A convergence of dichotomy.
I carve my blade through the neck of a Bloodbond. His battle fury nothing more than a distraction.
I whip my Death magic along a line of Caelorian warriors, and it lashes through their armor without effort, coiling around their torsos with a tug of finality.
Their strangled cries fuel for my fury as their bodies slap against the stones with a wet crack.
The tribes cut through lines of soldiers, savage and brutal and efficient.
A people born for battle.
They fight in the old way—staves and spears, hands and feet. Nothing refined—it's primal.Final.
A long golden braid twined with leather catches my eyes. Blazing a trail through the ranks with nothing more than her defiance.Seren.
She doesn’t raise her crossbow. But warriors scramble before her. Stumbling over each other to get out of her way.
I drag my gaze to her face.
And I realize why they fear her.
Her eyes are like pools of endless death. Pitch black—a promise of ruin.
Her sights are set on one thing:Rhyven.
He moves swiftly, Aetherstride magic in full force, his senses swift and alert.
But this? This he can’t see. Or feel. Veilborn.Witch.
“Kael!” Seren bellows in a voice I don’t recognize, ancient and commanding. “Death magic!”
I don’t hesitate.
I lash out ribbons of silver Death magic, casting them in her direction.
Somehow, with magic beyond my understanding, she leashes it, wrapping around it with invisible force.
Then, she grips Rhyven with the same force, in the same breath.
A strangled scream rips from his throat, eyes searching for the cause.
They land on her: Seren, full-blooded witch.
Her eyes like an endless abyss. Her hands outstretched, moving hypnotically.
And I realize?—
She’s binding Rhyven to the Death magic.
Holy fucking Stars.
“You sold out my fucking sister!” Seren snarls, cleaving through a lifetime of innocence in a single moment.
“No one hurts my family and gets to live,” she grits out through clenched teeth, as if a lineage of witches urges her on.
But Rhyven can’t speak.
Seren coils the Death’s threads around his neck like a noose, and without hesitation, she pulls tight.
