The top of the world was silent.
The elevator doors hissed open. The wind didn't reach this high. They were in a glass dome, suspended above the clouds. The sun burned white and unimpeded.
"By the Gods," Elric whispered, looking out at the curvature of the planet.
Kael didn't look at the view. He looked at the center of the room.
The Heart of the Spire.
It wasn't a crystal. It wasn't a furnace.
It was a chair.
A throne of white porcelain and gold wire. And sitting in it... was a boy.
He couldn't be more than ten. He was pale, malnourished, his eyes taped open. Wires ran into his skull, into his spine, into his small, trembling hands.
"The Prince," Elric gasped. "Prince Valen. They said he died of the Grey-Cough five years ago."
Kael walked to the throne. The boy's eyes darted to him, filled with infinite terror. He couldn't move.
He couldn't speak. But the machine was humming.
Input: Soul-Ether (Knights). Filter: Royal Bloodline. Output: Null-Frequency.
Kael read the display terminal.
"They use the Knights as fuel," Kael said, his voice hollow. "But they use the Royal family as the lens.
The King knew. He sacrificed his own son."
"To keep the Deep Ones asleep," Elric said. "It works, Kael. Look."
He pointed to a sensor screen. It showed the Void energy outside the atmosphere. It was dormant.
Calm.
"If we stop this," Elric said, "the signal stops. The Deep Ones wake up."
Kael looked at the boy. He saw the tears leaking from the taped eyes. He felt the silent scream echoing in the ether.
"This isn't worth it," Kael said.
"Kael, if you break the machine, you might end the world," Elric warned.
Kael drew his iron sword. He looked at the boy.
"I'm sorry," Kael whispered to the Prince. "I'm so sorry."
"Kael!" Elric shouted.
Kael swung the sword.
Not at the boy.
At the cables.
*Snap. Spark. Grind.*
He severed the connection. The wires hissed and retracted. The lights in the dome flickered and died. The hum—the sound that had been the background noise of Kael's entire life—stopped.
The boy slumped forward, unconscious, but free.
Silence fell over the world.
Then, from the darkness of space above them...
A sound.
Like a whale song, but vast. Ancient. Hungry.
One of the red lights on the sensor board blinked.
WAKE DETECTED.
Kael looked up at the sky.
"They're coming."