The Wailing Wastes did not howl. That would have been mercy.
Instead, they whispered—endless, brittle voices trapped in ash-coated winds. Otoku trudged through scorched earth, Gravy curled on his shoulder like a shadow-scarf, his golden eye dim but watching.
"Gravy... how long since we left the ruins?"
The pup didn't answer. Not in words. But Otoku felt the hunger pulsing in him—not food, but something stranger. Something deeper.
Regret.
He had destroyed the Crown of Ash to reject the First Star-Eater's path, yet the Codex still pulsed at his hip, whispering blood-forged truths.
And now, the Wastes spoke his name.
"Otoku..."
He paused. The air shimmered. Shadows bent in impossible angles.
From the ash rose a girl made of smoke, her eyes like dying suns. "You killed my brother."
"I don't even know your name," Otoku replied softly.
"Names are for the living," she whispered. Her hand lifted, and the dust obeyed—forming a scythe of scorched bone.
Gravy growled, low and tired. "She's not real. She's your guilt."
"That doesn't make her harmless," Otoku muttered.
The scythe struck.
He dodged—barely. The ash exploded around them, burning his cheek with phantom flame. Otoku didn't retaliate. He couldn't.
"You let them burn the academy," she said. "You let Elara cry alone."
"I was a child!"
"And now?"
Silence.
Otoku lowered his hands. "I will not run from my ghosts anymore."
The girl hesitated. Then she smiled—a sad, broken thing—and vanished like mist in morning sun.
Only dust remained.
---
Scene Break: A Camp of Thorns
That night, Otoku built a fire from cinderwood. The flame burned black and cold. He stared into it.
"You still think you're better than the Star-Eater," Gravy murmured, curling beside him. "But you use the Codex. You unmake with words you don't understand. You change fate."
"I'm not better," Otoku said. His voice cracked. "I'm just... trying to be different."
"Then stop surviving. Start choosing."
Otoku blinked.
In the fire, he saw three paths:
1. A mountain crowned by iron gates—Ashveil Academy, distant and imposing.
2. A river of blood—flowing toward a city cloaked in glass spires: Duskmire, land of cursed scholars.
3. A shattered sky—through which floated an island where stars screamed: The Isle of Lost Epochs.
"Choose, Otoku," the Codex whispered. "You cannot run forever."
---
Chapter End
Otoku stood.
"We go to Ashveil."
Gravy lifted his head. "Why the academy?"
Otoku's eyes gleamed, one gold, one starless.
"Because that's where they teach gods how to lie."