Kael Dorn woke up in the dark. He was lying on a small, hard bed in a hidden room. It was a secret safe house near the very bottom of the Sage Tower. Archmage Caster Spellbound had left him here to rest. Caster had told him to hide. Caster had said the dark ash mark on Kael’s hand was too dangerous.But Kael could not rest.The whole room was shaking. The stone walls were making deep, loud groaning noises. Dust fell from the ceiling and landed on Kael’s face.Kael sat up. His head pounded with a terrible pain. He felt freezing cold, even though he was wearing his heavy Tower coat.He looked down at his right hand.The mark of the Ash Plane was glowing. It was a dark, bruised purple color. Under his skin, the circle of black ash was spinning very fast. It felt like a small, frozen coin buried inside his flesh.The mark was pulling him.It was not a physical pull, like a rope. It was a pull inside his mind. The mark wanted to go home. It wanted to join the massive storm of dark magic th

"No," Kael sobbed. He did not want to lose his sadness. The sadness was the only thing he had left of Elara. If he stopped being sad, it meant she was truly gone. "Please. Leave my memories alone."The memories are heavy. The heavy things fall. It is the law.The gray ash crawled up Kael’s neck. It touched his cheeks. It touched his eyes.Kael looked at the giant black void one last time. He finally understood what Caster Spellbound had tried to tell him.This was not a monster. This was a machine built to take away the pain of the world, by taking away the world itself."Elara," Kael whispered.He closed his eyes.He stopped fighting. He let his hands fall to his sides. He surrendered.The consumption was not violent. There was no blood. There was no screaming. There was no tearing of flesh or breaking of bones.It was completely silent.Kael Dorn simply began to lose his solid shape.His heavy boots turned to fine gray dust. His blue Tower coat turned to gray dust. His hands, his ch

The thousands of layered voices spoke just two sentences. "The Covenant is fulfilled."The words vibrated in Caster’s teeth. They bypassed his ears and spoke directly into the marrow of his bones. "My vessel is ready."The voice faded away. The dark black reflections in the glass and the stone remained, but the sound was gone.For one more incredibly long second, the frozen silence held the world tight.In that single frozen second, a terrible, crushing realization hit Caster Spellbound like a heavy iron hammer.He stared into the dark floor. His mind worked furiously, putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.The words were not a threat. A monster makes a threat. A monster says, "I am going to kill you."The Warden did not make threats. The Warden only stated facts.The Covenant is fulfilled.The ancient founders had built a contract. They had chained the Ash Warden to the earth to hold the broken world together. They had built the Tower on top of it. They had fed it the dark wa

The floor of the Grand Foyer broke with the sound of a dying mountain.Caster Spellbound felt the smooth white marble vanish from beneath his boots. Gravity grabbed him violently. He fell forward into the massive, dark crack. The freezing air rushed past his ears. Pieces of broken stone, glass, and gold metal fell with him.He heard the terrified screams of the children above him. He heard Archmage Lysane shout his name. But he could not reach her. The distance was already too great."I will not die here!" Caster roared into the dark.He closed his eyes. He stopped trying to grab the falling rocks. He reached deep into his own chest. He grabbed the heavy, thick power of the Ash Warden that lived inside his soul.He threw both of his hands down toward the bottom of the black pit.A massive blast of dark gray ash shot out of his palms. It did not act like a fire. It acted like a giant, soft pillow. The dark magic hit the ground far below and pushed back up against him. It slowed his fal

Caster rolled up the sleeve of his dirty gray robe. He looked at his arm. Underneath his pale, wrinkled skin, his veins were glowing. They were not blue. They were thick, dark black lines. They looked like the roots of an evil tree growing inside his body.The Ash Warden was pushing its power through the silver soul-tether. The god was claiming its vessel.Caster felt a new mind pressing against his own. It was a massive, cold, absolute intelligence. It was not a voice speaking in his ear; it was a thought forming inside his own brain.Let go, the thought said. It was calm. It was not a command; it was a simple truth. The flesh is weak. The memory is heavy. I will carry the weight for you. We are one."No," Caster growled. He dug his fingernails into his own arm, drawing blood. The sharp physical pain helped clear his mind. "I am Caster Spellbound. I am a man. I am not a suit of armor for you to wear."Look around you, the cold intelligence replied in his mind. They are suffering. The