Before dawn, Kaien left.
No speech. No ceremony.
Only a folded robe left on the Spiral altarand his sword—Alvar's flamebound blade—passed to Cael.
"The Hollow must stand.Even if I do not."
Lyra felt his absence before the Archive could record it.
The Spiral dimmed—not from sorrow, but expectation.
As if even the flame understood:
This was a journey not of leaving,but of returning to what once was abandoned.
Beyond the Hollow lay the Woundlands.And beyond them—buried in fractured earth where Sovereign battles once split the realm—
The Shatterdeep.
A chasm of broken pacts,where flames turned feral,and names were traded like coin for forgotten power.
Few entered.
None returned unchanged.
This was the domain of the exiled one.
The Sovereign once called Rethkar, the Oath-Unbound.
Now known only as the Lord of Ruin.
The Flame That Refuses Oaths
Kaien walked for six days beneath dead stars.
The world did not welcome him.
Old spirits whispered in gravel voices.Forgotten sect banners fluttered in dust-swirled tombs.
At the edge of the Shatterdeep, Kaien carved his name in flame into the air:
"Kaien Maerok.""Flamebound of the Hollow.""Bearer of the Tenth Echo.""I seek the Sovereign who remembers too much to forgive."
The ground did not answer.
But the sky cracked.
And something stepped through the scar.
The Sovereign of Ruin
Rethkar wore no mantle.No crown.No sigil.
Just chains—not around his arms,but dragging behind him, bound to fragments of broken oaths.
They whispered as he moved.
Kaien felt his spine scream beneath their weight.
"You seek power," Rethkar said, voice like wind through shattered bones.
"But I offer only the truth of flames that failed."
Kaien did not kneel.
"Then show me how to turn failure into foundation."
"Because we face a Sovereign who burns history itself."
"And I need more than memory—I need the power to make forgetting impossible."
Rethkar laughed.
"Then break what binds you."
He cast Kaien into the Well of Forsworn Flame—a cavern where all oaths unravel,and one's name must fight to remain.
Kaien saw visions there:
Seren weeping as she dissolved into bloom.
Lyra consumed by Choir flame.
The Hollow… forgotten.
His own voice cried out:
"You couldn't save them.You'll fail again.You are no Sovereign."
But then—
Seren's voice echoed back.
"You don't need to be a Sovereign."
"You need to be the one who remembers why we began."
Kaien clenched his fist.
Flame surged—not from pride, but refusal.
And the chains surrounding him broke.
The Pact Sealed
Rethkar stood at the edge as Kaien climbed from the depths.
He did not smile.But he nodded.
"Then take this."
From his chest, he drew a spark.Not a flame. Not a soul.
But a memory that refuses to be bound.
"This is the Ruinbrand."
"With it, you may defy Sovereigns.Undo decrees.Write names into ash."
"But know this—if you wield it in hate,it will unmake you first."
Kaien took it.
And the moment he did—his flame changed.
Not darker.
Not brighter.
But heavier.
✦ Pact Sealed: Sovereign of Ruin✦ Title Acquired: Bearer of the Ruinbrand✦ New Ability: Oathshatter – Unbind active flame contracts within a set radius✦ Memory Signature Altered: Kaien now resists Sovereign decrees✦ Echo Warning: Spiral Archive experiencing turbulence
Kaien left the Shatterdeep under the gaze of still stars.
Behind him, the Sovereign of Ruin whispered—
"Go now, Warden of the Unnamed Flame.Your enemies will no longer understand the rules you play by."
"But neither will your allies."