The road west was a graveyard.
Not of bones—but of kingdoms.
Kael stood at the edge of the known world, where crumbled statues lay buried beneath moss and silence. The air was still, yet every breath he took felt like inhaling memory—old, forgotten, and unforgiving.
The Divide wasn't just a place.
It was a threshold.
A Warning in the Wind
They had traveled for five days since escaping the capital. The rebellion brewed in Kael's wake, but the king would recover, and Edric would not rest until Kael's head decorated the throne room gates.
Still, Kael pressed forward.
With him walked Ash, brooding and battle-worn. Iris, more guarded than ever. Raen, who kept dreaming of fire. And Nira—silent, always watching him with eyes that suggested she knew more than she ever said.
At the foot of a crumbled watchtower, they found a warning etched into stone:
"TURN BACK. BEYOND LIES MADNESS. AND TRUTH."
Kael traced the words with his fingers. "Sounds like home."
Crossing the Dead Vale
The Vale stretched like a wound across the land—an ancient battlefield poisoned by time. Nothing grew. Birds avoided it. Even the sky seemed duller.
But it was the only way forward.
They camped that night near the ruins of what might've once been a temple. The wind whispered in strange tongues. Iris kept watch, but sleep didn't come easy for anyone.
Kael dreamed.
Of a woman in white flame.Of a gate of ash and iron.Of voices calling his name—not with reverence, but fear.
He awoke sweating, sword already in hand.
Raen stirred. "Another vision?"
Kael nodded. "The closer we get, the louder they scream."
The Watchers
On the seventh night, they found the first Watcher.
It wasn't alive. But it moved.
A towering construct of bone, smoke, and melted gold. No eyes. Just a gaping mask carved with the word: "RECALL."
It didn't attack. It only followed.
Ash tried to destroy it. His blade passed through with a hiss, but the creature remained, drifting behind them like a silent wraith.
"Part of the Ashen Gate's curse," Nira muttered. "This land remembers everyone who's ever crossed it."
"Even the dead?" Kael asked.
She looked at him, somber. "Especially the dead."
Secrets in the Stone
On the tenth day, they reached Sanctum Elashir—an abandoned stronghold carved into the cliffs. Old sigils lined the walls, glowing faintly as Kael approached.
Here, the truth began to surface.
They found journals sealed in iron. Maps showing lands that didn't exist anymore. And beneath the temple's altar, Kael uncovered something he wasn't meant to see:
A mural.
It depicted a man with Kael's face, wearing a crown of flame, standing above a burning world. Behind him, a gate stood open—and something vast and wrong crawled through it.
Ash stepped back, unsettled. "You saw that, right?"
Kael didn't answer.
Because it wasn't just a prophecy.
It was a memory.
Somewhere deep inside, Kael remembered this.
He had been here before.