Azrath had waited three thousand years for descendants of his children to find him.
Now he was telling Toby and Cael that he had murdered those children with his own hands.
"You killed them?" Toby whispered.
Azrath lowered his head.
The enormous chains piercing his body tightened with a metallic groan.
"Yes."
Cael raised the broken piece of Kingsbane.
"Then give me one reason I shouldn't kill you now."
Morvus laughed from the entrance.
"There is the boy I raised."
Cael turned.
"Say that again and I'll start with you."
Morvus smiled.
"You see, Azrath? History has a sense of humor."
Azrath did not look at him.
"Morvus wants you angry."
"He doesn't need to work very hard."
"Anger makes Kingsbane stronger."
Cael looked at the black metal in his hand.
"Good."
"No."
Azrath finally raised his eyes.
"It makes the wielder weaker."
Cael frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Before Azrath could answer, footsteps thundered down the staircase.
Gareth emerged first.
Blood covered his armor.
Lucian followed him, then Edric, Thane, Veyron, Ysara, and Mira.
Gareth immediately moved toward Toby.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Cael?"
"I'm fine."
Gareth looked at Azrath.
The legendary monster beneath High Keep appeared human.
Broken.
Chained.
Almost fragile.
"That's Azrath?"
Lucian nodded.
"Yes."
Gareth stared.
"I expected something larger."
Azrath almost smiled.
"You saw what they made me into."
"The creature in the cistern."
"One part of me."
Morvus walked farther into the chamber.
Lucian immediately raised his marked hand.
Golden fire gathered around his fingers.
"Another step."
Morvus stopped.
"Family reunions make everyone so unreasonable."
Gareth ignored him.
"Toby says Azrath killed his children."
Lucian looked toward the prisoner.
"I never knew that."
"Few did," Azrath said.
Cael's patience broke.
"Why?"
Azrath looked at him.
"Because they asked me to."
Silence.
Morvus's smile disappeared.
Toby frowned.
"You said you killed them because they opened the Veil."
"Both statements are true."
"Then explain."
Azrath closed his eyes.
And the chamber changed.
Not physically.
The twins' crests ignited.
Then Gareth's.
A memory pulled all three of them inside.
---
Toby stood beneath an unfamiliar sky.
Beside him were Cael and Gareth.
No one else appeared able to see what they saw.
Two young people stood on a hill.
A boy and a girl.
Perhaps seventeen.
Twins.
Azrath's children.
"They were named Aeron and Lyra," Azrath's voice said around them.
Below the hill, thousands of people were dying.
A strange darkness covered the valley.
Figures made of smoke moved between villages.
Shades.
"The Veil had already been discovered," Azrath continued. "But it was closed."
Aeron held one half of a black sword.
Lyra held the other.
Kingsbane.
Toby understood.
"They opened it."
"Yes."
"Why?"
The memory shifted.
The Black King appeared.
Younger than any face Morvus had worn.
Beautiful.
Charismatic.
Human.
He spoke to the twins.
"Beyond the Veil lies power enough to end war forever."
Lyra hesitated.
"Our father said it must remain closed."
"Your father fears what he cannot control."
Aeron asked, "Can it heal the dying?"
"Yes."
"Can it end famine?"
"Yes."
"Can it stop armies?"
"Yes."
Every answer was technically true.
And catastrophically incomplete.
Toby whispered, "He manipulated them."
Gareth's expression hardened.
"Like Cael."
Cael said nothing.
The memory continued.
The twins opened the Veil.
For one heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then darkness entered the world.
Not an army.
Hunger.
Thought without flesh.
Desire without conscience.
The Shades.
They poured into human bodies.
Soldiers murdered their own families.
Kings burned cities.
Children spoke with dead voices.
Aeron and Lyra tried to close the Veil.
They couldn't.
Something had entered them too.
Black veins spread beneath their skin.
Lyra screamed at Azrath.
"Father!"
He ran to them.
Aeron seized his arm.
"Kill us."
Azrath refused.
"No."
"It's using us."
"No."
"Father, please."
Lyra's eyes turned black.
Then gold again.
She fought whatever was inside her.
"If we lose control, the Veil stays open."
Azrath began crying.
"There must be another way."
Aeron pressed Kingsbane into his father's hands.
"There isn't."
The memory fractured.
Azrath holding his children.
One last embrace.
Then Kingsbane passing through both of them.
Their blood striking the ground.
The Veil closing.
Azrath screaming.
Toby looked away.
Cael did not.
The vision ended with the Black King standing behind Azrath.
Watching.
Smiling.
---
The chamber returned.
Toby had tears on his face.
Azrath whispered, "They saved the world."
Cael lowered Kingsbane.
"You didn't murder them."
"I drove the blade through their hearts."
"Because they asked you to."
"A father does not become innocent because his children forgive him."
Gareth looked at Toby and Cael.
Something in his face changed.
He understood Azrath now.
And hated that he understood him.
"What happened afterward?" Toby asked.
Azrath looked toward Morvus.
"He happened."
Morvus bowed.
Azrath continued.
"The Black King blamed me for the catastrophe he created. He convinced the survivors that my blood had opened the Veil."
"So they imprisoned you," Toby said.
"No."
Azrath's expression darkened.
"They tried to execute me."
Cael looked at the chains.
"Kingsbane."
"Yes."
"But it didn't kill you."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because the blade had absorbed my children's blood."
Azrath looked toward the fragment Cael held.
"It recognized me."
Toby understood.
"So instead of killing you..."
"It divided me."
Morvus finished the sentence.
"And gave us something much more useful."
Azrath's eyes filled with hatred.
"A living lock."
---
A violent tremor shook the chamber.
One of Azrath's chains cracked.
Everyone turned.
Lucian's face changed.
"The Veil."
A whisper filled the room.
Then hundreds.
Then thousands.
Voices coming from nowhere.
Mira covered her ears.
"What is that?"
Azrath struggled against his chains.
"They know the third gate is open."
Black mist began leaking through cracks in the walls.
Veyron raised his sword.
"Shades."
"No," Azrath said.
"Those are only echoes."
The mist gathered.
Faces appeared inside it.
Dead people.
Brother Caldus.
Rellan.
Queen Elara.
People Toby had never seen.
Gareth saw Seraphine.
"Don't listen," Azrath warned.
The image of Seraphine reached toward him.
"Gareth."
His body reacted before his mind.
Toby grabbed him.
"It's not her."
The image smiled.
Then dissolved.
Cael suddenly stiffened.
A small boy stood before him.
Seven years old.
Covered in scars.
Cael himself.
The child whispered:
"You left me there."
Cael stepped backward.
"No."
"You became strong enough to leave."
"No."
"But I stayed."
Cael closed his eyes.
Toby grabbed his hand.
"Cael."
The image disappeared.
Morvus watched with satisfaction.
"They're beautiful, aren't they?"
Gareth glared at him.
"You call this beautiful?"
"They show people what they already carry."
"Pain?"
"Truth."
Azrath shouted:
"Do not answer the voices!"
The chamber shook again.
A chain snapped.
Azrath screamed.
His human body distorted.
For one instant, enormous black wings appeared behind him.
Then vanished.
Toby's crest burned.
"What do we do?"
Azrath looked at him.
"Close the third gate."
"How?"
"Three marks opened it."
Gareth understood.
"Three can close it."
Lucian shook his head.
"No."
Everyone looked at him.
"If Gareth and the twins close the gate from this side..."
He stopped.
Toby understood.
"We stay here."
"Yes."
Gareth answered immediately.
"No."
Cael laughed bitterly.
"You really need more words."
"We find another solution."
Morvus spoke softly.
"There is one."
Nobody wanted to ask.
Toby did.
"What?"
Morvus pointed toward Azrath.
"Kill him."
Azrath did not deny it.
"If Azrath dies, the Veil closes permanently."
Lucian stared.
"You said someone would have to replace him."
Morvus smiled.
"I lied."
Cael almost attacked him.
Toby stopped his brother.
"Why tell us now?"
"Because now killing him serves me."
Azrath's expression hardened.
Gareth asked, "What happens to you if Azrath dies?"
Morvus's smile disappeared.
That was the answer.
Lucian understood.
"He becomes free."
Morvus said nothing.
"You're bound to Azrath."
Lucian stepped closer.
"Your Shade can exist here because Azrath anchors the Veil."
Toby followed the logic.
"If Azrath dies, the Veil closes..."
"...but anything already on this side remains," Ysara finished.
Morvus applauded once.
"Excellent."
Cael stared at him.
"So you become immortal here."
"Something close."
"And if we free Azrath?"
Morvus's expression changed.
Fear.
Again.
Azrath answered.
"I take every Shade back with me."
Silence.
Toby looked at Morvus.
"That's what you're afraid of."
Morvus's face hardened.
"Freeing him could destroy this kingdom."
"Or destroy you."
"Do not confuse revenge with wisdom."
Cael smiled.
"Coming from you, that's almost funny."
---
Another chain snapped.
Azrath fell forward.
Black scales spread across his shoulder.
The transformation had begun.
"Choose," he gasped.
Toby looked at Cael.
Kill Azrath.
Free Azrath.
Or remain below and reseal the prison themselves.
Three choices.
All terrible.
Then Mira screamed.
A Shade had wrapped around her ankle.
Toby lunged.
The black mist pulled her toward a crack in the wall.
"Mira!"
Cael grabbed her arms.
Gareth seized Cael.
Together they pulled.
The Shade hissed.
Then Veyron struck it with his sword.
Nothing.
Lucian touched it with his glowing hand.
The Shade burned.
Mira collapsed into Toby's arms.
"Are you hurt?"
She shook her head.
Then her expression changed.
"Toby..."
"What?"
Her eyes turned completely black.
Toby froze.
Mira smiled.
Not her smile.
"Too late."
She grabbed his face.
Black smoke rushed from her mouth toward his.
Gareth moved.
Cael was faster.
He struck Mira away.
The smoke recoiled.
Mira collapsed.
Toby screamed.
"What did you do?"
"Saved you."
"You hurt her!"
"That's not her anymore!"
"It is!"
Toby crawled toward Mira.
Her eyes flickered.
Black.
Brown.
Black.
"Toby..."
Her real voice.
"Help me."
Azrath shouted from across the chamber.
"Don't touch her!"
Toby stopped.
"Why?"
"Because the Shade wants your blood."
Mira began crying.
"Please."
Toby's hands trembled.
Cael grabbed his shoulder.
"You can't."
Toby looked at him.
"If it were me?"
Cael said nothing.
"If that thing were inside me, would you leave me?"
Cael's face tightened.
"That's different."
"Why?"
"Because you're my brother."
Toby looked at Mira.
"She's my family too."
He reached toward her.
Cael seized his wrist.
"No."
"Let go."
"No."
"CAEL!"
Mira screamed.
Her body arched.
Black smoke exploded upward.
Lucian raised his glowing hand.
"Move!"
A blast of golden fire struck her.
The Shade screamed.
Then separated.
Mira collapsed.
The black form twisted above her.
Azrath shouted:
"Now!"
Toby and Cael instinctively raised their marked arms.
Their golden flames joined.
The Shade caught fire.
It shrieked.
Then vanished.
Silence.
Toby rushed to Mira.
Her eyes opened.
Brown.
Only brown.
"You came back," he whispered.
She smiled weakly.
"So did you."
But across the chamber, Morvus was no longer smiling.
He stared at the twins.
Not angry.
Terrified.
Toby noticed.
"What?"
Morvus stepped backward.
"That shouldn't be possible."
Cael looked at his glowing hand.
"What shouldn't?"
"You expelled a Shade without killing the host."
Azrath stared at them too.
His expression was entirely different.
Hope.
Three thousand years of impossible hope.
"The prophecy," he whispered.
Lucian turned.
"What prophecy?"
Azrath looked at Toby and Cael.
"It was never about killing me."
Morvus shouted:
"Silence!"
Azrath's voice grew stronger.
"The Twin Flame does not choose between death and freedom."
Morvus moved toward him.
Gareth blocked his path.
Azrath pulled against his remaining chains.
"It creates a fourth choice."
Toby stood.
"What choice?"
Morvus screamed.
"DO NOT TELL THEM!"
Azrath smiled.
For the first time, he no longer looked defeated.
"The twins can separate a Shade from its host."
His golden eyes turned toward Morvus.
"And if they can separate the Shade..."
Morvus's human face began to distort.
"...they can separate the Black King from the man whose body he stole."
Everyone turned toward Lord Regent Morvus.
Black smoke erupted violently around him.
For one brief second, another face appeared beneath his.
Older.
Exhausted.
Terrified.
A human prisoner trapped inside his own body.
And the man beneath Morvus's face screamed:
"Gareth, help me!"
Gareth froze.
Because he recognized that hidden face.
It belonged to someone he had watched die ten years ago.
King Aldren.