> "First came the vow.
Then came the silence.
But now... the vow sings again."
---
🌑 Far Above the Vault – Ninth Sky
The stars cracked.
Not with light, but with sound — an ancient chord that had once crowned kings and damned gods. And now it rose again, from the broken vault where Vaeren, the Bound King, stood—unchained.
He looked at the heavens like a man staring at an old wound.
> "You sealed me because I remembered," he said. "Now I rise because you forgot."
And as his hand opened, twelve stars flickered across the sky.
Twelve Fragments.
Twelve promises broken.
Twelve blades buried in time.
They pulsed.
They called.
---
🔥 Ashmarch – The War Tent
The storm had gathered over the hills, but the fire inside the tent burned hotter.
The map was no longer still. Lines rearranged themselves. Cities flickered. Names twisted and vanished.
Karna stared down at it, the Fragment blade Truthbreak in his hand, glowing like an ember that refused to die.
Aralyndra's voice cut through the noise:
> "The sky's wrong."
> "It's remembering," Karna said.
> "Remembering what?"
> "What it lost the day they erased her."
Silence.
Thorne approached, his face pale. "I have confirmation," he said. "The Seventh Throne has gone dark."
Aralyndra blinked. "Gone dark?"
> "The god seated there—forgotten. His name vanished. His dominion crumbled overnight."
> "He's been... unmade?"
Karna nodded slowly.
> "The First King walks. And his first enemy was silence."
---
⚔️ In the East – The Voice That Echoes
The child in the Daggered Spires—the Echo—stood alone on the obsidian platform. Around her, the bones of the old dragon kingdom stirred.
The Fragment in her hand vibrated violently now, bleeding light into her veins.
When she spoke, it was not her voice alone:
> "Vaeren walks."
> "The Throne will break."
> "The gods will forget their own names."
And with each word, the dragons wept molten tears and bowed lower.
She opened her eyes. Black stars swam within them.
> "The first vow was not made by gods."
> "It was made by the world itself."
---
💥 Ashmarch – Before the March
Aralyndra buckled her armor beneath a sky trembling with gold-veined storm clouds.
> "We march without sanction," she said.
> "Good," Karna replied. "If the gods had sanctioned this, we'd be on the wrong side."
She stepped closer. For a moment, it was only them. Firelight flickered between them, reflecting in her dark bronze armor.
> "I need to know," she said. "Is this war for her?"
> "It was," Karna answered. "But not anymore."
> "Then what now?"
> "Now it's for everyone they tried to erase."
They walked side by side out of the war tent. Thousands stood before them—the Vowborn, the Unnamed, the wielders of shattered oaths and stolen magic. Broken by the old gods. Reforged by their own hands.
Karna raised Truthbreak.
> "No throne will choose us."
> "No god will crown us."
> "So let us name ourselves."
The army raised their voices—not in war cries, but in memory. Every name they'd lost. Every song forbidden. Every vow unspoken.
Aralyndra drew her blade, Whispersong, forged from a Fragment buried in the roots of the fallen god-tree.
> "Let the sky split."
> "Let the stars bleed."
> "Let the thrones remember—we never knelt."
And with that, the Fire March began.
---
🜂 Far Away – The Dead Library Beneath the World
One page flipped.
No wind touched it.
It moved because a name long sealed was spoken again:
> Astraeva.
The forgotten goddess of the First Voice. The one whose name could command dragons, unravel magic, and silence gods.
The library groaned. Its roots bled ink. Its ceiling opened to stars.
And deep inside its final chamber, a mirror shattered.
Inside it—
A girl's reflection blinked.
And she remembered everything.
---
💫 Back Above the Vault
Vaeren, the Bound King, stepped onto a skybridge of broken stars.
Before him, the Nine Thrones pulsed with light.
The gods watched in silence, unsure.
He raised his hand.
> "You feared what I remembered."
> "But now I will remind the world what it means to choose your own name."
The Ninth Throne screamed.
And fell.
---
🜃 Ashmarch – As the Sky Burns
As the march began, Aralyndra felt the pull.
A string of fate wound tight around her heart. The Fragment inside her began to pulse.
She fell to one knee, sword clattering.
> "Aralyndra?" Karna turned, reaching for her.
But her voice came in a whisper not her own:
> "I was there… when the first vow was sung."
> "I am the echo."
And from her skin, runes rose in flame.
Astraeva's voice had chosen her.