Kael traveled through the marshlands of Threnwall, his boots sinking into wet soil that stank of iron and rot. The memory he'd stolen clung to his mind like a parasite. Every now and then, a flicker of the boy's voice, pleading, scared echoed in Kael's ears. He wasn't sure if it was guilt, the memory itself, or something worse.
He stopped beside a crumbled milestone, its runes nearly consumed by vines. There, carved into the mossy stone, was the spiral again.
The same spiral from the token.
Kael's heart skipped. "What are you?"
As if in response, the ground beneath him trembled.
He staggered back as something clawed its way up—no, peeled itself from the dirt. A figure. Thin. Eyes hollow. Skin tight like dried leather wrapped over bone. Its mouth opened, but no words came only a rustling sound, like parchment torn slowly in half.
It wasn't alive.
But it remembered.
Kael instinctively reached out that cursed instinct and the moment his fingers brushed the husk's forehead, it crumbled into black ash.
The memory hit harder this time.
An older woman—priestess? witch? screaming as her temple burned. A name: Seluun. A forbidden rite: Tombspeech. A skillless born child offered in trade for divine whispers. The gods had answered. And they'd never left.
Kael gasped and fell to his knees, clawing at his scalp. "Get out—get OUT!"
The voice inside him hissed now. Not the priestess. Something older.
> "You taste like truth."
Kael's eyes widened. That wasn't just a memory.
That was something alive.
"Who the hell are you?" he shouted to no one.
And the spiral answered etched now into his palm, glowing faintly.
> Passive Skill Acquired: Whisperlink (Unstable)
You are now partially attuned to an eldritch intelligence. Your body is still your own. For now.
Kael's breath caught. "This… isn't what I asked for."
But it was what he was.
No skills. No blessings. No classes.
Just a cursed link to dead gods and a brain full of stolen pain.
And still, Kael pressed forward.
Because he knew now
If he didn't learn to control the voices…
They would control him.