"Power does not corrupt. It remembers. And thrones do not fear rebels — they fear men who teach others how to burn."
— The Whispered Doctrine of the Ember Scrolls
I.
There is a moment, just before a kingdom falls, where its throne starts to weep.
Not tears. Not blood.
But silence.
The kind of silence that hangs over great halls when no one knows whether to pray or flee. The kind of silence that crawls across dinner tables of royals — where golden forks tremble and wine tastes like iron.
This was the silence now choking the world.
Because Reginal J. Ashveil — the Fangborn King — had just turned a god into ash.
And in doing so, he had turned every royal across the continent into prey.
II.
From the ruins of Soltharyn, Reginal didn't celebrate.
He built.
The god's crown, shattered.
The divine citadel, repurposed into a fortress of red banners and fang-marks.
The temples? Converted to combat academies.
No prayers.
Only oaths.
A new banner was raised — not silk, not gold — but bone.
The Banner of the First Fang. Woven from the ribs of Solmara, etched with the names of every child Reginal swore to protect. When it was lifted, storms parted.
It did not symbolize a new age.
It commanded it.
III.
Far across the seas, behind crystal towers and illusion-woven castles, the remaining royals gathered in Coven-Hold — a sky-fortress invisible to the unworthy, resting atop a dead cloud fed by the breath of wind-elementals.
There, they met:
Queen Israele of Dymmra, whose crown floats above her head, untouched by mortal sin.
Archduke Venn of the Black Choir, rumored to eat sound to survive.
High Priest-King Alvaron, whose eyes have not blinked since the Sunfall Wars.
They watched the footage. The burning city. The kneeling paladins. The god crumbling in Reginal's hand.
"He cannot be killed," Israele whispered.
"Then we break the people who follow him," Alvaron sneered.
"Fools," Venn hissed. "You don't understand what he's doing. He's not just building an empire…"
"He's writing a myth."
IV.
Back at Emberhall, Reginal stood on the balcony with Kammy and Milo.
"How many kingdoms remain?" he asked.
Kammy unrolled the prophecy scrolls, burned at the edges by the Dream-Curse Realm.
"Twelve," she said.
"Not counting the thing moving beneath the sea."
"It moves?"
"It remembers you."
Milo cracked his knuckles. His tattoos glowed.
"Then it'll remember my fist next."
Reginal didn't smile.
He just raised Velkrath to the darkening sky and whispered:
"The world will not end in fire.
It will end in remembrance."
V.
And as the chapter closed, a voice echoed from the deep.
A voice from the continent beneath the continent.
A voice that once named the First Fang its enemy.
It did not speak in words.
It spoke in graves opening.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Next: Chapter XII – "The Hollow Sea"
The Fangborn King sets sail. Beneath the waves, something older than flame watches.
And Reginal must confront a truth buried in his bloodline — one that may destroy everything he's built.