The silence after the Hollow Crown's departure wasn't peace. It was a breath before the scream. The wind returned, cold and biting, rushing past Kaen like it was fleeing something he couldn't see.
Kaen lay motionless at the center of the scorched plateau, every muscle screaming, the pendant at his chest cracked and silent. The glow it once carried—gone. His vision blurred. His ears rang. But in that stillness, something else stirred.
A whisper.
Not like the Matron's or the Crown's, but gentler—familiar.
"…Kaen…"
He flinched. The voice wasn't outside. It was within.
"…You've woken it…"
"Who…?" he rasped.
There was no reply. Only images—flashes. A towering gate deep underground. A woman's silhouette standing before it, sword drawn. Her hair… silver. Her eyes, just like his. She screamed as the gate opened—and then—
Darkness.
Kaen jolted upright, gasping.
He wasn't alone.
Lira stood a few feet away, her clothes torn and singed, her cheeks stained with ash. "You're alive," she whispered, relief flooding her expression.
He blinked. "How…?"
"I felt the mountain scream," she said softly. "And then you vanished from the map."
Kaen tried to stand. He couldn't. Lira rushed to his side, slipping under his arm.
"You shouldn't be here," he muttered.
"And let you get possessed by a flaming corpse king alone?" she snorted, voice trembling.
He almost laughed—but then remembered the Hollow Crown's final words: You are mine by blood.
"Lira…" he said. "There's something under this mountain. I think I opened it. I think… I wasn't supposed to."
She glanced around the broken plateau, then looked at him, deadly serious. "Then we bury it again."
Kaen shook his head. "It's too late. Whatever it is—it's awake."
A rumble rolled beneath them. Distant, but growing.
Lira gritted her teeth. "Then we need to move. Now."
They limped down the mountain together, the sky above cracked with stormlight, and far below, something ancient exhaled for the first time in centuries.
As they descended, Kaen whispered more to himself than to Lira:
"I saw her. My mother. Or something like her. She was trying to hold it back…"
Lira tightened her grip on his shoulder.
"And now?" she asked.
Kaen's eyes darkened. "Now it's my turn."
Above them, lightning struck the peak.
The flame had
been lit.
And the shadows were watching.
To be continued...