By the time they reached the town of Hollowmere, the air had changed.
People looked at Kaelen differently. Not directly — no one ever met his gaze full-on. But their eyes followed him. Kids stepped aside. Vendors paused mid-haggle. Dogs refused to bark.
It wasn't fame. Or fear.
It was recognition.
Like they didn't know who he was, but something in them did.
Yreya said nothing the whole ride in.
Bren kept his hand near his sword the entire time.
Kaelen tried to breathe like a person. Walk like a person. Be normal.
But the Veil was different now.
Not louder — closer.
It curled around people like smoke. It bled through walls. It whispered in patterns only he could read.
There was a boy crying on the steps of a shuttered shop. Kaelen didn't know why. But the moment he looked at the child, the image flashed through his mind like lightning:
The boy alone two days from now. Buried under stone. A roof collapsed. No one coming.
Kaelen blinked, stumbled, and the vision passed.
He didn't say anything.
He couldn't.
They stayed the night at a safehouse tied to one of Yreya's old contacts. It was clean, quiet, and wrapped in enough warding thread to hold off a small Veilstorm.
Yreya finally spoke after sundown. "We need to find someone who understands what you are now."
"I don't think that person exists," Kaelen said.
"There has to be something. A record. A prophecy. A—hell, a journal."
Bren looked up. "There's one place."
Yreya froze. "No."
Kaelen looked between them. "Where?"
Bren didn't blink. "Blackreach."
The word fell like a knife.
Kaelen waited. "What's Blackreach?"
"A vault," Bren said. "Older than the Choir. Buried under the Ashspire Mountains. It's where they kept the original shard maps. And the names they tried to erase."
Yreya shook her head. "It's cursed. Veilrooted. It eats minds. No one comes back from it."
"I'm not no one," Kaelen said.
That night, the Veil whispered something new.
Not a name. Not a warning.
But a word Kaelen didn't know he knew:
"Reforging."
He sat up in the dark, skin glowing faintly, symbols twisting just beneath the surface.
And somewhere, deep in the ruins of a kingdom no one remembered—
A choir stopped singing.
And something older than Ashra opened its eyes.