The mountains loomed higher, cruel and jagged.
Kael led them along an ancient goat trail, barely wide enough for two feet. Loose gravel crumbled beneath their boots, vanishing into mist below. The wind cut like razors, but it wasn't the cold that bothered him.
It was the silence.
Not the peaceful kind. The kind that stalks. Waits. Hungers.
They hadn't spoken in hours. Nerra had become more watchful than usual, her every glance darting over their shoulders. Sarya's hands trembled when she thought no one was looking.
Kael could feel it too—a weight pressing at the edges of the world, just out of sight.
"It's following us," Nerra finally said, her voice low. "Whatever attacked us in the fog left a trail. This one doesn't."
Kael nodded.
"No sound. No tracks. Only pressure."
Sarya whispered, "I dreamt of it. Chains. A mouth sewn shut. It burned with your flame, Kael… but wrong."
Kael's jaw tightened.
He didn't reply. Couldn't.
Because he knew what it was.
He had created them, once—long ago, in his thirst for vengeance. Shadowed disciples, twisted from the souls of dying warriors. Their loyalty had been absolute… until his death.
And now, the Harbinger hunted him.
That night, they camped inside a wind-hollowed cave. No fire. No light. Only the distant howl of wind and the crack of shifting stone.
Kael stayed awake.
He stared out into the dark, senses sharpened. Waiting.
Then—he saw it.
Across the valley, on the opposite ridge, something stood.
Shrouded in mist.
Tall. Cloaked in ragged robes and trailing black chains that didn't clink. Its head tilted slowly.
It looked at him.
Kael didn't move. Didn't breathe.
Then it raised one hand—metallic, cracked, bound in rings—and pointed.
Directly at Kael.
The mist swallowed it a heartbeat later.
Kael didn't sleep.
The next day, they walked faster. Nerra never sheathed her blades. Sarya clutched Kael's arm more tightly, like she could sense whatever hunted them now knew her too.
They reached a fork in the path—one trail leading up to the tower, another winding into deeper, forgotten valleys.
Kael paused.
"He's driving us," Kael murmured. "He wants us to go up. So we'll go down."
Nerra frowned. "To where?"
Kael's voice was cold.
"To the place I buried the first one."
Sarya looked up at him.
"What happens if we meet it?"
Kael's eyes blazed faintly.
"Then I'll burn my sins. One at a time."