The battlefield was fire and steel. Shouts and screams filled the night. Smoke coiled up into the sky, thick enough to hide the stars. Sparks rained down from burning walls. The ground shook with the weight of clashing armies, Varik’s soldiers, the wild Shroud, and the new faction that marched in with their iron shields and steady lines.Everett stood in the center, Kael weak in his arms. His fire flickered around him, chains writhing like living things. His glowing eyes darted from one side to the other, his chest heaving.Everyone wanted him. Varik’s cold voice boomed from the battlements. “Stand with us, Everett Crest. You’ve seen The Shroud’s madness. Only with me can balance be kept.”The Shroud screamed from the breaches, their white eyes wild. “You are ours, Warden! Burn them all! Rise above the chains!”And the woman of steel raised her sword, her soldiers locking shields behind her. “Everett Crest. You are not Warden. You are not theirs. You are the key. Come with us, and we

Darkness. Not empty darkness, but a thick, heavy void that pressed against Everett’s skin. He couldn’t feel the ground beneath him, nor the air in his lungs. His body floated in a vast space that wasn’t space at all, it pulsed, glowing faintly with veins of light, like the inside of a living crystal.He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Only fire burned in his chest, bright and violent, clashing with the cool hum around him. The voice came again. “Warden. Key. Everett Crest.”Each name struck like thunder. The sound wasn’t from outside, it was inside him, reverberating through his bones, his veins, his thoughts.Everett clutched his head, trembling. “Stop it! I’m not your Warden! I’m not your Key! I’m me, I’m Everett Crest!”The glow shifted around him. Shapes formed out of the crystal walls, faces, bodies, echoes. He saw soldiers with glowing eyes, their mouths moving in unison. He saw the Shroud, screaming his name with madness. He saw the steel-woman, her eyes sh

The world was no longer quiet. From the broken courtyard of the stronghold, Everett could feel it, veins of light spreading far beyond these walls. The crystal’s glow wasn’t trapped anymore. It had seeped into the mountains, into the rivers, into the sky itself. Each pulse felt like a heartbeat, shaking the land.Everett knelt on cracked stone, Kael’s limp body pressed against his chest. His chains twitched restlessly, fire still spilling from his skin. His glowing eyes flickered as he searched Kael’s pale face. “Kael… please…” His voice cracked, thick with tears. “Stay with me. Don’t leave me now.”Kael’s lips moved faintly. His words were a breath. “Everett… hold on.”Everett’s chest seized. He shook him gently, desperate. “No, no, no, don’t close your eyes! You’re not leaving me, not after everything. You promised to see me through this!”His fire flared, spilling sparks across Kael’s torn clothes. He jerked his hands back, terrified of hurting him more. “I can’t… I can’t lose yo

The world groaned as though it were alive. The veins of crystal stretched far past the walls of the stronghold now, crawling into the mountains, splitting through the forests, poisoning rivers with green light. Each pulse was louder than the last, a heartbeat that echoed through stone and sky. Everett knelt in the courtyard, fire and crystal chains writhing wildly around him. Kael lay only a few feet away, pale and still, shielded by a broken circle of the steel-woman’s soldiers. His shallow breaths tore at Everett’s chest like blades.The boy was all that mattered. And yet the world itself demanded something else. “Choose. Save him, or save yourself. Warden. Key. Everett Crest.”The whisper gnawed in his skull, repeating over and over, louder each time. Everett clutched his head, screaming. “Stop it! I won’t let you decide for me!”His roar split the night, but the factions didn’t stop. Varik raised one hand from the battlements. His soldiers leveled their rifles with perfect calm

Everett woke to silence.Not the silence of peace, but the silence after something has been broken beyond repair. The air was still, heavy, carrying no wind, no bird, no echo.He pushed himself up slowly, every muscle trembling, his body lined with glowing cracks where the veins of crystal still clung to his skin. His chains hung limp at his sides, faint sparks dripping from them like dying embers. The world around him was no longer the courtyard. It was something else.The stronghold’s towers lay shattered across an endless plain of stone and crystal. Spires jutted out of the ground like broken bones, glowing faintly with a sickly green light. The sky was a strange gray, veins of light running through the clouds as though the heavens themselves had cracked open, and everywhere, half-familiar shapes moved.He saw soldiers in Varik’s armor, but their bodies were stiff, their movements mechanical, like puppets pulled on invisible strings. He saw members of the Shroud, their laughter b