Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

The words hung in the air for a second.

"Let me tell you what really happened."

The forge was quiet. No hammering, no roar of flame. Just the soft tick of a hanged clock that looked over a century old. Raizen sat on the crate, hands loose on his knees. Obi leaned on the anvil. Kenzo stood with his back to the wall like he was ready to push off it.

Eiden sat on the stool. He touched his throat once where Kenzo's grip had been, then dropped his hand.

"It was supposed to be simple" he started. "As simple as that kind of thing gets."

Obi raised an eyebrow. "You're talking about the north expedition, right? Fifteen people, fourteen dead, classified file, all that fun"

"That one" Eiden said. His tone was flat. "We were sent as a mixed recon and research unit.

Perimeter mapping, sample collection, some field testing. Standard formation. Six Wardens, five Gravers, three rookies to carry what we found. One scientist."

"Unnamed" Raizen said.

"Unnamed" Eiden agreed. "That would be me."

Kenzo's jaw clenched even harder. He said nothing.

"The first day was normal" Eiden went on. "Cold. Long. Boring in the way good missions are supposed to be. Nyx readings none. We set camp in a gulley with good cover.

I took some ambient Eon measurements, tested the rock, logged humidity, mapped minor tunnels. Nothing special. The kind of data nobody reads but everyone says they want."

He paused. No one interrupted.

"Second day, we went higher. There were… distortions. At first we thought it was just the light. Thin air, snow glare, tired eyes. Later, shapes started bending at the edge of vision. You'd look at a ridge and for a second it would seem closer, then far. Some footprints didn't line up the way they should."

Raizen listened. The description was clean, almost clinical, but something in the way Eiden's eyes didn't quite focus made it heavier.

"The Wardens wanted to turn back" Eiden said. "Protocol says you should. But I pushed to go a bit further. I wanted more readings. We argued. We compromised. A little further, then back."

Kenzo let out a breath that might have been a laugh. Or a curse. Probably a curse.

"We spotted Nyxes on the ridge above us" Eiden said. "Multiple units. Good angles. They had us if they wanted us. The Gravers formed the line. Wardens flanked. I prepped the weapon in case the formation collapsed."

Obi frowned. "Weapon like what you people usually bring, or the fun secret kind"

Eiden ignored the joke. "Something like you've never seen before. Experimental core. It was still a weapon. It was meant to help. It was so powerful, I could only test it on those mountains"

"What did the Nyxes do" Raizen asked.

"They stared" Eiden said. "We moved into defensive positions. But they didn't charge. They didn't circle. They didn't even screech. They just watched us. Eyes open. No readings. The instruments said they weren't there."

He ran a hand over his face once, slow.

"We were nervous" he said. "Someone fired early. I won't say who. It doesn't matter anymore. The first shot broke the line. The Nyxes still didn't move. One of the Wardens shouted at me to activate the prototype. So I did what I was there to do."

Kenzo crossed his hands again.

"I primed the core" Eiden said. "Everything was within expected range. The field should have expanded in a cone, destabilized but controlled, buying us a few seconds. That was the theory."

"Should have" Obi repeated quietly.

"But nothing worked as expected"

He looked at the floor for a heartbeat.

"The charge went out. Too fast. Too wide. There was a flash at the edge of my vision and then... nothing. No sound. No push of air. No impact. I did not hear anyone scream. When my eyes cleared, everyone was on the ground."

The smithy seemed to hold its breath.

"They looked like they were sleeping" Eiden said. "No wounds. No blood. No broken armor. I checked pulses. Checked again. Nothing. Every person within line of sight was gone. Not burned. Not torn. Just... Dead."

"You were in the same line of sight" Kenzo said, voice rough.

"Yes" Eiden agreed.

"So why are you breathing and they aren't?"

Eiden's mouth tightened. "I honestly do not know..."

Raizen watched him. The words were straight. Clean. Too clean. They lined up with the pieces he knew, but they felt sanded down, like a story told to a stranger, not to the only three people who had heard this much in years.

"That's it?" Obi raised a brow. "You fired, it broke, everyone dropped"

"Yes" Eiden said.

"You expect that to be enough" Kenzo snapped. "That they just fell over because the numbers disagreed with you"

"Kenzo" Raizen warned.

"No" Kenzo said. "He walks around, eats, works, LIVES, while fourteen people are dirt on a mountain. You want me to swallow a half report and say thank you?"

Eiden's eyes finally flashed, a small sharp light. "You think I'm enjoying this?"

"I think you're still hiding something" Kenzo said.

Raizen didn't disagree. There was something mire.

He just couldn't prove it.

But the way Eiden skipped over certain details, the way he didn't talk about the Nyxes after the shot, the way he never said what the weapon was actually designed to do... it all sat wrong.

"Even if you are telling the truth" Kenzo went on, "prove it. Show us something. Anything. That you paid something for this."

Obi shifted, uncomfortable. "Kenzo..."

"No" Kenzo said. "He says a weapon misfired and wiped everyone around him. That's a story. I want proof. If he even touched it, something should serve as proof."

Eiden went still.

For a second, Raizen thought he might refuse and walk out. Or lash back.

Instead, the man looked down at his own hands. Both were covered by long gloves. Thick fabric, reinforced at the palms. Raizen had thought it was just engineer fashion.

Eiden sighed, a small, tired sound.

"There is proof" he said quietly. "You won't like it."

He reached for his right glove. His fingers hesitated at the wrist for half a heartbeat, then he peeled it off. The motion was slow, almost careful, like he had done it alone a thousand times and almost never in front of anyone.

The glove came away.

His hand was not a hand anymore, not really.

From the wrist down, the skin was dark grey, almost black, as if stone had decided to pretend to be flesh. No burns. No scars. Just a different color.

Thin lines of dull gold ran under the surface, branching and crossing like veins of metal in rock. They didn't glow. They didn't move. They just sat there, wrong.

Raizen felt his throat tighten. Obi's eyes went wide. Kenzo's anger faltered into something else.

Eiden flexed the fingers once. The joints moved a little too stiff, like they remembered how they should bend and needed a reminder.

"This" he said. His voice had no drama in it, no extra weight. Just fact. "This is what the weapon left me with."