The chamber was silent.
Kael's breathing had steadied, but something in his gaze had changed. It wasn't madness—not yet—but a weight. A knowing.
Selene stepped forward cautiously. "You survived it."
Kael didn't look at her. He was staring at his own hands—black veins pulsing beneath the skin, the curse now fully awake but no longer raging.
"I didn't just survive." His voice was quiet, grim. "I understood it."
Selene frowned. "What did the throne show you?"
Kael's jaw clenched. The memories still throbbed behind his eyes: a sky torn open by black fire, legions of hollow-eyed dead marching beneath his banner, and a woman's scream—familiar—just before the world cracked in two.
"A future where I destroy everything."
Selene looked away. "And do you believe it?"
Kael stepped down from the throne, the runes along its frame dimmed, as if sated for now.
"I believe it's one path. Not the only one."
She met his gaze, calculating. "Then what now?"
Kael glanced back at the throne, then at the circle of runes etched around the chamber.
"Now, we find the others."
Selene's brow arched. "Others?"
Kael nodded. "There are more like us. Marked. Touched by the Hollow Throne's curse—by different aspects of it. I saw them in the vision."
He clenched his fist. Power flickered between his fingers like lightning trapped in smoke.
"One holds the crown of storms. Another, the blade that kills time. They'll either stand with me… or try to kill me."
Selene's expression darkened. "If they're touched by the throne, they might already be corrupted."
Kael's cursed eye pulsed once, dimly. "Then I'll stop them."
He turned toward the stone stairway.
But Selene moved to block him. "Where will you go first?"
Kael didn't hesitate. "To the south. To the Hollow Wastes."
Selene's eyes widened. "That place is sealed. No one returns from there."
"Then they won't expect me."
He walked past her, the throne's echoes still murmuring in the walls behind him.
Selene followed. "And what if you lose yourself out there?"
Kael glanced back, his expression grim.
"Then pray no one finds me."
---
End of Chapter 13
Kael is heading to the Hollow Wastes in search of others like him—warriors marked by cursed relics and forbidden magic. Will they be allies… or his undoing?