Ashes Of Aetheria

taring at the trail of

yet he had heard no one approach. He followed the trail with his eyes - they circled

lowed h

bone-thin crow. No one survived this far into the Dead District. That's what the old maps called

in other things. Things that hid in the snow and waited

, he

agger he'd stolen from a Watchman's corpse months ago. It wa

ow and silence. Once, this had been the Court of Banners - a vaulted space where no

tepped

ly, the a

o stop fogging. The snow was thinner underfoot, and t

ved d

s and tapestries reduced to moldy rags. The silence presse

he he

his

woman's voice, distant yet sharp.

hair on his neck

of High Justice Velryn, and peered int

ruined dais, s

, and her eyes glowed faintly with a silver light. She stood with her ba

as ch

fallen slab of marb

eamed danger. Her voice, though soft, carried power - th

e mirro

cking dust from the rafters. The woman stepped bac

ed a clo

her features noble. But something was off - the way she moved, the

he was watching the entire

eyes

ood turne

simply looked at him - calmly, curiously

behind the slab, gri

you?" h

her head. "I co

ked f

ps. "My name is Seris. I am

"That's not

s. Lon

Her boots made no soun

he said. "That means you felt the Call. The cit

you're talking about. I just- I found it

led yo

would show me something. Maybe h

she said, "What happened is that the wor

the Lower Ring. My mother- she was a we

ftened. "Then you are

d. "Are you

ike someone who hadn't been asked

y," sh

the mirror behind her began

oward it. Her

foun

Kael

g, cloak flaring as she s

ave t

wh

ow

embled. Then, with a grinding of ancient gears, a stone slab

. "What is

eart of Eldrinth. And the last p

nished down

nly a moment bef