The sky bled at the edges.
Sunrei followed Liri through the corpse-city's ruins, his scars burning with every step. The air tasted of rust and lightning, thick with the promise of a storm that never broke.
Kaelis kept pace beside him, her knives loose in her grip. You feel that?
He did. The hum beneath his skin, the pull in his bones something waiting.
Ryna trailed behind, her tattoos writhing like living things. This place shouldn't exist.
Liri didn't turn. It doesn't.
The path ended at a door.
Not stone. Not wood.
Flesh.
Sunrei's breath hitched. What is this?
Liri placed her palm against the pulsing surface.
The end.
Then she pushed.
Darkness.
Then
Light.
Sunrei blinked as the world reassembled itself into a cavern of living crystal, its walls throbbing with golden veins. The air was thick with the scent of copper and something sweetly rotten.
At its center stood a throne.
And on that throne
Himself.
The warden-king's armor was black as a starless night, his face hidden behind a helm of liquid shadow. The prisoner's chains coiled around his wrists, his throat, his heart, their links fused to his flesh.
Liri stepped forward. We're here.
The warden-king lifted his head.
His eyes burned violet.
LIAR.
The word shook the cavern.
Liri smiled. Always.
Then she lunged.
The battle was silent.
Liri moved like liquid gold, her form shifting between woman and something other, her fingers carving runes in the air that burned where they landed.
The warden-king fought with the chains themselves, wielding them like whips, like blades, like living things.
Sunrei tried to intervene
Kaelis yanked him back. Don't.
Ryna's tattoos blazed. This isn't our fight.
Liri's laughter echoed through the cavern as the warden-king's blade found her chest.
Fool,she whispered.
Then she pulled.
The chains shattered.
The prisoner rose.
Not from the throne.
From Liri.
Her body split like overripe fruit, black ichor spilling across the crystal floor as the thing inside unfolded.
It had no true form just teeth and eyes and grasping tendrils, its voice the sound of a world ending.
AT LAST.
The warden-king staggered back.
Sunrei's scars screamed.
And the cavern
The world
Burned.
Sunrei woke on the shore.
The sea was calm. The sky clear.
Kaelis groaned beside him, her knives still clutched in white-knuckled hands. Ryna was already sitting up, her tattoos dark once more.
Liri was gone.
In her place stood the warden-king, his helm shattered, his face bare.
Sunrei's breath caught.
His face.
Older.
Weary.
The warden-king smiled.
Hello, Sunrei.
Then he dissolved, his form unraveling into golden light that seeped into Sunrei's scars.
The power was immense.
The memories
Worse.
The truth came in fragments.
The prisoner was never meant to be caged.
The brands were never meant to chain.
The wardens were never meant to serve.
They were meant to consume.
To become.
To rule.
Sunrei looked at his hands.
The scars were gone.
In their place
Gold.
The sea whispered its approval.
Kaelis's grip on his arm was the only thing keeping him grounded. Sunrei?
He met her gaze.
His eyes burned violet.
Not anymore.