"I dreamed," Raihan whispered, his voice rough in the quiet of the morning.
Lian Yue rested against a wall of the cave and looked at the steam that danced between them as they shared a breath. "A memory or a warning?"
Raihan's eyes narrowed. "Both. I saw a sword buried in a mountain, burning with godfire… and a hand of shadow pull it free."
The fire crackled. A chill gnawed at the air outside the cave and utter silence reigned.
"A sword?" she asked softly.
"No," he said, getting up. "A person."
---
Somewhere in the Hollow Between Worlds …
Outdated locks turned as the chains creaked, the noise reverberating throughout a dimension where nothing should be. No one had broken the gods' prison—the Iridium Hold—for a millennium.
Until now.
There was one flame to illuminate the chamber, and it showed the body chained to the wall of black glass.
Tall. Emaciated. Hooded.
His hands were clad in godly iron. Most of his face was in darkness — except for his mouth, which formed slowly into a diabolical smile as the flame neared.
"You waked me," said the Betrayer, his voice like polished leather. "Which cowards among you had the guts?"
Out of darkness stepped a goddess—Eris, Weaver of Law.
Her face was moonlight sculpted, but her eyes shone with cruelty.
"You have a purpose again."
The Betrayer laughed. It was a noise that would have caused stars to shake.
"Ah. So the gods at last became afraid of their own folly."
Eris didn't blink. "A ship walks the knife's edge between the mortal world. The one who has the Eye and the accursed blood. He must be erased."
The Betrayer raised his head, slowly and intentionally. "Erased? I prefer unmade."
She moved closer, setting a package down at his feet. It unfolded—a vermillion drape sewn of runes of dissolution.
"Then undevelop him," she whispered. "Before he is stronger than us all.
---
Meanwhile, back in the world of the living…
Lian Yue looked down at the pool where Raihan had initially lifted the Eye from the Veil. The surface was bent like a tarp in a storm, reflecting skies in places that were not places.
"What are we looking for?" she asked.
Raihan's jaw was clenched. "Answers. It's the Eye of more than just a weapon. It's… a memory. A piece of a world that was once right here."
He knelt down by the pool and put his hand to the water.
It didn't ripple.
It glowed.
Abruptly, they were in another place.
They were swallowed up in a vision.
---
They were in a forest of silver, in which time passed like breath, slow and rhythmic. Trees of crystal whispered secrets. In the middle of the clearing, a younger Raihan wilted as a child beside a smoldering corpse.
His mother.
"I recall this," he said, his voice a rasp. "She tried to hide me. From them."
A shape appeared in their line of site- a figure that neither had seen before.
She has eyes of stormlight and silver-streaked hair twisted up into braids of silver chains. Her being hummed like primordial thunder.
"Who—?"
Raihan moved closer to the vision.
"She's … she's my mother's sister. My aunt. "A goddess who rejected the Court."
The vision shifted.
The aunt knelt beside Raihan. 'Your blood isn't your damnation, little spark. It is your key."
Then the trees caught fire.
And a name was spoken on the wind.
"Kaelith, the Betrayer, is near.
---
The vision shattered.
Raihan panted as he recoiled from the pool. "He's coming for me."
Lian Yue looked pale. "And the gods really sent him?"
Raihan nodded. "He's their sharpest blade. A mortal once. Like me. But they broke him. Rebuilt him from ruin. He kills hope."
"What do we do?"
Raihan's voice was cold. "We kill him first."
—
That night they did not sleep in cave. A new destination flamed in Raihan's mind – Thraenor, first gods' city forgotten, concealed in the roots of the Shattered Mountains. If it was anywhere near the truth, it would be there.
But the path was not empty.
The FBI had already been following their steps.
—
Elsewhere…
Kaelith passed through shadows that bled across his feet. His steps left frost behind. Time shuddered around him.
He didn't need maps.
He didn't need scouts.
He was able to feel the Eye's summons.
In the darkness, he murmured, "Found you, little flame."
And the wind screamed.
—
Back in the mortal realm…
By daybreak, they had come to a desert field. Raihan paused at the edge.
"This was a war zone," he said.
Lian Yue looked around. "When?"
He knelt, his hand upon the crumbling soil.
"Two thousand years ago. A war that even the gods forgot about. Here fell the first vessel."
"Vessel?"
Raihan's voice was hollow. "The first mortal to bear the Eye. Before me. They burned her soul from the lattice of time."
Lián Yué reached out and touched his shoulder. "You are not her."
"No. But I'm next."
—
The earth trembled.
Raihan jerked his head up. "He's close."
"Who?" Lian Yue's voice was tight.
But she already knew.
A sound reverberated across the fields like thunder steeped in venom.
"I remember this place. Where the fear would not die from the gods."
Kaelith stepped out of a rip in the air, his cloak flowing out, runes searing on his flesh.
Lian Yue had lifted her sword, but the Betrayer didn't even look her way.
His only half-eyes fixed on Raihan.
"You're certainly younger than I thought. And yet…"
He tilted his head.
" O family, not vain at all, by thee Already God is smelling."
Raihan stood tall. "And you reek of obedience."
Kaelith's grin widened. "Oh, child. I am obedient."
He unsheathed his weapon—a sword forged of stardust wreckage.
"Maybe your gods taught you to bleed," he said.
—
Raihan surged forward.
Kaelith didn't move.
Until—
The sky
cracked with a shriek as Raihan's fist connected with Kaelith's sword.
And time shattered.
Lian Yue screamed his name—
And the world went white.