"Some gods are not dead. They are simply denied worship — and they remember."
---
The moment Rhaelor gripped the blade — the Ashreaver — the sky cracked.
Not thunder.
A scream.
From deep beneath the earth, a sound like chains snapping echoed through the roots of the mirrored tree. The entire forest bowed in silence, as if in reverence or fear.
Siyara staggered beside him, the fire still dancing in her veins.
> "What did we awaken?" she asked.
> "Not what," Rhaelor murmured. "Who."
---
Centuries ago, before even the empires of Velmar and Ish'Tenna rose, the gods warred over one throne — the Seat of Consequence, a celestial power that determined which souls deserved to return… and which would vanish forever.
Twelve gods ruled that court.
But there was a thirteenth.
One who refused to judge mortals.
One who believed in free will, in love over law, in the soul's power to defy fate.
His name was...
> Vaeren.
The God of Rebellion.
The God of the Unnamed.
---
But the other gods turned on him.
They erased his temples, burned his priesthood, and sealed his name in the Forbidden Flames beneath the mirrored tree — the same place Rhaelor's ancestors had hidden the blade.
The price of sheltering Vaeren?
Their entire bloodline was cursed.
No heir of that line would ever be remembered.
---
> "You are his last blood," Siyara whispered, her voice trembling.
> "You are the son of a god no one dares speak of."
> "And you," Rhaelor said, "are the only soul he ever spared."
Because once, in a war forgotten by all except the stars, Vaeren chose to save a mortal girl — a temple child fated to die in a divine siege.
He traded his divinity to shield her reincarnations.
That girl had been reborn many times.
Always dying young.
Always hunted.
> Until now.
---
A pulse of flame shot from the blade and etched a seal into the air — not in a language of mortals, but of gods.
A message:
> "The seal is broken. The thirteenth rises."
> "Prepare the altars. The war resumes."
---
Far above, in the heavens where the remaining gods watched from hollow thrones, a single bell rang.
It hadn't rung in 3,000 years.
Its sound turned the stars blue.
And across the world, every remaining temple priest — regardless of kingdom or god — fell to their knees in dread.
---
> "He returns," whispered the High Oracle of Talvaren.
> "And he brings the girl with the flame again."
---
Back in the ash-field, Siyara and Rhaelor stood in silence.
Between them now was not just a blade, not just memory — but a divine rebellion reignited.
And this time… the gods would not win.
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End of Chapter 19: The God With No Altar
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