Sword and flame struck at once.
The battlefield collapsed. The cavern roared. Crimson light exploded upward, swallowing them both in fire and blood.
Kael slammed onto the cold stone gasping, Veindrinker still blazing in his hands. The battlefield was gone, so was the cavern. He stood in a vaulted hall of bones. Ribs of some colossal beast arched overhead like the framework of a cathedral, their pale ivory glowing faintly in the crimson haze. Shadows drifted between the pillars, whispering with voices too many to count.
Rayne landed beside him rolling to her feet, blue flame still dancing across her dagger. She scanned the hall, eyes sharp, with quickened breaths. "This isn't the Vale anymore."
A laugh slithered through the vault, echoing from bone to bone.
"You walk the Bone Vault, heir of Hollow blood. Memory made flesh. Oaths that never die."
From the shadows ahead figures emerged. Skeletal shapes draped in rotten robes, bone masks cracked, eyes faintly glowing with red flame. Each carried the bearing of royalty, yet all were broken.
Rayne's grip tightened on her blade. "The Ashen Court."
Kael steadied Veindrinker, though his blood ran colder with every whisper that pressed against his mind.
The figures stopped in a circle around them, and the whispers became words.
"Blood of the Hollow Queen. Bond of fire and steel. The throne remembers what you would forget."
The vault doors slammed shut behind them. There would be no way out, only forward. The circle of skeletal figures pressed closer, their bone masks shifting in the dim light. Each step echoed like a drumbeat inside Kael's skull.
Rayne raised her dagger, blue fire hissing against the cold. "They are not whole. Fragments, bound here by oath."
Kael tightened his grip on Veindrinker. "Fragments can still kill."
One of the figures broke from the circle, its robes dragging across the bone floor. Its mask split down the center, its voice splintered into two tones at once.
"Hollow blood.... why do you resist? The crown is your chain, the chain your inheritance."
Kael lifted his sword. "Because I am no one's prisoner."
The figure plunged. Veindrinker met it with a shriek of steel against bone, sparks burstling as the sword's runes flared crimson. The thing reeled back, black ash spilling from its robes.
Another surged forward, then another, and yet still another. Soon Kael was turning in tight circles, parrying clawed hands, striking bone masks that cracked but did not fall.
Rayne carved her own circle, forcing two figures back with a burst of searing light. But even scorched, they reformed, whispers clinging to her ears like chains.
"Daughter of fire.... you carry the Ashen curse.... your bond is no accident."
Her heart shuttered. She remembered when and where she heard those words before. In the coven, whispered in fear, when her bloodline first revealed its mark.
"No," she hissed, striking harder, flame spilling from her blade. "The bond is not theirs to claim."
The circle closed tighter. Their voices merged, louder now, overlapping until they shook the vault itself.
"Blood of the Hollow Queen. Fire of the Ashen line. Together you are bound, not by chance... but by design. Your destiny awaits!"
The floor split beneath them, glowing veins of red light tearing through the bone. Kael and Rayne were forced back to back, surrounded on every side.
Kael's voice was low but steady, their earlier encounter with the Ashen King and Hollow Queen giving him some form of insight. "If this is a trial then we break it together. "
Rayne met his eyes for a heartbeat, then nodded. "Then don't fall behind."
They raised their blades as the Ashen Court closed in. The Ashen Court struck as one, bone claws raked sparks from Veindrinker's blade. Fire burst from Rayne's dagger, searing masks that reform as quickly as they broke. Every blow carried weight beyond steel, each whisper digging deeper into their minds.
"Blood to crown. Fire to chain. The bond cannot break what it was made."
Kael staggered as one figure's claw scraped his mark sending fire racing through his veins. His knees buckled and he almost fell.
Rayne whirled, fire slashing the attacker aside, then grabbed his arm. Her touch sent a shock through both of them. The vault pulsed, the whispers faltered.
Kael's eyes locked on hers, the bond's pull flared sharp, undeniable!
For a heartbeat, the vault itself seemed to recognize it. The skeletal figures recoiled, their voices rising to a furious roar.
"The bond awakens! The throne remembers!"
The floor cracked wide, fissures bleeding red light. Pillar of splintered bones. The Court staggered back into the shadows, shrieking as the vault collapsed around them.
Rayne clutched his arm, her voice strained but steady. "Kael!... we need to move. Now!!"
But there was nowhere to run. The ceiling groaned, bones raining down. The fissures widened into a chasm beneath their feet.
Veindrinker's runes blazed crimson, Rayne's flames burned blue white. The bond between them pulsed once more then detonated in a burst of fire and blood.
The Bone Vault shattered.
Kael woke choking on dust. The vault lay I'm run around him, arches of bone shattered, the crimson fissures sealed as of they had never been. Veindrinker's glow had dimmed to embers. His body ached, the mark across his chest felt raw as if it was freshly branded.
"Rayne..."
He forced himself up, scanning the wreckage. She was half buried under shards of ivory, fire guttering weakly along her dagger. He stumbled to her side and dragged the bone fragments away.
Her eyes opened slowly, pain flashing across her features. "Still alive?"
"Barely. "He hauled her to her feet. "You?"
Rayne gave a thin smile. "Definitely alive."
Before Kael could answer, a voice whispered from the dust, soft now but no less chilling.
"The bond cannot be severed. What was bound by crown and fire will burn until all thrones fall. "
Kael froze, staring into the shifting shadows. The figures of the Ashen Court were gone, but their presence lingered like ash in the lungs.
Rayne's hand tightened around his arm. "Did you hear that?"
"Yes." His jaw clenched. "And I'm not letting them decide my fate."
She studied him for a moment, eyes sharp as if weighing whether his defiance was strength or recklessness. Then she nodded once. "Good. Because if they think we will bow, they're in for disappointment."
From somewhere deep in the ruins, a low tremor rolled beneath their boots. Dust drifted from the broken ceiling, a hollow wind stirred carrying the stink of decay.
Rayne raised her dagger, flame reigniting. "Something else is down there."
Kael gripped Veindrinker, the blade strumming in answer. "Then let's make sure it regrets that."
Together, they turned towards the source of the tremor. An opening torn in the the vault's far wall leading into a cavern that pulsed faintly with the red light.
The whispers followed as they stepped into the dark.
"The eyes beneath the wastes are never closed...."