It started in Velduin. It will end somewhere colder.
Sakamoto's Age: 6.5Location: Approaching VelduinWorld Status: FracturedSakamoto's New Title: The Ash Crown
Opening Line:
Before I was a king, I was a mistake in a cradle.Before I burned the Reach, I was just a boy in Velduin.
Now I return.
Not for peace.
But for the memory I left behind.
The Return to Velduin
The village is smaller than he remembered.
More broken. Abandoned in parts.
Sakamoto walks its path in silence.
Ravian follows — wary. Ghosts feel thick here.
They reach the ruins of the old hut where he was raised.
Inside: a sword mark in the wall.
Niris whispers:
"That's where I woke. That's where we began."
Sakamoto kneels and places a black feather on the floor.
"One for her. One for who I was."
Frost Girl Identity Revealed
South of Velduin, near the Erosca Frostpath…
The girl walks barefoot. Calm. Eyes glowing faintly purple.
Two hunters try to approach.
She doesn't scream.She doesn't blink.
She just raises her hand — and their memories fall out of their mouths.
They drop dead.
"Who is she?" a scout watching from afar whispers.
Her name flickers in ancient glyphs across her back:
Eira.
Half-Echoborne.Half-Soulborn.And she dreams of Sakamoto.
Ravian's Letter (Revealed)
That night, Ravian opens the letter from the capital.
He reads it twice.
Then burns it.
"What was it?" Sakamoto asks.
"Proof you have a brother. Or… had."
"What does that mean?"
"It means the capital doesn't want you alive because they're afraid you'll remember who you replaced."
Enemy Movement – The Shadow Saint
In the capital, a man walks through a corridor of corpses.
All dressed in gold.
He doesn't touch them.
They just stop breathing as he passes.
Name: Veyrion, the Shadow Saint
Elite executor of the Cleansing Court.
He takes one order:
"Find the Ash Crown. Bring back the sword. Leave no one breathing."
Final Scene – The Storm Begins
As Sakamoto stares into the ruined lake outside Velduin, he whispers:
"I feel it."
"Feel what?" Ravian asks.
"The shift."
"In the capital?"
"No. In me."