The bodies were ash, yet the memories clung to Arden like smoke that refused to fade.
His chest tightened as the pulse of foreign life energy rippled through him.
The visions came without warning, pulling him into the fragments left behind by the hybrids.
He stood inside a cavernous hall, stone walls damp with moisture and the faint smell of iron. Braziers burned with pale blue flame, their smoke curling toward the ceiling where it vanished through cracks. Shadows danced across the floor, and figures cloaked in black masks moved without words, their presence heavy and cold.
The hybrids, no, the men before they became hybrids, stood trembling.
Two of them, nervous but filled with a hunger that burned hotter than fear. Around them were other members of the Creed who had been summoned for the same "reward." Some received new blades forged with strange alloys, others a dose of shimmering liquid that twisted their veins for a heartbeat before fading.
