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Chapter 12
The First Necessary LieThe Church did not retreat far. They never did.Their banners vanished beyond the outer gates by dusk, white and gold swallowed by distance but their eyes remained. I could feel them the way one feels a storm long before rain: pressure without shape, intent without sound.They were watching and waiting.Eron sat beside the broken fountain in the courtyard, knees drawn up, hands clasped so tightly his knuckles had gone white. The divine light around him had faded, but it left a residue like warmth after a flame is blown out.It was too noticeable and too dangerous, so I crouched in front of him. “Breathe.”He obeyed instantly. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Good, He’d always been quick to learn when fear didn’t cloud him.“What happens now?” he asked quietly.“Now,” I said, “we lie.”His brows knitted together. “Lie?”“To the Church,” I clarified. “Not to each other.”That mattered and it always would.The demons had withdrawn to the shadows beyond
Chapter 11
A Vow Written in Blood and LightThe judge did not step fully into the world.It pressed, reality bent beneath the weight of its attention, stone whitening like bone beneath a blade. The rift above the courtyard widened just enough to reveal a shape vast, faceless, luminous outlined by law rather than flesh.JUDGMENT PENDING.The words were not spoken, they were imposed.Eron stiffened beside me. I felt it immediately the way his holy core responded, eager and afraid all at once. The instinct to kneel, to submit, and to be claimed.I placed a firm hand on his shoulder and grounded.“You stand,” I said quietly. “No matter what you hear.” He nodded, jaw clenched, eyes fixed on the blinding white above. “I’m not kneeling.”Good.The Knight-Commander had fallen to one knee anyway, sword pressed to stone, head bowed in reverence and her knights followed, shields clattering as they lowered themselves in unison.The demons did not. Instead, they stood still, silent, and defiant.The judge’s a
Chapter 10
The horn’s echo hadn’t faded when I understood it. Not with logic but with memory. The hero has returned. The thought struck me like a blade driven between my ribs—not pain, not fear, but a certainty so sharp it stole my breath. I felt it in the way the air recoiled around Eron, in the way the Watch tightened its focus, in the way the heavens stopped pretending this was still a trial. The demons knelt, every one of them, not in terror but in recognition. “My king,” the armored figure repeated, head bowed. “You called.” I hadn’t. But the world had. And the gods knew it. The Knight-Commander’s face went pale beneath her discipline. She took a single step back, then caught herself, jaw tightening. “This is an abomination,” she said. “All units—hold formation.” The knights obeyed, but their lines wavered. Steel could be trained to face monsters. It faltered before history made flesh. The divine rift above us pulsed once—hard. A command without words rolled through the courtyar
Chapter 9
The heavens did not strike. They waited, that was worse. The rift above the courtyard trembled, light folding in on itself like a wound refusing to close. Divine pressure pressed down on stone and bone alike, heavy enough to make the priests weep and the trainees tremble. I felt its fingers at my throat. Then boots Steel on stone. Orderly, Measured, and Human. The sound cut through the divine hush like a blade. Eron’s grip tightened on my sleeve. “Kael…?” I didn’t answer, I didn’t have to because I already knew. The gates of the courtyard burst open. Not with chaos but with discipline. Rows of armored figures marched in formation, tabards snapping white and gold, sigils of the High Church emblazoned across polished breastplates. Lances of sanctified steel caught the fractured light overhead. It was the Church knights, not inquisitors and not priests but Executioners. At their head rode a woman astride a pale warhorse, helm tucked beneath her arm. Her hair was braided tig
Chapter 8
The first thing the divine agent did was lock the sky. The light above the courtyard folded inward like a closing eye. Clouds froze mid-drift. Wind died, even sound seemed to hesitate, as though the world itself was waiting for permission to continue. Every choice froze, every priest fell to one knee, every divine thread snapped taut. Only Eron and I remained standing. The agent hovered several paces above the stone ground, wings of condensed radiance stretching wide—too precise to be natural, too controlled to be alive. This was not a god, not fully. This was an executor. A blade the heavens sent when observation failed. Its gaze passed over the trembling trainees, the priests, the shattered illusions—then settled on me. Not Eron but me. “You,” it said, voice layered, harmonic, impossible to trace to a single source. “You interfere.” I felt the ember beneath my chest tighten, coiling in warning. The seal vibrated—strained, offended, restrained only by my will. I inclined m
Chapter 7
The morning air was thick with anticipation, as if the world itself had held its breath. I could feel the Watch everywhere—threads of divine light coiling invisibly through the stone walls, through the air, even through Eron himself. Every pulse of his heartbeat, every subtle motion, was being recorded, measured, and judged. Eron stood beside me, wooden sword in hand, jaw tight with determination. His divine mark pulsed faintly on his chest, an innocuous glow to any normal observer—but not to me. I had felt it awaken overnight, subtle at first, then unmistakably alive. And now… it wanted more. “Kael…” His voice trembled, barely audible. “I can feel it… something inside me, stronger than before. It wants to move.” I froze, watching the faint glow spread across his chest. My ember stirred violently in response—not fully unleashed, just enough to coil beneath my skin like a caged serpent testing its limits. He’s awakening faster than I thought. The courtyard, lined with other cho
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