Traders and border patrols brought news from the Broken Territories. A withered man with empty black eyes haunted the edge of the slums and dug in the dirt for scraps.
Sometimes he stared at the sky and whispered *Aurelia*, begging the Saintess to purify him. No one answered. The rot took a little more of him each day.
I listened when the patrols gave their reports, then returned to my work in the Abyss. The sunlit halls of my old life had nothing I wanted.
One month after Caleb's fall, leaders from every major power in the North filled the great hall of the Abyssal Spire. They had come to witness my coronation.
I stood beside Kaelen on the high dais by my own choice. A thousand warriors stamped their feet and struck fists against their shields until the mountain answered.
Kaelen carr
