The cliffs were quiet tonight.
The stars above Caldrath blinked like watching eyes. Far below, the city lights shimmered, oblivious to the storm building in a boy they had yet to understand.
Kieran knelt on stone, drenched in sweat, trembling.
"I can feel it," he whispered.
The old man, Master Vaelen, circled him slowly.
"Describe it."
Kieran's voice was tight. "It's like… standing on the edge of sleep, with a blade in my chest. Peace. But if I move wrong, I fall."
"Then fall," Vaelen said.
Kieran's breath caught.
And he let go.
Into the Void
The world vanished.
No sound. No air. No heartbeat.
Just a vast, starless field stretching forever—and a single book floating before him, its pages blank.
Then, a voice.
"You've calmed your fear. Now calm your blade."
He reached out.
His hand touched a page.
The book dissolved—and his sword burned cold in the real world.
The First Silence
He rose.
The world returned—but muffled. As if distant. As if holding its breath.
Ahead, Master Vaelen summoned a phantom beast—a towering jackal made of frost and bones.
"Show me."
Kieran stepped forward. No battle cry. No roar of power.
He moved.
And the air didn't.
A streak of pitch tore through the world—blacker than shadow, utterly silent. The jackal shattered before it even registered pain.
A whisper of darkness lingered behind the blade's path—like it was still catching up.
Silence Slash.
Aftermath
Vaelen's eyes widened.
He bowed his head slightly. "You've taken your first step, Kieran. Not as a swordsman. But as a Voidborne."
Kieran stood, breath steady. The cold fire in his hand flickered once, then faded.
But the silence remained—for just a second longer than it should have.
Elsewhere in Caldrath…
In a tower lined with crimson glass, a man in golden robes closed his scrying mirror.
"…He's awakened."
Another figure emerged from the shadows, cloaked in noble sigils.
"What do we do?"
The man smiled.
"Nothing. Not yet. Let the boy sharpen his blade. When the time is right—he'll carve our enemies for us."
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Chapter Nine: The Watchers in the Walls
With Silence Slash now in his arsenal, Kieran is given a solo mission deep within the capital's understructure—where he uncovers an ancient conspiracy tied to the Voidborne, and a name long erased from history... his mother's.