The mountain winds howled like wolves.
Coker stood at the edge of the Vale of Teeth—a jagged stretch of earth filled with broken spires, shattered bones of long-dead giants, and deep cracks in the ground that never stopped whispering. The sky above him swirled in a slow spiral, like something unseen was turning it with a hand too large to imagine.
Lilin walked beside him in silence.
Neither had spoken since the Mooncaller vanished.
The memory of her voice still echoed in Coker's bones.
*"Beyond the Vale of Teeth… in the city that fell upward."*
But the Vale wasn't a place meant for travelers.
It was a graveyard of forgotten wars.
---
The first creature appeared at the second mile.
It had no eyes. No mouth. Only hands—dozens of them, crawling along the rocks like spiders. Each hand moved independently, grabbing anything that breathed. They skittered toward Coker in silence, fingers twitching, palms opening and closing like hungry mouths.
He raised his hand and whispered, "Not now."
The hands stopped.
Then cracked.
Then shattered into ash.
The wind carried the dust away like it didn't belong here.
Coker didn't even slow his steps.
Lilin glanced at him. "You're getting better at controlling it."
"I'm not controlling it," he said. "It just listens now."
---
By nightfall, they reached the center of the Vale.
There, nestled inside a circle of broken stone teeth, was a pit.
Not a normal one.
It was *upside down.*
Coker stared into it. The sky reflected in its surface, but backward—as if the pit led not down, but into a world above.
"The city that fell upward," Lilin said. "It's real."
Coker nodded. "Then let's fall up."
Without waiting, he jumped.
---
He didn't fall.
He *rose.*
The moment he crossed the edge of the pit, gravity reversed. The world flipped. And suddenly, he was being pulled into the sky that lay below. His body twisted but didn't break. He spun once, twice—
Then landed on stone.
A city stood before him.
Floating.
Broken.
And burning with moonlight.
---
It was beautiful once.
Coker could feel it in the stone.
Towers carved from memory. Bridges made of glass and starlight. Streets that shifted with thought.
But now, it was dead.
Or worse—half-alive.
The buildings pulsed faintly, like hearts refusing to stop beating. The sky above this place was white—not blue, not black. Just… blank. Like it had been erased.
Lilin landed behind him.
She looked around, eyes wide.
"This place is humming."
Coker listened.
She was right.
There was a song under the stone.
A broken lullaby.
---
They walked through the empty city.
No footsteps echoed.
No wind moved.
But shadows watched.
Not hiding. Just waiting.
Coker felt them in every alley.
"Something's wrong here," Lilin said.
"I know."
They reached the central tower.
It rose crookedly into the sky, leaning like it was tired. At its base, a door hung open. Inside, stairs spiraled upward—and downward—both directions defying logic.
Coker placed a hand on the wall.
It was warm.
Then a voice spoke.
Not from the tower.
From *inside* his mind.
**"Do you seek what was stolen, or what was hidden?"**
He froze.
Lilin saw his expression. "What is it?"
"The city," he said. "It's alive."
---
He climbed the tower alone.
Lilin waited at the bottom.
The stairs shifted under his feet, moving like a serpent. Every step brought a new memory—not his own, but familiar.
He saw a boy, younger than him, holding a blade made of starfire.
He saw that boy kneel before a throne of glass.
He saw the same boy chained.
Then burned.
Then forgotten.
Coker gritted his teeth and climbed faster.
At the top, he found a room with no walls.
Just a circle of sky.
And in the center, a mirror.
Not silver.
Not glass.
But made of still water.
He stepped to it.
The voice returned.
**"Look."**
He did.
And the water showed him *his name.*
Not "Coker."
Not "Devourer."
A name older than both.
**"Kairon."**
His heart slammed in his chest.
"I… I remember that," he whispered.
**"Then remember the rest."**
The mirror changed.
It showed a battle—him, standing at the center of a circle of gods. They were afraid of him. One raised a spear. Another cried.
He had *begged* them not to make him do it.
But they forced his hand.
He released the Silence.
And the stars screamed.
Then everything went black.
---
Coker stepped back from the mirror.
"I wasn't the villain."
**"You were the fail-safe."**
The room shook.
The voice was no longer gentle.
It thundered.
**"And the gods who made you are waking up."**
The sky above the tower opened like an eye.
Coker stumbled.
A light beam shot from the heavens, slamming into the floor behind him. He turned to run—
But the mirror shattered.
And from it, something crawled out.
A creature made of glass and flame.
It didn't attack.
It knelt.
And said:
**"General Kairon… we are yours again."**
---
Lilin reached the top a second later.
She saw the creature kneeling before Coker and froze.
"Is that—?"
He nodded.
"A Memory Warden."
Lilin swallowed.
"That means the other ones… the real ones… will wake soon."
Coker looked into the sky, his body still trembling.
"Then we need to get to the sea."
Lilin's eyes widened. "The sleeping gods?"
He nodded.
"They're calling me now."
---
Far below, the Vale of Teeth shook.
And in the ocean far beyond the mountains, something vast stirred beneath the waves.
The first god was waking.
And it remembered *him.*