There are footsteps no one hears.
Not because they're silent…But because they walk in places where sound is forbidden.
That's where it came from.
From a place between breath and bone, from the folds of death's robe itself—The First Emissary of Vaerzhul.
Auren and Lyra had taken refuge in the Hollow Glade, a sanctuary of druids hidden behind veils of ancient magic.The trees whispered in tongues long dead.The winds moved only when asked politely.
It was here Auren hoped to find peace—or at least time.But peace is a currency fate spends like water when prophecy stirs.
The druids noticed the signs before anyone else.
The oak leaves turned black.The healing pools hissed like vipers.And deep below, in the caverns where roots drink from the earth's soul—
A mirror cracked.
From the inside.
The figure that emerged wore no armor.
It needed none.
It was wrapped in something older—a shroud of ash that writhed like smoke but never left its form.
Its face was a skull, yet not dead. Its eyes bled silver. Its voice was memory.
"He has awakened," it whispered."The knight who defied the gods. The flame who chose justice over order."
The druids called it the Whispered Fang.
They said it was once a god—but tore out its own divinity to escape the judgment of the Karmic Flame.
It walked the Hollow Glade now.
And with every step, the trees wept blood.
Meanwhile…
Auren could feel it.
Not pain. Not fear.
Recognition.
As if the world had just remembered a curse it buried in the marrow of its mountains.
His hand—burned once again.
Not by fire.
By truth.
He turned to Lyra.
"They're not coming to kill me," he said.
"What then?" she asked, heart pounding.
"They're coming to kneel. And to beg. Or to break me before I remember why I was feared."
"And will you remember?"
Auren looked to the sky.
Twilight was burning.
"I already have."
The Whispered Fang reached the heart of the glade.
The druids formed a circle of flame and runes—ancient rites meant to hold even dragons in place.
It walked through the fire like a man walks through fog.
And then it spoke:
"Valekai Draganoth… Flame of Kharon…You abandoned the Throne of Embers, and we took it.You sealed the Abyss, and now it leaks.
You chose rest… Now we bring you regret."
And with that, the sky cracked.
The flame in Auren's chest roared.
And every tree in the glade turned to ash.
✴️ End of Chapter 20
"Those who walk with the gods must one day walk without them. That day… is the end of gods." — The Ashen Canticles, Verse 3