Ashen stood in the war chamber of the Black Reliquary, the table before him etched with shifting runes and a map of the continent carved in petrified ash.
To the north: Traln, where Caelum now gathered divine legions.
To the west: Hallowhold, tense but compliant.
To the south… a new emissary arrived.
A peace offering.
Or a trap.
She entered wrapped in dusklight.
A white dress of simple linen, far too soft for the cold hall. Her hair fell like river-washed silk. Her gaze did not lower, not even before the Scourgeborn himself.
She did not bow.
She curtsied.
"Lady Althea Valen," she said calmly, "of the Southern House of Radiance."
Ashen's eyes narrowed.
He had heard the name.
Valen—an ancient bloodline whispered to be born of angels. Their blood was said to glow beneath moonlight.
He saw no glow.
Only steel behind soft eyes.
Tahlon watched from the side of the chamber, uncertain.
"She was sent by the South," he said. "To… calm you."
Ashen said nothing.
Then approached.
And slowly… extended a hand.
"You came unarmed. Brave."
"Or foolish," she said, placing her fingers in his.
They touched.
And something shifted.
The mirror behind the chamber cracked.
A relic of Serathiel's gaze shattered instantly, recoiling from her skin.
The ash on the floor drew away from her feet. Runes etched in divine blight sputtered and went dead.
Ashen let go.
Slowly.
Silently.
She was dangerous.
But not because she was holy.
Because the gods rejected her.
That night, Ashen asked Lira to observe her dreams.
The girl returned shaken.
"She doesn't dream," she signed.
"There's… silence. Like the gods refuse to look at her."
Ashen understood.
Althea Valen was not a priestess. Not a saint.
She was an anomaly.
A woman untouched by divine fate.
Over the next days, Althea remained in Velmire under the guise of "political companionship" to the Ash-Blessed Prince.
But Ashen saw her watching him.
Not with suspicion.
But with curiosity.
He spoke to her once beneath the reliquary dome.
"Why come here? You know what I am."
"I came because I know what they are."
"And what am I to you?"
"…A liar," she said.
"But the kind that tells truth more beautifully than any god."
He nearly smiled.
But didn't.
That evening, a divine courier arrived from Traln—bearing a single message burned into holy gold:
"The Champion marches.
And judgment follows his sword."
Ashen turned to Althea in the reliquary's starlit hall.
"Your people sent you as a leash."
"Yes."
"And now?"
She stepped closer.
"Now I'd rather see what happens when the leash burns."
They danced.
A waltz of ash and white in a cathedral built to defy the heavens.
Just once.
And the gods watched in silence.
🔸 New Character Introduced: Lady Althea Valen
🔹 Lineage: House of Radiance (Divine-neutralized bloodline)
🔹 Trait: "Silent Thread"—Cannot be seen or influenced by divine or abyssal forces
🔹 Relationship Status: Unclear – Potential emotional and strategic link to Ashen
🔹 Echo Rank: None (Unaffected by Echoes)
🔹 Divine Awareness Reaction: Neutralized—Presence disrupts divine relics