Chapter 1: The Vow
The morning mist curled over the Silent Veil Valley, pale and calm like it had always been. The air smelled of pine and steel — the scent of discipline. Every sound was soft, controlled. The disciples of the Silent Veil Clan trained in silence, their movements like flowing water. Among them was Rhaizen, his breath steady, his wooden sword trembling slightly in his grip.
"Again," a deep voice said.
Rhaizen turned. His master, Elder Kaien, stood before him — tall, calm, eyes sharp as a blade's edge. To Rhaizen, Kaien was more than a master. He was the man who had raised him after his parents died. His words were cold, but his presence felt like home.
Rhaizen bowed and attacked again. Kaien deflected easily. The wooden blade snapped in half.
Rhaizen froze. Kaien sighed, then placed his own sword — a curved steel blade marked with faint cracks — into Rhaizen's hands.
"Steel remembers," Kaien said. "When you fight, let it remember your weakness. Only then will it become strength."
Rhaizen nodded, clutching the sword. He didn't see it then — the way Kaien's hand lingered too long on the hilt, or how his eyes dimmed, shadowed with guilt.
---
That night, the wind changed.
The valley grew quiet — too quiet. Even the crickets fell silent.
The moon hung above, pale and thin like a blade.
Rhaizen awoke to the smell of smoke.
He stumbled out of his quarters, heart pounding.
The sky glowed red, the air thick with heat. Flames spread across the training grounds — homes, halls, even the great pine trees were burning.
Shouts filled the air.
"Enemy attack!" someone screamed. "Defend the masters!"
Rhaizen grabbed the wooden practice sword from his wall and ran toward the noise.
The scene that met him stopped his breath cold.
Corpses lay along the stone paths — disciples, elders, people he had known since childhood. The walls were cut clean through by sword strikes far too precise for any common raider.
"No… no, this can't be…" Rhaizen muttered.
He looked around wildly. "Master Kaien! Where are you?!"
He saw him then — standing in the center of the burning courtyard.
Kaien's robes were torn, his face streaked with soot and blood. For a moment, Rhaizen felt relief. His master was alive. He must have fought the attackers. He must have—
Then Rhaizen saw the sword in Kaien's hand — and the bodies around him.
Every one of them had fallen by that same blade.
"Master…?" His voice cracked. "Where are the enemies?"
Kaien turned toward him, calm amid the fire. His eyes, once sharp and proud, now looked hollow — as if something inside him had already died.
"There are no enemies, Rhaizen," he said quietly. "Only the weak… and those strong enough to shape the world."
Rhaizen staggered back, disbelief cutting deeper than the smoke. "You… you did this?"
Kaien nodded once, almost solemnly. "The Silent Veil clung to peace and restraint. They forgot that power alone commands survival. I gave them mercy — a warrior's death."
"Mercy?" Rhaizen's voice broke. "You slaughtered them!"
Kaien stepped forward, blood dripping from his blade. "The world is ruled by strength, Rhaizen. You will understand one day. But not yet."
Rhaizen's trembling hands gripped the sword Kaien had given him that morning. "Then I'll stop you."
Their blades met — once. Sparks burst like falling stars.
Kaien struck again — fast, merciless. The impact shattered Rhaizen's weapon and threw him to the ground.
The sound of breaking steel echoed through the burning valley.
When Rhaizen opened his eyes, Kaien was gone. His sword lay in pieces beside him, its edge split down the middle — a clean, perfect break. Around him, the clan burned, consumed by the fire his master had unleashed.
He fell to his knees, clutching the broken blade.
---
The fire's light glowed against his face as he whispered, "I'll remember this, Master… until the day I break your sword as you broke ours."
The night carried his voice through the valley — a promise to the dead, and a vow that would shape the rest of his life.
---
But the world did not stop for his pain.
The flames roared higher, devouring the last remnants of his home.
Rhaizen forced himself to move, stumbling through the ash and smoke.
He found Elder Serin, the healer, lying near the hall. Her gentle hands that once mended wounds now clutched a half-burned scroll — the clan's Silent Veil Technique etched faintly through the charred paper.
Rhaizen knelt and pulled it free. The ink smeared under his fingers, but one line remained untouched:
> "In silence, power remembers."
He folded the scroll and pressed it to his chest.
The fire hissed beside him, and for a moment, he thought he heard the clan's laughter, the sound of training — the rhythm of life.
Then the illusion broke, leaving only crackling flames.
He climbed the cliff behind the dojo. From there, he could see everything — his home swallowed by fire, the mist below glowing red.
He gripped the broken sword in both hands and raised it to the sky.
"I don't know if strength can save anyone," he whispered, voice shaking.
"But I'll find out. I'll find you, Master. And when I do…"
The moon glinted off the fractured blade.
"…I'll make you remember the weakness you left behind."
The mist thickened, swallowing him as the valley burned below.
And somewhere in that endless night, the last disciple of the Silent Veil Clan disappeared — carrying nothing but ash, steel, and a vow.