The torchlight flickered as Lucian descended the stone spiral leading to the war chamber—his cloak heavy with blood not his own. Kyrell followed, silent, still dazed from what had passed between them hours ago. But in his eyes, there was no confusion now. Only devotion. Fury. Desire.
"I felt something change in me," Kyrell said, his voice barely above a whisper. "When you drank from me… it was more than a bond."
Lucian didn't stop walking. "It was the seal breaking."
"The seal?"
Lucian paused, turning to him. "The one they placed on me the day I was born. The mark Silas tried to erase. The very thing the prophecy feared."
Kyrell's breath caught. "You're awakening."
Lucian looked down at his palm. A pale flame flickered just beneath the skin—neither fire nor light, but something old. Something divine.
"Not just me," Lucian said quietly. "Us."
---
Far below the tower, in a place forgotten even by time, Damien stood before the reanimated husk of the High Oracle. Its mouth was sewn shut with bone-thread, but its thoughts flooded his mind like poison.
"You were always a shadow behind Kyrell's light."
His fists clenched.
"But now, the light is no longer yours to follow. It belongs to the one he was made for."
Lucian.
Damien let out a bitter laugh and smashed his palm into the sacred basin. His blood spilled into the ancient water, and the pool hissed.
"I will not lose him," Damien swore. "Not to fate. Not to that thing."
Behind him, the Oracle groaned—and from its stitched mouth, smoke slithered into the air, forming a name in flame:
"Lucian."
---
Back in the war chamber, Renak laid the letter down on the obsidian table between them. The one Silas had hidden—the one that had nearly been burned, as if its very truth could destroy kingdoms.
Lucian stared at the parchment. His name, once scratched out violently, now glowed faintly with the blood-ink of the First Blood seal.
"You're the last of them," Renak said, his voice low. "Heir to the bloodline they feared would return."
Lucian didn't react. He was far too calm for a man learning his entire existence had been stolen and buried beneath centuries of lies.
"And Kyrell?" Lucian asked.
Renak hesitated.
Kyrell stepped forward. "I know what I am," he said, eyes bright. "I was made to end this line. But that was before I knew you. Before we changed each other."
Renak's face twisted in disbelief. "You're the weapon meant to destroy him."
"I was," Kyrell replied. "Now I'm the blade that defends him."
Lucian turned to him, something like a smirk forming on his lips. "That's poetic. Almost makes me want to let you save me."
Kyrell rolled his eyes. "You'll need me. They're going to come hard, Lucian. And next time… they won't care about prophecy. They'll just want your head."
Lucian nodded like it was child's play and funny to him at once.
---
Deep in the forests surrounding the kingdom, the skies split.
Fire fell in silence—no thunder, no scream. Just flame.
The earth hissed. The trees wept sap like blood.
And from the center of the clearing, something rose.
Not a man.
Not a beast.
But a god that had once been sealed… by Lucian's ancestors.
And now, awakened.
---