The wreck groaned beneath Sunrei's weight as he climbed its broken hull. Salt-rotted wood splintered under his fingers, the sea wind whipping his hair into his eyes. Behind him, Kaelis and Cael kept watch Kaelis with her knives drawn, Cael's missing brand scar pulsing like a warning beacon.
The figure on the deck didn't move.
Sunrei's breath caught as he pulled himself over the railing. The figure was a man or had been once. Now he was little more than bones wrapped in tattered silver robes, his wrists bound with chains that had rusted to dust. In his skeletal hands rested a brand.
Not like the others.
This one was alive.
It pulsed like a heart, its violet glow casting jagged shadows across the wreck. The First Brand. The origin of every mark, every curse, every nightmare.
Sunrei reached for it
The skeleton's head snapped up.
Empty sockets stared into Sunrei's soul.
Prince.
The voice wasn't the skeleton's. It came from everywhere at once the wind, the waves, the very air between them.
You've come to pay your debt.
Kaelis's shout was distant beneath the roaring in Sunrei's ears. Sunrei, don't touch it!
Too late.
His fingers brushed the brand.
Fire erupted through his veins.
Memory:
A younger Lithriel, her hands steady as she pressed the first brand to a kneeling man's wrist.
The man Sunrei's face, but not his eyes screamed as the mark took hold.
Lithriel's whisper: This is the only way.
Then
Darkness.
A voice from the void:
What will you sacrifice to remember?
Sunrei wrenched back, gasping. The brand clung to his skin, its edges fusing with his flesh.
The skeleton crumbled to dust.
The wreck shuddered.
And the Eclipse, still waiting on the shore, fell to their knees as one.
Cael hauled Sunrei upright as the wreck began to sink. What did you do?
Sunrei's brand no, the First Brand burned against his palm, its light seeping into his veins. I remembered.
The words weren't his.
They were theirs.
All the marked ones. All the forgotten. Their voices poured through him, a chorus of pain and rage and sorrow.
Kaelis grabbed his arm. We need to go. Now.
The Eclipse rose as one, their hollow eyes fixed on Sunrei.
No
On the brand in his hand.
Prince, they whispered.
King.
Killer.
Sunrei turned to the sea.
The water parted.
A path revealed itself, leading down, down, down into the dark.
Where something waited.
Kaelis's grip tightened. Sunrei
He met her gaze. I have to go.
Cael stepped forward. Then we're coming with you.
Sunrei shook his head. No. The brand... it wants me.
The First Brand pulsed in agreement, its light flaring.
Kaelis's jaw set. Like hell.
Sunrei touched her cheek. Find Lina.
Then he pushed.
The motion sent both Kaelis and Cael flying back onto the shore as the wreck collapsed beneath him. Sunrei fell, the brand's light swallowing him whole.
The last thing he saw was Kaelis's face, her mouth open in a scream he couldn't hear.
Then
Darkness.
The abyss welcomed him like an old friend.
Sunrei floated in the void, the brand's light the only thing anchoring him to reality.
Then
A whisper:
At last.
Lithriel stood before him, her silver hair floating in the dark. But this wasn't the Lithriel from his memories. This was something older.
Something hungrier.
She reached for him.
You've come to set me free.
Sunrei's brand burned.
He knew what he had to do.
On the shore, Kaelis screamed as the sea closed over Sunrei.
The Eclipse stood frozen, their hollow eyes wide with something like fear.
Then
Silence.
The waves stilled.
The wind died.
And the brand on Kaelis's wrist the one she'd hidden, the one no one knew about burned.
Sunrei opened his eyes.
He stood in a field of white flowers, the sky above him a perfect, endless blue.
Lina sat beside him, her silver hair gleaming in the sunlight.
Welcome home, brother.
She held out her hand.
In her palm rested a single black flower.
It's time to remember.