Standing on the balcony with him was a man. But the man was not human. He wore elegant black robes. His face was impossibly handsome, with sharp, perfect features. His skin was pale gray. His eyes glowed with a soft, warm white light. Floating gently above his dark hair was a small, delicate crown made of pale, glowing embers.It was the Ash Warden. The dark god had shrunk itself down to human size. It had given itself a face."What is this trick?" Caster demanded. He took a step back, keeping his distance from the beautiful, terrible creature. "Is this an illusion? Are you trying to trap me in a dream?"The Warden smiled. It was a kind, gentle smile. "It is an illusion, yes," the Warden said softly. It walked to the edge of the balcony and looked down at the beautiful city. "But it is an illusion of a reality that can truly exist. Come, look at your world, Caster."Caster did not want to obey, but he could not stop his curiosity. He stepped up to the railing next to the god. He look

The giant, pitch-black hand of the Ash Warden pressed down on Caster Spellbound’s head.The cold was absolute. It was not like winter snow. It was the freezing, empty cold of a dead star. The heavy hand pushed Caster down against the dark, watery floor of his own soul-scape. The weight was impossible. It felt like an entire mountain made of solid iron was resting on his fragile neck.“Submit,” the layered, grinding voice of the dark god whispered. The voice was everywhere. It vibrated inside Caster’s bones. It rattled his teeth. “I am the ocean. You are just a drop of water. Disappear into me.”Caster’s mind began to go dark. The edges of his thoughts turned black. The Warden was trying to erase him. It was trying to pour its infinite, cosmic apathy into Caster’s human heart.Caster felt the warm memory of Lysane’s face begin to slip away. He felt his love for his students turning to dust. The god wanted him to be empty. The god wanted him to be a perfect, blank puppet.For one terri

Caster closed his eyes. He stopped fighting the ash chains. He focused entirely on his own heart.He gathered every single piece of pain he had ever felt. He gathered the terrible, crushing guilt of burning young Jace. He gathered the deep, heavy sorrow of betraying his friend Mirella. He gathered the pure, hot anger he felt when Archmage Vane locked the children in the falling Tower.He did not hide from his feelings. He pulled them all together into a tight, burning ball.Then, he gathered his love. He gathered the memory of Lysane’s brave face. He gathered the memory of little Finn trying to protect his friend. He gathered his deep, endless love for the messy, beautiful world of the living.He squeezed the pain, the guilt, the anger, and the love together. He squeezed them so hard that his soul felt like it was going to explode."Give me a weapon!" Caster roared into the dark.He threw his right hand forward. He pulled violently against the thick ash chain wrapped around his wrist

Caster Spellbound knelt on the hard ground. He was breathing very heavily. His chest moved up and down. He had just won the greatest battle of his life inside his own mind. He had carved his True Name into his soul. He had kicked the Ash Warden out of his head. But the victory did not feel like a win.Caster slowly raised his head. He looked across the massive, dark room.The Ash Warden was no longer a ghost. It was no longer a shadow hiding inside a human mind. Because Caster had forced the god out, the god had to take a shape in the real world.The gray ash in the air swirled together. It spun furiously, making a sound like a terrible hurricane. The dust and the dirt from the broken Sage Tower above rained down and joined the spinning storm. The dark god was building itself a physical body.Caster’s eyes went wide. He watched the monster grow. It did not stop at the size of a normal man. It grew to ten feet tall. Then twenty feet. Then thirty feet tall.The Ash Warden’s new body w

The Warden looked up too. The monster did not care. It raised its six arms and roared at the ceiling, welcoming the destruction.Suddenly, a piece of the ceiling the size of a small house broke loose. It fell directly toward the center of the room.The massive rock hit the floor between Caster and the Warden with a deafening BOOM. The ground shook so hard Caster fell to his knees again. A massive cloud of thick dust filled the room.The ceiling continued to break.More rocks rained down. Huge chunks of the Tower’s old foundation plummeted into the cavern. A giant, broken white marble pillar crashed down, shattering into three massive pieces. A heavy iron door from a ruined vault fell like a flat coin. It was raining boulders.Caster scrambled to his feet. He had to dodge the falling ceiling while fighting a thirty-foot god.A shadow fell over Caster. He looked up. A giant piece of flat black stone was falling right toward his head.Caster did not run. He bent his knees. He jumped str