The charred remnants of what was once a hall of kings lay scattered beneath Kael's boots. Cracked pillars leaned like broken teeth, their marble scorched black from fires long since dead. Ash hung thick in the air, clinging to skin and memory alike.
Kael stepped over the remains of a shattered crown the once-gilded symbol of the First Throne now nothing more than twisted metal. The silence in the ruined chamber throbbed with a strange reverence, as if even ghosts dared not speak here.
"What is this place?" Arin's voice trembled slightly as he crossed the threshold behind Kael.
Kael didn't answer right away. His gaze swept across the throne's ruin, then up to the ceiling where half the sky had caved in, letting beams of pale morning light slice through the darkness like judgment.
He knew what it was. He felt it in the marrow of his bones.
"This was where it all began," Kael said quietly. "The first betrayal. The first curse. The First Throne was not just a seat of power. It was a promise… one that was broken in blood."
Arin knelt near a scorched mural still clinging to the far wall. It showed a line of kings each face carved in stone, proud and stern. But their eyes… they'd been gouged out.
He shivered. "They erased their own legacy."
"Or tried to hide it," Kael murmured. "And now the past is clawing its way back."
A wind stirred the ashes at their feet. From beneath the dust, something sharp caught the light.
Kael knelt and drew it free an old, rusted dagger. Its hilt bore a familiar sigil: the twin serpent of House Varyel.
His blood ran cold.
"This was my father's house," he whispered. "But this isn't where he ruled."
Arin frowned. "Then why is this here?"
Kael looked toward the distant wall, where the outline of another throne a smaller one lay buried under debris. Not the king's seat. A shadow throne. A hidden one.
"We've been chasing the wrong line," Kael said. "The blood that cursed me didn't come from the royal halls. It came from what sat behind them."
He turned the blade in his hand. "This wasn't a kingdom. It was a forge. And monsters like me… we were its weapons."
Behind them, a low hum began to rise from the stones a vibration that tugged at Kael's veins, that echoed like a heartbeat beneath the floor.
The ashes weren't dead after all.