Epilogue: The Echo in the Dark
The world was quieter now.
Dawn came without blood in its light. The skies, once choked with ash and storm, showed hints of blue again. What remained of the old kingdoms lay in ruin, but from those broken stones, a new world stirred, fragile and unsure.
On a lonely cliff overlooking the sea, Dren and Seris stood together.
The wind tugged at Seris's storm-dark hair. Dren's eyes, once sharp with defiance, now carried the heaviness of too many ghosts. They said nothing for a long time, only watching the tide roll against the jagged shore.
Neither spoke of the friends they'd buried.
Neither spoke of the hunger sealed in the dark, or the cost it had demanded.
But both knew it wasn't over.
Not truly.
As the sun dipped low, Seris turned, brushing her fingers against the mark on Dren's chest, a faint sigil now, its fire reduced to a lingering warmth.
"We broke the cycle," she said softly.
"For now," Dren replied.
A shadow flickered in the corner of their vision, a figure cloaked in bone-white, standing at the edge of the world, watching.
The Nameless Hunger still existed. Its prison cracked. Its whispers reaching into the hearts of men.
And deep beneath the earth, in forgotten chambers, other things stirred. Old gods not yet dead. Prophets speaking of a Shattered Throne.
The world was healing, but new wars would come.
And somewhere, far from the sea, a child was born beneath a storm-wracked sky.A girl with eyes like violet flame, and a birthmark shaped like a crown of ash.
The Cycle had been broken.But the story of Ash and Betrayal was far from finished.
End of Book One
To Be Continued...