Kai stood before the Soul Forge, its swirling mist alive with silent hunger. The ancient runes pulsed gently beneath his feet, casting elongated shadows across the chamber's walls.
With a steady breath, he reached into his vault and withdrew two of the nameless guard souls. They were simple, flickering things with no identity and barely any cohesion. He held them between his hands, watching them squirm like moths trapped in amber.
"Let's see if you're more useful in death than you were in life," he muttered.
He pushed the two souls toward the mist.
As soon as they breached the fog, the Forge reacted. It sucked them in like a vacuum cleaner.
Brilliant, ethereal light burst outward, painting the chamber in shades of green and violet. Moans hummed from the forge. Soft at first, then rising into a chorus of deathless voices that echoed from the mist. They weren't cries of pain but the groaning song of souls being unraveled, stitched together by forces beyond mortal understanding.
