They set out at first light, the sky pale with dawn. Sera led them along a ridge toward a collapsed observatory.
Halfway there, the ash moved.
Not drifted in the wind — moved.
A ripple spread through the gray dust, rising into shapes: faceless silhouettes, their bodies nothing but burning embers under a skin of soot.
Sera swore under her breath. "Ashborn."
Kaelen drew his blade, but Sera slammed her cane into the ground, releasing a burst of pale-blue light. The figures scattered like smoke — but not before one brushed Kaelen's arm, searing through cloth and skin.
His rune flared violently, and for a moment he saw through the Ashborn's eyes: the dark pit at the center of the world, chains thicker than mountains… and something vast turning slowly in the dark.
When he came back to himself, his blade was shaking in his grip.
Sera just stared at him. "You saw it, didn't you?"