The Veyne estate lay behind him.
Eliar didn't look back.
He wore a dark traveling coat, leather gloves, and boots fitted with curse-silencing straps. A small satchel was slung across his shoulder, inside it: three minor cursed threads, a dull dagger, and one iron coin glowing faintly with red light.
His destination: Cliffmoor , a fallen city swallowed by rot and dust, once ruled by the House of Marrek.
Somewhere beneath its rubble was the first of the ancient artifacts once held by the Cursekeeper of old.
The First Seal.
He wasn't supposed to know about it.
But Orin had left him more than just advice.
The morning after their duel, Eliar had found a folded parchment in his chamber.
No message.
Just a map.
And a name.
"The Root of Silence bleeds in ruins. Seek the Red Veil."
Eliar had studied maps for weeks afterward, hiding the papers beneath loose stones in his room.
Only one place matched.
Cliffmoor — where the Red Veil cult had died out two generations ago, after a failed revolt. The land had been cursed ever since. Locals claimed ghosts wandered the ruins. The brave called them echoes.
Eliar knew better.
Echoes didn't roam free. Not unless someone opened a seal.
The forest path narrowed after the second day of travel.
The weather was kind , overcast skies, scattered wind. Enough to stay cool, not enough to drown his trail.
He saw no patrols, no bounty hunters. Not yet.
Only one complication remained.
His Echo.
It followed him without speaking, appearing only when summoned.
Today's version was young.
Close to his age.
No wounds, no fear.
But something in the Echo's face was… dull.
Cold.
Like a boy who had killed too early and didn't forget.
They walked in silence until dusk.
Then the ruins appeared.
Cliffmoor was dead.
Stone walls crumbled like flaking bread. Roofs sagged. Cracked statues stared with eyeless sockets. The curse was thick in the air, tasting like rust and rot.
Eliar reached the edge of the broken gates and stopped.
The Echo halted beside him.
"You see it too," Eliar said.
The Echo nodded once.
Beyond the rubble, faint red lines glowed between broken bricks.
Curse threads.
Someone or something had tried to contain whatever lay inside.
Which means something's still alive in there.
Eliar pulled a small relic from his satchel: a thread detector. Once activated, it would hum in the presence of cursed bindings.
He tapped the base twice. It lit up.
The hum came instantly.
Loud.
Close.
Too close.
Eliar ducked—
A blade struck where his head had been.
He rolled across the moss-covered stone and came up drawing his dagger.
A woman stood before him.
Not Red Veil. Not guard.
She wore scavenger's armor. Her hair was tied in messy braids, her cloak stained with ash and thread residue. Around her neck hung a choker made of curse fragments.
"Didn't expect another hunter," she said flatly.
Eliar didn't move. "I'm not after coin."
She raised her blade again. "That's what they all say."
The Echo appeared beside him.
The woman's eyes widened.
"You're an Echo-Knot?"
Eliar didn't answer.
Instead, he stepped forward.
"If we fight, only one of us gets to walk into that ruin. Are you sure you want to waste time bleeding?"
She didn't lower her sword.
But she didn't swing again either.
Finally, she exhaled.
"Name's Kiren. Curse scavenger."
"Eliar."
"Clan?"
He didn't answer.
She shrugged. "Doesn't matter. You're here for the Seal, aren't you?"
Eliar nodded once.
Kiren pointed toward the center of the ruins.
"It's beneath the cathedral. Locked behind three curse-glyphs. Took me a week to break two. The third is sealed in blood."
He blinked.
"Blood?"
"Someone with Echo-Knot potential. You just became useful."
The cathedral stood like a cracked tombstone. Its roof had caved in, and a massive red thread web covered the doors.
Kiren sliced her palm and placed it against the right-side glyph. The thread loosened slightly.
Eliar hesitated.
Then copied her.
The middle glyph pulsed.
[Blood thread accepted: Echo-Knot signature confirmed.]
The final glyph remained.
Kiren frowned. "Still locked."
Eliar stepped forward.
"Echo," he said.
His Echo appeared, a version with a burned face and missing fingers.
Kiren looked disgusted.
"You really keep those things around?"
"They're not things," Eliar said. "They're possibilities."
He placed the Echo's hand on the final glyph.
The wall shuddered.
The threads unraveled.
The door opened.
The chamber beneath the cathedral was cold. Too cold.
Stairs descended into obsidian stone, etched with glowing red lines. The scent of burned paper and metal filled the air.
At the base lay a single pedestal.
And upon it, a small, black ring—not broken like the one he'd taken as a child.
This one pulsed with power. Etched with three ancient runes.
Kiren whistled.
"That's it."
Eliar stepped closer.
The Cursekeeper's First Seal.
He could feel it. Deep in his chest, the Core reacted, like a hand reaching out to touch an old friend.
He picked it up.
[Curse Acquired: SEAL OF ROOTED MEMORY]
[Effect: Stores up to three Echo timelines in permanent threads. Allows the user to summon fully stable versions of the self in moments of crisis.
Warning: Each Echo sealed becomes permanent. They may resist or reject commands.]
He slipped the ring onto his finger.
A jolt of cold burned through his veins.
Three threads shimmered to life, one behind him, one over his shoulder, one at his back.
Echoes. Stronger than before.
More real.
Kiren took a step back.
"I don't like that look."
Eliar turned toward her.
"I need to test it."
"Oh come on—"
But he didn't attack.
Instead, he summoned the Echo with the burned face.
"How did you die?" Eliar asked.
The Echo answered softly.
"Trusted the wrong one. She slit your throat while you slept."
Eliar looked at Kiren.
She froze.
"I'm not her," she said.
"Yet," he replied.
Then dismissed the Echo.
They left the ruin together, but didn't speak for hours.
Kiren didn't argue when he kept the ring.
Eliar didn't offer to share it.
They walked until the trees replaced the stone.
Once they reached the edge of the forest, Kiren finally asked, "What now?"
Eliar looked at the horizon.
"There are six more seals," he said.
"I plan to take all of them."
"And after that?"
He didn't answer right away.
Then: "I break the cycle."