When I return from the Forgotten Font, the sky changes color.
It knows.
Ashen feels it first.
The thread of magic he stole from me recoils trying to return, trying to escape him.
But it's too late.
Because I'm no longer what he stole.
I've become something he cannot hold.
Prophecy now bleeds from my fire.
Every flame whispers truths no god has spoken aloud:
Aveline's real name.
The day the stars will fall.
The final spell she plans to carve from my bones.
And worse—
The moment I will have to choose between the world I saved… and the soul I once abandoned.
Ashen confronts me.
He stands beneath the bleeding moon, blade drawn.
But he does not strike.
He looks at me like I'm a painting he once loved now rewritten.
"What are you?" he whispers.
"The end," I say.
"And the one who survives it."
But then…
I see it.
The truth the Font didn't show me
He's not the thief.
Not fully.
He's a pawn.
Aveline has rewritten him, too.
"She's using your loyalty," I tell him.
"She turned your love into a leash."
His eyes flicker. Pain. Doubt. Then
"Then cut the leash," he says quietly.
"But don't leave me behind."
I do what gods don't do.
I reach for him.
And for a moment… the prophecy shifts.
But the peace doesn't last.
Because Aveline strikes that night.
Not with blade or spell
But with a single word.
A true name that belongs to me.
Spoken aloud.
Erasing me from the hearts of everyone who ever loved me.