MASTERS OF THE ETERNITY
CHAPTER 31: Ash Between Anchors
The blink in the heavens did not fade.
It lingered — one pulse, then another — steady, deliberate. Not a star, not a flare. A signal.
Raian felt the weight of it on his skin like a slow heat, pressing through his bones until the Blade in his hand shuddered against his grip. The third Rune's glow dimmed, as if bowing to something older, deeper.
The Intervener's hand remained outstretched. "Every bearer thinks they can choose when the next finds them. You cannot."
Izek's eyes were locked on the sky. "That thing… it's watching us."
"It's marking you," the Pale Twin corrected, her voice flat. "Anchors do not search. They call. And you, Raian…" she tilted her head, "you've answered too quickly."
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The riders shifted around them, their mounts' breath clouding the air in faint spirals. The bridge's stone trembled — not from hooves or footsteps, but from something underneath, as if the river itself was recoiling.
Raian's instincts screamed to move, to run, but the sleeping soldiers lay in every direction, their slack faces turned toward the heavens, unblinking. There was nowhere to go that didn't lead through the Interveners.
Lira broke the silence. "If we go with you, will you protect us from it?"
The lead rider's eyes lingered on her. "We will teach you how to survive it. Protection…" She almost smiled. "…is a thing you'll need to learn to build for yourself."
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"Raian."
The voice came from behind him — but too close, too inside. He turned, but no one stood there.
The Blade was whispering.
Only this time, it wasn't the voices of the first or second Runes. This was something vast and cold, spilling syllables into his mind that he could barely understand. He caught fragments — unchained, east, buried sky — and then the pressure broke, leaving his head pounding.
"Choose," the Intervener said, her voice cutting through his daze.
He realized the horn had stopped. The world was silent again, except for the slow, distant blink in the heavens.
---
Raian tightened his grip on the Blade. "We go east," he said.
"Then we ride now."
The Intervener snapped her fingers, and the circle of riders opened just enough to pass through. Their mounts moved with unnatural precision, hooves never touching a sleeping body.
Izek shot him a look. "You trust them?"
"No," Raian said, stepping into the gap, "but I think the thing in the sky is worse."
---
As they crossed the far side of the bridge, the last sounds of the war faded entirely, leaving the city of Kareth behind them in ash and shadow.
Above, the red light blinked one final time — then vanished.
But Raian knew it wasn't gone.
It was moving.
And it was coming faster than they thought.
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TO BE CONTINUED