Chapter 6: The Ash Cardinal

The Citadel's highest spire loomed like a black fang over the city. Inside, within a sanctum carved from obsidian and rune-steel, a figure knelt in silence.

Ash Cardinal Veyra, one of the Inquisition's most feared enforcers.

Her armor was etched with crimson patterns, pulsing with sealed Laws older than the Empire itself. Her face remained hidden behind a porcelain mask shaped like a weeping angel.

She was listening.

Behind her, Maelrik entered.

"He erased a Seeker squad," the High Seer said without preamble. "Not killed—erased. No Ether signature. No resonance. Just... gone."

Veyra didn't move.

"He's a child," Maelrik continued, "but he's carrying something ancient. Something that defies the natural order."

The Cardinal finally spoke, voice soft but sharp like a blade: "The Null."

Maelrik nodded. "You've hunted Lawbreakers. Aberrants. Even gods. Can you hunt this?"

She rose in a single, graceful motion. "I don't hunt."

She turned toward the open window, where the city burned in soft red light. "I cleanse."

---

Back in the Spine, Aion knelt beside the broken street where he had unleashed the Null.

His hands trembled as he studied the impact: Ether-warped stone, crystallized air, and silence that still clung unnaturally to the space.

Kael hovered nearby. "You keep staring like it's a message."

"It is," Aion said.

"What's it say?"

Aion looked up, eyes hollow.

"That if I lose control again… I won't stop at a squad. I'll erase the whole district."

Kael frowned. "So what now?"

Aion stood slowly. "Now we find someone who can teach me control."

"You mean like Seln?"

Aion shook his head. "Seln showed me what I am. But he doesn't know how to stop it."

He turned toward the far horizon where the city gave way to the Ashlands—scarred plains where the first Ether Wars began.

"There's someone out there who remembers the first Laws. Someone who remembers the fall."

---

Far across the city, Veyra landed in the ruins Aion left behind. She walked slowly, her armored boots crackling across broken stone.

She knelt and touched the earth.

Nothing.

No Ether. No memory. Not even heat. Just… void.

She stood and turned her mask toward the horizon.

"Little Null," she whispered. "Let's see if you can erase me."