been warning him of. This was not a battle, this was a test.
The open plain shuddered as the Oathbound King tore it's way free of the fissure, it's broken crown glowing with firelight, chains dragging across the scorched earth. The kneeling army of ash and bone bent before it, their whispers one voice.
Bind. Kneel. Heir.
Kael planted his feet in the churned soil. Veindrinker burning in his grip. The mark on his chest seared until he could barely breathe. Beside him, Rayne stood with her dagger wreathed in fire, every flicker answering the whispers with defiance.
"This ends now," she said, her voice cutting like steel.
Kael's jaw locked. "Then together."
They surged forward, her fire lashing around his blade. Veindrinker drank the flame, runes blazing scarlet and gold. The Oathbound King staggered back as their combined strike split the plain with a pulse of power. Soldiers of ash crumbled into sparks.
Kael drove the sword point first into the earth, mimicking the prince in his mother's stories. Rayne braced her hand on his, fire and steel fused. A tremor ran across the Vale, the sky darkening as though the binding itself reached into the heavens.
Chains leapt from.the ground and coiled around the King. For a breathless instant, the impossible happened. The King fell to one knee, bowing before them. The whispers shifted, no longer commanding but reverent.
Oathbound. Bound again
Kael's chest blazed with triumph and with hunger. He felt the King's power bleeding towards him, calling, tempting. He faltered, his fangs split his lip before he could stop them.
Rayne saw it. Her fire flared, anchoring him. Her voice was ragged but fierce. "Hold it. Don't you dare give in." But he had already let the thought in, and that moment of weakness was all it took to weaken the bind.
The King roared, and the sky cracked open. The chains binding it splintered one by one. Veindrinker vibrated violently, screaming in Kael's hands. The mark on his chest turned black at its edges, twisting into a new pattern.
"No!" Kael forced the blade down, but the surge was too great. The last chain snapped with a sound like worlds breaking.
A shockwave tore across the plain, hurling both of them apart. Rayne hit the ground, fire scattering from her hand. When she rose, ash seared across her arm in the shape of a brand, an unwanted sigil of the King.
The Oathbound King's laughter rolled like thunder. Its chain fell slack, and then it sank back into the fissure, its army scattering into ash. Only silence and the stink of burnt earth remained.
Kael clutched his chest where the mark pulsed with black fire. Across the plain, Rayne rose with her arm seared by the brand. They locked eyes, both scarred, both marked.
"It marked us," Kael rasped.
Rayne's voice was hoarse, ragged. "Then they will come for me now. And you know it."
Before he could answer, the ground split open once more. Not with soldiers, this time with fire and wind. The while plain convulsed, the Vale itself was tearing apart. Light swallowed the horizon, and Kael reached for her, their hands almost meeting....
Then the world vanished.
Kael awoke choking on moss and smoke. The sky above was green shadowed, leaves thick enough to strangle the light. Birds screamed overhead, not the kind he knew from Varathis.
Rayne was beside him, coughing, pressing her branded arm. Around them stretched a forest, dense, dark, alive with whispers of a different kind. The air was heavy, the trees gnarled with ash scars.
"This isn't the Vale," she said, voice low.
Kael staggered upright, Veindrinker still in his grip. "No. This is Ashovar."
Far away, horns sounded. Distant hunting calls carried through the trees. Both of them froze, listening as the echo chased them.
The Vale was gone. Its price had followed them here.