ASHES OF THE SUNDERED STAR

Kael: The Oathbreaker's Trial

The Order of Ember's banner hung above Solaris's eastern gate, its phoenix sigil stitched in threads of molten gold. Kael stood at the edge of the crowd, his hood drawn low, as the knight from the wastes—Ser Varyn—addressed the masses.

"The traitor walks among you!" Varyn's voice boomed across the square, amplified by magic. "Kael Vyrion, last of his line, has broken his ancestral oath. He consorts with Voidspawn and heretics. By dawn, his head will adorn this gate."

The crowd roared, fists raised. Kael's hand drifted to Soulbrand, hidden beneath his cloak. The hammer's pulse quickened, as if sensing his rage.

They'll kill Lira and Tyrus too, he thought. Unless I run. Unless I fight.

A child tugged his sleeve. "Mama says you're the traitor."

Kael looked down. The girl couldn't have been older than six, her cheeks smudged with ash. "Your mama's right," he said softly. "Best get back to her."

He melted into the alleyways, following the stench of sulfur to the sewers. The Order had sealed the main gates, but Umbralis' smugglers used the underground rivers to traffic Voidspawn relics. Tyrus would know the way.

The hammer's voice whispered: "You cannot outrun blood."

"Watch me," Kael muttered.

Lira: The Shattered Mirror

The shard was lying.

Lira pressed her palm to the cracked mirror in Umbralis' undercity, watching her reflection warp. The face staring back wasn't hers—it was hers, Nyrisia's, silver-eyed and imperious.

"You fear the truth," the reflection said. "That you and I are the same."

"I'm not you," Lira hissed. "You let the parasite in. I'm fighting it."

"Am I?" The reflection gestured to the room. Tyrus slept fitfully nearby, his claw twitching like a caged animal. Kael's bedroll lay empty. "You've dragged them into your war. How many will die for your pride?"

Lira smashed the mirror. Glass shards bit into her skin, but the voice persisted.

"The meteorite is mine. Your body is mine. You are a vessel, nothing more."

"Lira?"

She turned. Tyrus stood in the doorway, his claw hidden beneath a tattered glove. His eyes narrowed at the blood on her hands. "Bad dreams again?"

"Something like that." She wrapped her hand in a bandage. "Where's Kael?"

"Playing hero. Again." Tyrus tossed her a stolen apple. "Eat. You look like death."

She caught it, the fruit's skin mottled with black veins. Just like the village crops.

"Tyrus," she said slowly. "Where did you get this?"

He froze. "Market. Why?"

The apple dissolved into maggots.

Lira dropped it, backing away. "We need to leave. Now."

Tyrus: The Gate's Price

The claw itched.

Tyrus paced the undercity's abandoned chapel, its pews rotting, stained glass shattered. Moonlight sliced through the ruins, painting his claw in shades of bone and shadow. He'd tried to cut it off. Twice. The dagger just slid off, as if the thing had a mind of its own.

Maybe it does, he thought, flexing the serrated fingers.

He'd discovered the truth an hour ago, while pickpocketing a drunk mercenary. A mere brush of the claw against the man's neck had opened a portal—a swirling vortex of smoke and stars. The mercenary screamed as something pulled him through.

Tyrus hadn't stayed to see what emerged.

Now, alone, he raised the claw toward the chapel's altar. "Open."

The air rippled. A tear formed, no larger than a coin, but through it, he heard voices—Selene's laughter, the cult's chants, the parasite's whispers.

"Come home, Varys."

He slashed the claw downward. The portal split wide, vomiting stench and heat. Beyond it stretched a wasteland of ash and jagged spires, where winged Voidspawn circled a blackened fortress.

The Obsidian Spire. But not the one from his memories—this was older, grander, its walls throbbing like a heartbeat.

A shadow moved inside the portal.

Tyrus tried to close it. The claw resisted.

"Hello, priest."

The parasite stepped through.

Convergence: The Black Market

Umbralis' undercity was a living thing—a labyrinth of fungal bridges, opium dens, and black markets peddling everything from Voidspawn teeth to stolen souls. Kael found Lira and Tyrus at The Rotting Harp, a tavern where the ale was brewed from cave moss and the patrons' eyes glowed faintly in the dark.

"We have a problem," they said in unison.

Kael slid into the booth. "The Order's coming. They've got witchhounds."

Lira pushed the maggot-infested apple forward. "The parasite's here. In the city."

Tyrus didn't speak. He didn't need to. The fresh burn scars on his glove said enough.

Kael leaned in. "There's a smuggler's tunnel beneath the Harp. Leads to Veythra. We can disappear, regroup—"

"No." Lira's voice was steel. "The parasite's using the undercity as a feeding ground. These people—children—are being infected through food, water, even the air. If we run, thousands die."

Tyrus snorted. "Since when are we martyrs?"

"Since you started opening portals to hell!" She grabbed his glove, yanking it off. The claw twitched, serrated edges glistening.

The tavern fell silent.

"Voidspawn!" someone shouted.

Chaos erupted. Patrons overturned tables, fleeing as Kael drew Soulbrand. The hammer's light bathed the room, revealing black veins creeping up the walls.

"Tyrus," Kael said coldly, "what did you do?"

The claw lunged on its own.

Act II: The Spire's Shadow

The undercity burned.

Kael fought through the mob, Soulbrand shattering possessed humans and Voidspawn alike. Lira wove barriers of starlight, her veins flickering silver and black. Tyrus… Tyrus was gone, swallowed by the claw's will.

They cornered him in the fungal grove, his back to a chasm where the underground river roared. The claw had grown, consuming his arm to the shoulder, its bone spikes piercing his collarbone.

"Tyrus!" Lira shouted. "Fight it!"

He laughed, the sound warped by the parasite's influence. "Why? This power… it's mine. I don't need you. I don't need anyone."

Kael raised Soulbrand. "Last chance. Step away from the edge."

"Or what?" Tyrus's claw tore open a portal. Voidspawn poured through, screeching. "You'll kill me? Become the hero Solaris wants?"

The vision struck without warning:

Kael's Choice

He stands in the Emberfall Canyon, hammer raised. Below, his father battles a Voidspawn horde. Soulbrand whispers: "Strike the canyon wall. Bury them. Save yourself."

He hesitates.

The Voidspawn kill his father.

"No!" Kael staggered, the memory raw.

Tyrus seized his throat. "You're just like me. Broken. Useless."

Lira's shard flared. "Let him go!"

The blast tore Tyrus free, hurling him into the chasm.

Act III: The Fall

Tyrus fell.

The claw caught the cliffside, bone grinding on stone. He dangled above the abyss, the parasite's voice roaring in his skull.

"Let go. Let me win."

Memories flashed—Selene's smile, Kael's grudging respect, Lira's stubborn hope.

"No."

He climbed.

Reunion: The Three Fates

They regrouped in the fungal grove's heart, where bioluminescent spores floated like dying stars. Kael nursed a gash on his arm. Lira's shard had cracked, leaking starlight. Tyrus's claw lay severed at his feet, still twitching.

"I'm sorry," he said, the first honest words he'd spoken in years.

Lira knelt, pressing the shard to his stump. "Don't be. We're all monsters here."

The shard's light stitched his flesh, leaving a jagged scar. Kael offered his hand.

"What now?"

Tyrus stood, testing his balance. "We kill the parasite. For good."

Lira pointed to the undercity's ceiling, where the Obsidian Spire's shadow loomed. "It's here. In Umbralis. And it's hungry."

Kael hefted Soulbrand. "Then we feed it steel."

The Siege of Obsidian

The Spire was alive.

Its walls pulsed like flesh, its windows glowed with trapped souls, and its gates were a gaping maw lined with teeth. Voidspawn patrolled its ramparts, their forms shifting between human and horror.

The trio stood at the forest's edge, the city's screams echoing behind them.

"Plan?" Tyrus asked.

Kael ignited Soulbrand. "Burn it down."

Lira wove starlight around them. "And when the parasite comes?"

Tyrus drew his remaining dagger. "We improvise."

They charged.

Climax: The Heart of Darkness

The Spire's throne room stank of decay. The parasite awaited them, wearing Ser Varyn's corpse like a suit.

"You're too late," it boomed. "The gate is open. My kingdom comes."

Behind it, a portal swirled, revealing an endless void of teeth and eyes.

Lira raised the shard. "We'll see."

The battle was chaos. Kael shattered the throne, Tyrus dueled Voidspawn knights, and Lira wrestled the parasite's will. But with every strike, the Spire crumbled, the portal growing.

"You cannot win," the parasite laughed. "I am eternal!"

Tyrus seized the shard. "But I'm not."

He plunged it into his chest.

Sacrifice: The Last Light

The explosion tore the Spire apart.

When the dust settled, Kael and Lira stood amidst the rubble. The portal was sealed. The parasite, gone.

Tyrus lay at the crater's center, the shard embedded in his ribs. His breathing was shallow, his eyes dim.

"Why?" Lira whispered.

He smiled. "Told you… I'm allergic to responsibility."

His body dissolved to ash, carried away by the wind.

Epilogue: The Dawnless Sky

Solaris's knights found them at dawn.

Kael stood alone on the canyon's edge, Soulbrand's light extinguished. Lira had vanished, taking the shard's remnants with her.

Ser Varyn's successor approached. "The Order claims victory. You will be pardoned."

Kael looked east, where Umbralis' ruins smoldered. "I don't want your pardon."

He walked into the wastes, the hammer's voice silent at last.

Somewhere, a claw twitched in the dark.