The Ashcoast was a place of fractured time.
Ruined towers floated sideways in the sky, and trees bled smoke. Sometimes you could hear your own future whispering from behind stones that hadn't moved in centuries. The stars changed position if you blinked too long.
The Traveler walked in silence.
The girl—Elen, as she'd named herself—followed close behind, her hood low. The boy carried their supplies now, stubbornly refusing to be left behind.
He didn't speak much anymore.He was listening.
To the world.
It was trying to tell him something.
They passed through the shattered remains of an old city, its name carved in dying light across the clouds:
SALITHÉ.THE FIRST SKY-LADDER.
Every building leaned toward the center of the crater—where a monument stood, partially buried in dust.
A massive black shard, taller than any tower, stabbed into the earth like a god's fallen dagger. The air shimmered around it.
Elen stopped.
She took a step forward…and collapsed.
The Traveler reached her before she hit the ground. Her eyes were rolled back, her mouth whispering things in a tongue that predated breath.
Symbols rose around her, invisible to the boy but clear to the Traveler.
"She's remembering," he muttered. "Too fast."
He turned to the boy. "Don't let her touch the shard."
But it was too late.
Her fingers brushed the ground—and the shard responded.
A pulse echoed out.
Not sound.
Memory.
They were no longer in the city.
They stood within a chamber of glass and blood, high above the real world. Outside the window, stars were arranged in a spiral. Inside, a figure made of golden wires sat upon a throne made of dying suns.
It looked down at Elen.
"You are the seed of my undoing," it said.
She fell to her knees. "I… don't understand…"
The being stood, and the throne collapsed.
It walked toward her—and she saw its face was made of hundreds of her own.
"I am the God Without Name. And you are what remains of my name."
Back in the real world, the shard cracked.
The Traveler stepped between her and the monument, drawing his blade again—though it hummed now with uncertainty. The boy grabbed Elen's arm, shaking her.
"Wake up! Please!"
Lightning split the sky.
And then it descended.
Not a god.Not a beast.Not a ghost.
A Knight made of chains and starlight. Armor forged from broken oaths. Its eyes burned like galaxies in collapse.
It landed silently before the shard.
"Traveler," it said. "You break your vow."
The Traveler didn't speak.
He raised his sword—and the blade wept.
Not from fear.
From memory.
Flashback.A battlefield of falling suns.The Traveler once stood among five others.They held the world together with blades carved from promises.They called themselves: The Last Covenant.
And the one before him now—
Was their leader.
"Avelorne," the Traveler whispered. "You died. I buried you."
The Knight of Chains tilted its head.
"Did you? Or did I simply forget?"
The fight began.
The sky warped around their strikes.
Each blow rang like a church bell on a forgotten mountain. Lightning bled from their swords. Time broke, then stitched itself again. Clouds stopped moving.
The boy dragged Elen away, shielding her with his small frame.
Her eyes fluttered.
And this time, when they opened…
They burned with light.
She stood up slowly.
Walked past the boy.
And whispered one word:
"ENOUGH."
The shard exploded into flame.
The Knight staggered, shadows peeling off its body like smoke.
It turned toward her—and knelt.
"You are… awake…"
Then vanished.
Only chains remained.
They coiled at Elen's feet like vines, waiting to be taken.
She looked down at her hands.
They shimmered.
They were no longer human.
"I… I remember my name," she said softly. "And I know what I must destroy."
The Traveler dropped to one knee. "Then we begin the true journey."
The boy asked, "Where to?"
She looked at the sky, where a wound had begun to open again.
"To the Hollow Crown. To the throne the gods left behind."
Far across the world, in a tower beneath the Mirrorlake, a man opened his eyes.
He wore robes stitched from reflections and carried a staff that dripped with forgotten tomorrows.
"The Seed has bloomed," he said.
And behind him, a thousand mirrors cracked at once.