The journey west began with silence.
Not the uneasy silence of danger stalking the shadows, but the kind that comes after something sacred has broken and something new is rising from the pieces.
Yui slept against Kairo's back as they walked—still weak, still scarred, but safe. Aeska led them through the forest beyond Bone Mountain, her movements sharp, eyes constantly scanning the treeline. The sky had cleared for two full days now—still gray at times, but no longer bleeding fire.
Something had shifted.
The world had felt the death of the Echo Prince.
They stopped by a river choked with shattered metal and bones—relics from an old war. Kairo knelt beside it, letting the water run over his hands. Cold. Real. Not poisoned by ash.
Yui stirred behind him. "Where… are we?"
He turned, smiled. "Far from Bone Mountain."
She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. "I remember singing. A voice… that wasn't mine. It said it would protect me, but it wasn't you."
"That voice is gone," Kairo said. "And I'm not leaving again."
She looked at the mark on his wrist—the Eye of Ash.
"It changed you."
"I let it," he replied. "So I could get to you."
Aeska dropped to a crouch beside them. "We need to move. There's a path to the west. Forgotten territory. No Choir outposts. But… something else might be out there."
Kairo stood. "Good. I need answers. I need to know why this happened to us. What the Ashborn really are."
Yui reached for her satchel, pulling out a relic wrapped in cloth. It was a tiny shard of obsidian, etched with the same rune that marked Kairo's skin.
"This was in the Vault," she said. "I don't know what it is, but it sings to me."
Kairo held it in his palm. It was warm.
And it pulsed.
Suddenly, the mark on his wrist lit up. A flash of red light exploded from the shard, and for a split second—just a flicker—he saw a tower rising from a sea of glass, its top surrounded by crows and stars. A voice echoed, old and heavy:
"Ashborn… return to the source."
Then the light vanished.
Aeska stepped back. "That wasn't just a vision. The shard sent a signal."
"To what?" Kairo asked.
"I don't know. But now it knows where you are."
The sky rumbled in the distance.
Kairo clenched his fist.
"Let it come."
Later that night, while Yui slept and Aeska sharpened her blade, Kairo stared into the fire. The mask rested in his lap. He no longer needed it to see. Whatever was inside him had fully awakened.
He was Ashborn now—truly.
Not cursed.
Not marked.
Chosen.
And this was just the beginning.
*End of Volume 1*