Prologue – Fourteen Years Ago
The wind howled over the cliffs of Eldmire, carrying with it the faint scent of smoke—unmistakably foreign in the cold mountain air. The moon, heavy and full, floated behind a veil of clouds, casting pale light through the creaking beams of the Yokisima estate.
Inside, all was still.
Until—
"Mommy? Where are you?" a soft voice trembled from the bed.
Tiny footsteps padded across the wooden floor. "Daddy…? Big bro…? Big sis…?"
Ylin Yokisima, just six years old, stood in her nightgown beneath the arch of her carved ceiling, her long hair tousled from sleep. Her large eyes blinked into the silence. Something was wrong. It was never this quiet.
Then a door creaked open.
"Ylin, hide," a voice hissed.
Her older brother Hiyn stepped into the room, a strange urgency in his movements. He crossed the floor in two strides, dropping to his knees beside her.
"What are we doin'? Are we playin' hide-and-seek?" she asked, her voice hopeful, confused.
"Yes," he said softly. "With Mommy."
Hiyn pulled back the woven rug and pried open a hidden floorboard. He helped Ylin down into the dark crawlspace beneath the floor, brushing a lock of hair from her face.
"No matter what happens, you stay quiet. Don't move. Promise me."
"I… promise."
He gave her one last look—something deeper than fear flickering in his eyes—then closed the board gently, plunging Ylin into darkness.
From below, she listened.
Footsteps. Whispers. Then—
"Where is she?" It was Qeyn now, her sister, unsheathing The Raven, its cold metal whispering from the scabbard.
"I don't know," Hiyn replied, drawing his own sword, X Binder, the steel catching what little moonlight filtered through the shattered windowpanes.
"We can't stay here—"
BOOM.
The walls trembled. Shards of glass rained down from above as a blast tore through the eastern wing. Ylin clutched her knees to her chest beneath the floor, heart pounding in her ears.
Another explosion. Screams. Steel clashed against steel.
And then… silence.
A long, awful silence.
Until a low chuckle rolled through the smoldering ruin.
"Ahahaha… AHAHA!"
The laughter echoed, cold and triumphant. Boots crunched over debris.
King Siaren.
The Lord of Cavinten.
His shadow loomed over the wreckage, surveying the bloodied remains of the once-proud Salvender family.
And beneath the floorboards, a sob caught in a little girl's throat.
Ylin wept quietly, her tears falling through the dust as the embers of her childhood home flickered and died above her.
That night, a kingdom's cruelty was sealed.
And so too was a vow.