"It’s not screaming, Koss. It’s devouring you," Kaedron hissed, his eyes locked onto the glowing red veins crawling visibly up the inquisitor's neck.With a sudden, explosive twist of his hips, Kaedron broke the deadlock, stepping hard to the left and driving his shoulder directly into Koss’s ribs. The impact knocked the wind out of the fanatic with a wet, ragged gasp, sending the inquisitor stumbling backward into the jagged ruins of a collapsed stone wall.Koss slammed hard against the masonry, but the tainted dagger never left his grip; instead, the blade pulsed brighter, drinking in the sudden spike of adrenaline and fury. "You can’t break what the crown has consecrated!" Koss screamed, spitting a mouthful of dark blood onto the ash-strewn stones as he pushed himself up with unnatural, jittery speed. "The ore demands a sacrifice, and you are overdue!"Before Koss could lunge again, a heavy, rhythmic thunder drowned out the frantic hum of the blade.Thud. Thud. Thud.Heavy iron-sho

"The empire is already rotting because men like you confuse blind obedience with tactical victory," Kald shouted, swinging his mount neatly between the fanatic inquisitor and the soot-stained smith. The general’s hand rested casually upon the pommel of his plain, unadorned steel saber, the weapon entirely free of the grotesque, pulsing crimson glow that emanated from Koss’s weapon. "Lower that dagger before I have my vanguard relieve you of your command and your head."Koss’s chest heaved, the glowing red veins crawling up his throat pulsing in rhythm with the frantic, high-pitched shriek of his blade. "You dare threaten the Holy Inquisition, General? Veydrik himself signed my writ! When the king hears of this insubordination—""The king is fifty leagues away, sitting in a palace of glass while his army starves in the mud," Kald interrupted, his voice dropping an octave, flat and chillingly absolute. "And I am the man holding this siege together. Lower it."Kaedron didn’t wait for the

"Get back, smith!" Kald roared, dismounting in a single fluid motion of armored muscle and heavy wool cloak.Kaedron ignored the command, his boots sinking into the blood-soaked slush as he swung his heavy smithing hammer in a wide, whistling arc. The weighted iron head slammed directly against the flat of General Kald’s plain steel saber just as the commander brought the blade up to parry an erratic, blind lunge from the staggering inquisitor. The resulting metallic shriek reverberated through the teeth of every surviving defender in the square, an acoustic shockwave that forced Koss to drop his weapon with a howl of pure agony.Kald staggered back half a step, his eyes wide with sudden, unadulterated shock as his own unadorned sword snapped cleanly at the crossguard under the force of Kaedron’s counter-impact. The general stared down at the jagged stump of cold steel in his gauntleted hand, then looked up sharply at the soot-stained smith, his jaw tightening into a hard, rigid line.

"The imperial code died the moment Veydrik started smelting human nervous systems into kitchen knives," Rhovan spat, limping heavily out of the shadows of a collapsed archway, clutching a bloody rag to his side. His face was pale beneath a thick crust of dried soot, and every breath he drew sounded like dry leaves scraping across stone.General Kald didn’t flinch at the accusation, nor did he raise his broken hilt. He merely shifted his weight, his eyes lingering on the dark stain spreading rapidly across Rhovan’s fingers. "You’re bleeding out, old man. Your code won't save you from a severed artery.""Shut up, Kald," Kaedron snapped, dropping his hammer with a dull thud into the frozen mud and rushing across the intervening space. He grabbed Rhovan by the good shoulder, feeling the older man lean his entire, heavy weight against him with a sudden, alarming limpness. "Rhovan. Stay on your feet. Don't let go.""I'm not... going anywhere, boy," Rhovan rasped, a wet cough cutting off his

"The bleeding is slowing, Kaedron," General Kald said, his voice entirely devoid of panic as he held his iron-clad hand against Rhovan’s torn side, staring down at the crimson pooling in the frozen slush. "The tissue is already cooling. You know as well as I do that pressure won't restart a failing heart."Kaedron ignored him, his fingers frantically searching his pockets for a clean cloth, a tourniquet, anything that hadn't been soaked in the filthy residue of the ruined street. "Shut your mouth, Kald. Just keep pressing. Rhovan, look at me. Stay awake."Rhovan’s chin dipped toward his chest, his eyelids fluttering heavily against the biting wind that swept across the smoking ruins of Red Ridge. A faint, wet rattle escaped his throat, followed by a shallow, stuttering breath that barely moved his blood-matted shirt. He didn't lift his head, but his rough, calloused hand twitched against the icy mud, groping blindly until his fingers brushed against Kaedron’s sleeve. "Stop... wasting