Rowan wrapped his fingers with new cloth.
“You’re becoming,” Kaen said.
Rowan looked at Liora across the field.
“So is she.”
Mira watched her troops bury the fallen.
Ronan cleaned his blade.
Eira whispered, “We made the fire remember.”
And somewhere in the distance—the Spiral grew quiet.
But not for long.
---
The voidborn was unlike anything they’d seen.
Not a wolf. Not fully. Not anymore.
They’d found it collapsed near the Ashborn perimeter—breathing, barely, but pulsing with Spiral mark runes etched into its skin.
They locked it beneath Kinmoor Tower, under spellfire chains and six burning runes.
Liora stood above the pit, arms crossed.
“Name?” she asked.
The creature blinked. Its voice was wrong. Not deep, not high. Just off.
“I had one once. But now I am Nine.”
Rowan
