Kael
I woke to the scent of earth and herbs.
The world was slow to take shape. Blurred edges, the flicker of firelight, the damp chill of morning pressing into my skin.
My body ached like I had been running for days. For a moment, I didn't know where I was.
Then it all came rushing back.
Thom's body slumping to the ground, the arrow sticking out of his head. My own hands, slick with blood. The way I had pulled him back from the dead, something dark and terrible opening inside me, something I didn't understand.
But most of all, Elias is gone. He could be dead somewhere far away while the carriage rattled beneath us last night.
I pushed myself upright too quickly. The world tilted, my vision swimming with spots of color and shadow.
Beside me, Karin was already awake, curled in on herself with her legs pulled to her chest. Her arms wrapped around her knees, fingers digging into the fabric of her torn sleeves.
Her wide, wary eyes darted between the witch and me, lingering on my hair again.
I couldn't blame her. The last time she'd seen me, I had brown hair, brown eyes—just like any normal human. Now, I looked like something else entirely.
"Karin," I whispered. "Are you alright?"
She turned to me, her expression tight. "I thought you were dead," she murmured, voice barely above a breath. "You looked dead." Her fingers curled against the fabric of her tunic. "And now... I don't even know where we are. Or where my father is."
I had no answer for her.
Silence stretched between us before we both turned—slowly, warily—to the sound of a crackling fire.
Across from us, the silver-haired woman from last night knelt by a small fire, grinding something between her fingers, letting the crushed pieces fall into a steaming metal pot.
The scent of bitter roots and damp leaves curled in the air. Her hands moved with careful precision, her cloak pooling around her like spilled ink.
The witch with glowing, golden eyes. It had to be Marwen.
She was real. Not just a flicker of vision in the dark. Not just a phantom with burning eyes, vanishing into the trees.
She had saved us.
I swallowed, my throat dry. Marwen stirred without looking up, her expression unreadable, but I could still see it. The ghost of that golden fire in her gaze.
Marwen didn't acknowledge us at first. She continued her work, grinding, sifting, stirring.
The fire popped, sending a brief glow over her sharp features—high cheekbones, gold-flecked eyes, a mouth set in something that wasn't quite a smile.
I swallowed against the rawness in my throat. "Where did you take us?"
She didn't look up from her work, grinding the herbs with careful precision. "Somewhere safe."
Safe. The word felt weightless, meaningless after everything that had happened.
My fingers curled into the damp earth. "Are you—" I hesitated, my voice lower now. "Are you the village witch? Marwen?"
At that, her gaze lifted, settling on mine. Golden eyes on my gray ones.
A slow nod. "And you are the last Veyrn."
Marwen stirred the pot, her gold-flecked eyes steady on mine. "Because I was the one who gave Elias the pills that turned your hair and eyes brown."
Karin sucked in a sharp breath beside me. I turned just in time to see her eyes widen in shock.
"That's why—" She looked at me again, her gaze raking over my white hair, my pale eyes, like she was seeing me for the first time. "That's why you look so different now."
Before I could reply, Karin added, "Where are we?" She rubbed at her arms, casting a wary glance around.
Marwen stirred the pot once more, her voice calm, certain. "The Deepwood. Far beyond the reach of any human patrol."
The name sent a chill through me.
Just last week, Elias and I had been training in the forest near his cabin. I had been tracking a deer, moving too far, too deep, when he caught my arm and yanked me back.
"Not there," he had warned, his eyes sharp., his grip tight on my forearm. "That's the Deepwood. No one who goes in ever comes out."
And now we were here.
A sharp pang shot through my chest. Grief, panic. Just a week ago, Elias had been beside me, alive and safe. Now, he was captured.
Maybe worse. Maybe dead.
I remembered running with Karin under the moonlight, following Marwen before the soldiers could wake up. I remembered the night swallowing us whole. But how had we made it this far?
As if sensing the question, Marwen finally set down her work. "You don't remember because you were both nearly unconscious. The magic of this forest does that. It keeps those who do not belong out, and those who do, in."
The fire crackled. My stomach twisted.
Marwen tilted her head slightly, studying me. "You've seen me before, haven't you?"
A strange pressure built in my chest. I had. Not just in the village, not just in passing. I had seen her in glimpses, in flashes just last night.
My voice was hoarse when I spoke. "Not in person, no. But I know you from Elias. We hunted a large boar for you."
Marwen gave the smallest nod. "And now he is a prisoner in Drakewall. I don't think I need to explain exactly why."
The words landed like a stone in my stomach.
A prisoner.
And we were here, alive, because of her.
Karin shifted beside me, her hands curled into fists. "Why did you help us?"
Marwen's gaze flickered to her. Then, back to me. "Because I have been waiting for you."
A chill scraped down my spine.
She stirred the pot again, the scent thickening, settling deep into my lungs. "Eat first," she said. "Then, I'll tell you everything."
I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear it.
But I knew I had no choice.
—----
We ate in silence.
The boar stew was thick, dark, bitter in a way that sat heavy on my tongue.
It warmed my chest, but the aftertaste clung to my throat like damp earth. Karin grimaced at her first bite but didn't complain. We both knew we needed the strength.
Marwen didn't eat. She sat by the fire, watching us with a patience that made my skin crawl, like she could wait forever if she had to.
When the bowls were empty, she set them aside. Then, she broke the silence.
"I did not find you by chance last night," she said. "I have been watching. Waiting." Her gaze settled on me. "You are Veyrn. I know that Elias had told you the truth. But more than that, you are Thaneborn."
The fire crackled. The trees swayed slightly in the wind.
Karin shifted. "Thaneborn?"
Marwen inclined her head, her gold-flecked eyes unblinking. "The oldest bloodline of the Veyrn. The Thaneborn were the only ones who could kill with strong emotion alone. The only ones who could raise the dead beyond what any other necromancer could dream."
She continued on before I could speak. "The Thaneborn were the only Veyrn who could see the colors of sound. A voice reveals more than words alone. It shows the shape of a soul. The heart of a person, before they even know themselves."
I swallowed, my throat tight, heartbeat drumming in my ears.
Marwen's gaze held mine, steady and knowing. The firelight caught in her gold-flecked eyes, making them gleam. "You've seen them, haven't you? The colors in other people's voices. In my voice."
My breath hitched.
So that was why.
"The kings of the Veyrn," she continued, her voice quieter now, "could only be born from the Thaneborn. Your ancestors were rulers, Kael. Kings and queens, each one carrying the weight of their people's survival."
The words landed like stones in my chest.
Kings. Queens. Rulers.
My ancestors.
Me.
A hollow feeling swept through me. I barely remembered my past, yet here Marwen was, speaking as if my existence meant something greater than I had ever dared believe.
As if I had been saved for a reason.
The fire crackled between us, sending up a swirl of smoke. I stared at the flames, at the shifting embers, feeling the weight of it settle deep in my bones.
If what she said was true, then everything I thought I was, everything I thought my life would be, had already been decided long before I had a choice.
Karin was staring at me now, something unreadable in her expression.
"The Veyrn never ruled," she said quietly. "They kept to themselves."
Marwen hummed, almost amused. "Is that what they say in the cities? That the Veyrn were meek? That they never held power?"
Karin's fingers curled against her knees. "That's what the soldiers told us. The lords. The king himself. They said the Veyrn—" She stopped. Exhaled sharply. "They said the Veyrn started the war."
Marwen's gaze was sharp. "And do you believe them?"
Karin hesitated. Then, after a moment, she shook her head. "I don't know what to believe anymore."
Silence settled between us. The fire crackled, casting flickering shadows across the trees.
I cleared my throat. "You knew Elias, didn't you?"
Marwen's gaze softened, just a little. "I did."
My chest tightened.
"You let us hunt for you. You made those pills to make me look like anyone else. You—" My voice caught. "You were just there. In the village. Why?"
Marwen exhaled slowly. "Because I was waiting for you to realize your power."
Karin's brow furrowed. "You mean—you were hiding there, with the humans?"
Marwen nodded. "A spell can make a woman old, unassuming, easily forgotten. Is that any wonder, now that you know that I created those pills? The best way to gather knowledge is to blend in with those who have it."
A pit formed in my stomach. "So you were spying."
Marwen tilted her head, her expression unreadable. "Believe what you want," she said evenly. "I needed to see how this war would unfold. To know what would come after.
"So I transformed myself into someone no human would like to see: an old, odd witch lurking on the fringes of society. Someone unsettling enough to keep people away, save for the desperate and the foolish."
The firelight cast flickering shadows across her face as she continued, her voice steady. "I let them believe I was bitter, that I despised the Veyrn as much as they did. A lie woven carefully enough to keep suspicion off me."
Her golden eyes met mine, sharp and unyielding. "But more than that, I needed to find the last Veyrn before the wrong hands did."
The fire crackled between us, casting shifting shadows across her face.
She had known.
Not just that someone had survived, but that it would be me.
My chest tightened.
And the wrong hands…?
"There were once five great tribes," Marwen said, her voice quiet but steady. "They stood with the Veyrn. They fought for them. And when the humans burned the world, they burned with it."
The fire flickered, light dancing in her gold-flecked eyes.
"The Vaelryn, who rode the winds and soared higher than any arrow could reach. The Daevrin, who slipped into darkness like mist, unseen, untouchable. The Skorren, whose very skin turned to stone, making them near unbreakable. The Vashari, who glimpsed what was to come, warning of dangers before they arrived."
She exhaled, her gaze heavy with something unreadable. "And my people—the Sylvren. We could change our forms, become something else entirely."
Marwen's gaze didn't waver. "And all of us served the Veyrn for the last five thousand years. Long before any human king. Long before the humans massacred each tribe, leaving the Veyrn to die last."
The words settled like stones in my chest.
Five thousand years. Five entire civilizations, wiped from the world. I felt every year of those centuries weighing heavier on my shoulders as each second passed. I held my legs tight to my chest, feeling my fingers shake.
Karin swallowed hard. Her fingers dug into her sleeves. "All of those tribes are gone?" she asked, her voice small.
Marwen's lips pressed together. "Not all."
A breeze stirred through the trees. A rustle, a whisper of movement beyond the clearing.
"There are survivors," Marwen said. "There's three of them. Just like me, they all hold powers the humans wanted to extinguish forever. And they, too, have been waiting."
A chill crept down my spine.
"For me?"
Her gaze didn't waver. "For their prince."
The word lodged in my throat, foreign and wrong. But I couldn't look away.
"They have waited in the shadows," she continued, her voice quiet but firm. "Surviving on vengeance. Biding their time for the day they could rise again, for the day they could strike back against those who tried to erase them. The humans of Drakewall. Every human who sought to bring them to extinction."
I swallowed hard.
"They still believe, as their ancestors did, that only the Veyrn can lead them," she said. "That only you can give them justice."
The fire crackled between us, but the weight of her words was heavier than the silence that followed.
"You must trust them," Marwen pressed. "Just as they will trust you. They will help you save Elias from Drakewall. But you must be their prince. Their leader."
"To fight back," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
Marwen's gold-flecked eyes gleamed in the firelight. "To take back what was stolen. To end Lord Desivynir's reign before he ends what little of our kind remains."
The flames flickered, shadows dancing across her face.
"You'll meet them soon enough," she added finally.
The wind shifted. Karin tensed beside me.
I turned, scanning the dark gaps between the trees, feeling the presence there. The weight of something unseen.
Survivors.
I didn't know whether to be relieved or afraid.
Then, Karin inhaled sharply.
I turned back to her. "What?"
Karin didn't answer. She was staring at her arm, fingers hovering over where the bruises from last night had been.
I followed her gaze.
Her wounds—
They were gone.
Not just scabbed over. Not just fading. Completely healed, as if they had never been there at all.
My stomach twisted.
She met my eyes then, wide with fear and uncertainty.
But she didn't say anything.
And for the first time since waking in this clearing, I realized how little I truly knew.