CHAPTER 5: THE HOLLOW KING’S GAMBIT

PART 1: THE KING'S WHISPER

The Hollow King's voice was fire and rot.

"Little ember."

Aric's grip tightened on Lysara's dagger. The blue flames along its edge flickered, casting jagged shadows across the brothel's ruined walls. The Guild woman had collapsed, her silk dress now stained with something darker than blood.

Kael didn't move. Didn't breathe.

Because, Aric realized with a jolt, Kael hadn't been breathing for a while.

The Hollow King stepped forward. Molten armor dripped from his skeletal frame, hissing as it hit the floor. His face was a nightmare—half bone, half ember, his jaw unhinged like a serpent's.

"You've been busy,"the Hollow King crooned. "Stealing my memories. My echoes." His head tilted. "But you forgot the "first" rule, didn't you?"

Aric's scars burned. "What rule?"

The Hollow King "laughed"—a sound like cracking glass.

"The more you burn…"

Behind him, the shadows "twisted". Three figures emerged—Revenants, their bodies stitched together from corpses Aric recognized.

The assassin from the temple.

The frost-robed woman.

The Liar from the pyre.

"…the less you become."

PART 2: THE BATTLE OF EMBERS

Aric moved first.

Lysara's dagger carved through the air, blue fire trailing like a comet's tail. The Hollow King didn't flinch. He *caught* the blade in his palm, the metal melting against his skin.

"Cute," he murmured. "But she should've taught you better."

Then he "pulled".

Aric's arm "wrenched"—not physically, but "deeper". A memory tore loose:

—Lysara's hands, signing for the first time: "Trust no one."

Gone.

The Hollow King inhaled sharply. Oh. "That's" where she's been.

Aric roared, swinging again. This time, the dagger connected— and the Hollow King "screamed".

Not in pain. In "recognition".

The blue flames weren't burning him.

They were "remembering" him.

PART 3: THE GUILD'S BETRAYAL

The Guild woman lunged.

Not at the Hollow King.

At "Aric".

Her dagger—etched with the same hollow circles as the cultists'—plunged toward his heart.

Kael's corpse "moved".

The old scholar's hand snapped up, catching her wrist. His blindfold had slipped, revealing eyes that were "not human"—pupils like dying stars, swirling with embers.

"You promised,"Kael hissed.

The woman spat in his face. The Guild promised "nothing".

Then the floor "gave way".

PART 4: THE UNDERTOW

Aric fell.

Not into darkness.

Into "water".

Black, freezing, thick as oil. It filled his lungs, his veins, his "soul". The same lake from the Trial. The same frost-robed woman watching from above.

But this time, she wasn't alone.

Lysara floated beside her, eyes closed, her scars glowing like fresh brands.

"Mother," the frost-woman said, you were right. He's weaker than the others.

Lysara's eyes opened.

"No," she signed. "He's exactly what we need."

Then the water turned to fire.

PART 5: THE FIRST EMBERBORN

Aric stood in a temple older than time.

Not the ruins he knew. This one "breathed", its walls pulsing like a living heart.

Before him knelt a figure in molten chains.

The first Emberborn.

You're late, the figure said.

Aric's voice wasn't his own. "I didn't know."

"You never do."The figure lifted its head— and Aric saw "his own face" .

"Break the cycle," the first Emberborn whispered. "Or we all burn."

Then the chains "shattered".

PART 6: THE AWAKENING

Aric woke in the Ashen District.

Alone.

Lysara's dagger was gone. Kael was gone. The Hollow King was gone.

Only the Guild woman remained, her throat slit, her blood pooling around a single word carved into the stone:

EMBERBORN

And beneath it, fresh and gleaming:

LYSSARA

CHAPTER ENDING: THE TRUTH

The wind carried ashes to Aric's feet.

Among them, a scrap of parchment.

Two sentences:

The Hollow King is not your enemy.

He is your "shadow".

—TO BE CONTINUED—