Graven Hollow stank of rusted magic and fear.
Kael passed beneath the gate without being stopped. No guards checked names here. The Hollow didn't care who you were—only what you brought and how fast you bled.
The town slouched against the edge of the frostline, built into the bones of ancient mining ruins. Smoke curled from chimneys that shouldn't have worked. Runes pulsed faintly on stone gutters. The light was always dying here, even at midday.
Kael moved fast, cloak drawn tight.
He wasn't here to linger.
The Rusted Vein
A forge on the surface. A vault beneath it.
He knocked in the old pattern. The slit opened.
"Who sent you?" the eye asked.
Kael said nothing. He tossed the silver insignia of Captain Deren through the hole.
A pause. Then, the door creaked open.
Inside, down two flights of stairs and through a tunnel that hummed with suppression glyphs, sat the real Hollow: the Black Vault, where truths were bought and sold like spices. No gods. No oaths. Just coin and consequences.
At the end of the chamber sat a masked woman behind a desk made of bones. Her face covering was crafted from silver, etched with dozens of tiny eyes, all closed.
Kael stood before her. "I want information."
"You'll pay," she said. "Everything here has a cost. Especially what you seek."
He dropped two things onto the desk: Deren's insignia and the pouch of branded rings he'd taken from the guards.
The mask tilted slightly. "High value. One answer."
Kael didn't blink. "What is the nature of a Soulbrand that binds itself without ceremony or sanction? One that speaks. That… grows."
The room cooled.
The woman opened one of the bone-covered tomes behind her. Her gloved fingers traced a line of runes older than imperial script.
"Only a few such Brands have ever existed," she said. "They are not weapons. They are wills. Entities. Sealed long ago—not because they were evil, but because they could not be controlled."
Kael's throat tightened.
"What are they called?"
The woman looked up.
"There are many names. 'God-Eaters.' 'Fatebreakers.' But your blade…" She leaned closer. "If it speaks, if it offers a ledger… then you may carry one of the Seven Severed."
Kael frowned. "Severed from what?"
"From the Chain of Command," she said softly. "The divine hierarchy. The system that governs all Brand-given power. They were once part of it—tools of the first gods. But they grew. Questioned. Rejected obedience."
System Reaction: TriggeredAttention Alert: Suppressed Protocol WakingDesignation: [REDACTED] — Chain Severance Pattern Confirmed.Do Not Seek Its True Name.Soulweight +2
Kael inhaled sharply. That wasn't normal.
Even the ledger seemed… shaken.
"I only want to know what I'm becoming," he said.
"You're not becoming," the masked woman said. "You're remembering. The Brand chose you because it needed a will sharp enough to hold it. But it will test you. It will lie. And when it no longer needs you…"
Her mask tilted as all the etched eyes opened in unison.
"…it will become itself again."
Kael stepped back.
The script in his head was silent now. Not gone. Just watching.
He left without another word.
The streets outside were darker.
Rain began to fall—thin and greasy. Kael didn't mind. He welcomed the chill.
The blade on his back felt heavier now. As if it had heard everything.
As if it remembered.
He didn't make it ten steps before he felt it—a presence behind him. Wrong. Silent.
He turned just in time to see a gray-cloaked figure step from the shadows.
Barefoot. Hood stitched shut over its face. Arms hanging too loosely.
A null-faced. Church executioner. Reanimated corpsebound to a Brand.
It moved like water, summoning a spear of golden light from nothing.
Kael drew the shadowblade without hesitation.
They clashed.
Spear against silence. The null-faced struck with speed unnatural for flesh. Kael's arm burned with effort. The blade was quiet—too quiet.
Then Kael ducked under a swipe and drove the blade through its chest.
No blood. Just pressure.
Essence Absorbed: Null-Faced Reanimant (Divine Binding – Class Undeclared)+2 Strength | +3 Will | +2 SoulweightSpecial Trait Absorbed: Silent MindMemory Fragment Locked: Codeword Required.Soulweight: 29
Kael pulled the blade free as the corpse crumpled.
One point away from… something.
He wiped the blade on his cloak and moved.
The Brand didn't speak. But in the back of his mind, he felt something stir.
Not a whisper.
A pulse.
A heartbeat not his own.