Chapter 5 · free to read
The founder. The First Ash-Eater. He devoured a thousand swords and never found the bottom of his hunger. Now he was only smoke — and he had been waiting for me.
It spoke without a mouth, straight into the ash under my ribs. An offer.
A foothold. It wanted to live in my body while it taught me to break the world.
It did not argue. It simply showed me the road I was already on.
Artwork and narration generated with AI.