The victory in the Ink Duel was a subdued one, but its aftershocks were profound. Kael Draven remained wordless in his cell, a brooding, silent monument to chastened pride. His defeat—the true story—was shared aboard the Unshackled's fleet as a parable, not as an epic battle. Pride goes before a fall. Even the best can succumb to a plain truth well-retold.
But the Scriptorium's response to this embarrassment was not silence. It escalated.
There was a new form of hunter on the horizon. They were called the "Erasure Corps." Unlike the Quiet Guard, however, they did not seek to take and hold. Their sole purpose was erasure. They flew ships with huge, story-scouring beams capable of erasing a tale from a world's history, leaving nothing but void and confused peoples behind. They did not conq
