The crown still bled.
Faint streams of crimson seeped from its broken edges, trickling into the cracks of the altar. The sound was subtle — the steady rhythm of something ancient still breathing beneath the stone. Kaede knelt in the darkness, her fingers trembling as she brushed the dust away from the floor where Reiji had vanished.
All that remained of him was the mark — a faint imprint of his hand burned into the surface, veins of silver light threading outward from its center like roots of dying stars.
The silence was unbearable.
Not the kind that followed death — this one was alive. It moved through the air, whispering in between breaths, filling the empty cathedral with fragments of sentences that refused to form.
> "He isn't gone..."
"...he is beneath the ashes..."
Kaede rose slowly. Her cloak dragged through the dust, and each step echoed far too loud, swallowed by the stillness before it could fade. Her blade's reflection quivered in the dim light, the steel tinted red by the crown's glow.
She stared at it — the fractured circlet that had devoured Reiji.
"Where did you take him?" she whispered.
The crown pulsed once — faint, like a heartbeat. Then silence again.
---
Outside, the city was burning.
Smoke rose from the upper districts of Zeirath, and the night sky was painted with crimson ash. Soldiers of the Shadow Court moved like phantoms through the ruins, searching for whatever had caused the surge beneath the cathedral. They didn't speak. They didn't need to. Every one of them felt it — the tremor that had shaken the boundary between shadow and light.
Somewhere deep within those fires, something new had awakened.
Kaede climbed the cracked staircase leading out of the underground hall. Each step felt heavier, the weight of silence clinging to her like a chain. When she reached the surface, the rain had begun to fall — thick and black, staining the ground like ink.
She looked up.
The once-gray sky now pulsed faintly red.
---
Then she heard it — faint at first, then growing clearer.
Footsteps.
But not human ones.
The ground shuddered slightly as a figure emerged from the mist — tall, cloaked in shadow, its face hidden beneath a shattered mask. In its hand, it held a blade identical to Reiji's.
Kaede froze. Her pulse spiked, memories colliding in her head.
"Reiji?" she breathed.
The figure tilted its head. The rain slid down the mask, revealing just for an instant a glimpse of something human beneath — an eye. Cold. Empty.
But familiar.
> "He took the oath. Now he bears its weight."
The voice didn't come from the figure — it came from the air, from the city itself. Kaede took a cautious step back, hand tightening around her weapon.
"What have you done to him?"
> "He is beneath the ashes, as all who keep their promises are."
The voice faded, leaving only the crackle of distant fire. The figure turned away and began walking toward the northern ridge — toward the ruins of the old citadel.
Kaede's instincts screamed to follow, but the ground beneath her shifted — the stones cracking open to reveal the faint silver light again, the same one that had marked Reiji's last step.
---
She knelt beside it, eyes wide.
Through the fissures, she could see something moving — not flame, not light.
Shapes. Shadows breathing beneath the surface.
Her voice trembled. "Reiji…?"
A whisper rose, faint but unmistakable.
> "Don't follow me."
She froze, breath caught in her throat.
The voice was his.
Then — the whisper continued, lower now, buried under static and echo.
> "If you do… the oath binds you too."
The light beneath her hand faded.
Kaede stood still for a long moment, the rain washing the ash from her face. She could feel her resolve cracking — the sharp line between fear and purpose blurring.
"I made my choice when I followed you into the dark," she murmured. "And I won't stop now."
She turned toward the citadel and began to move.
---
Every step through the ruins was haunted.
The fires hissed quietly in the distance, flickering against blackened walls. Statues of forgotten monarchs watched her pass — some shattered, others weeping stone tears as the rain slid down their faces.
Kaede's boots sank into the ash with each step, the ground whispering beneath her. And somewhere beneath it all — that heartbeat again.
Slow. Unending.
When she reached the gates of the citadel, she found them already open. The sigils carved into the doors glowed faintly red, the same hue as the crown. Inside, the great hall was empty — but not still. The air shimmered with movement, like the world was holding its breath.
She stepped in, blade drawn.
The floor was covered in a thin layer of ash, disturbed only by a single trail of footprints leading deeper inside.
Reiji's.
---
Kaede followed. The trail led her to a chamber illuminated by dying candles.
And there he was.
Reiji stood at the center — no longer the same.
His cloak was gone, his body marked by faint sigils that pulsed beneath the skin. His eyes glowed faintly red, yet his face was calm, almost serene.
He turned slightly when he heard her steps.
"You shouldn't have followed me."
Kaede's breath hitched. "You think I'd leave you in this place?"
He smiled faintly, though it wasn't warmth that reached his expression. "This isn't where I am. This is where the oath keeps what's left of me."
She stepped closer. "Then I'll break it."
He shook his head. "You can't. It isn't a chain you can cut. It's a silence that feeds."
---
The candles flickered violently, and the shadows around them began to move — crawling across the walls like living things. They whispered his name, her name, promises, regrets — all tangled together in one endless loop.
Reiji lifted his hand. The crown appeared again, forming from the air — shards orbiting his palm like dying stars.
Kaede reached out. "Reiji—"
But he spoke first.
> "If you take this, the silence becomes yours."
Her hand trembled. "Then we'll share it."
He looked at her for a long moment. The red light in his eyes dimmed, replaced by something softer — grief, perhaps. Maybe acceptance.
He nodded once.
The crown split in two.
Half hovered before her, dripping crimson light. She hesitated for just a heartbeat — then took it. The moment her fingers closed around it, the chamber roared to life, wind and flame colliding in violent silence.
The ashes beneath their feet rose, forming spirals that danced around them.
Reiji's voice cut through it all, steady, unbroken.
> "Then the world will hear what silence truly sounds like."