Chapter 9 · free to read
For the first time in nineteen years, the general's breath did not smoke. He had come somewhere colder than himself.
STRENGTH FOR THE HOUSE OF LING. VICTORY WITHOUT END. PAID IN THE WARMTH OF THE HEIRS, ONE AT A TIME, UNTIL THE LINE IS SPENT.
There was a clause under the debt. The prince read it three times, and every time it said the same warm and terrible thing.
The waking rite needs a Ling hand and a Ling grief. The younger brother had both, and nothing left to lose by spending them.
Artwork and narration generated with AI.