Prologue
“No way out, Valkan,” the man before me whispered softly, his light blue cloak matched his ice cold eyes.
The wind sent shivers down my spine, but the sight of him was even more revolting. A betrayer of our own clan who now donned the cloak of the Tahki, the clan of ice.
An icicle grew in his hand, sharp and deadly as he walked out from the shadows, an eerie smile plastered on his face.
“I treated you as a brother,” I heard myself say, my voice hoarse.
“Power to the Sovereign,” his voice barely reached me, blown down the ravine by the strong gusts of wind.
I sighed and looked up at the night sky. The stars were beautiful tonight, but I had no one to share them with anymore. A sense of calm washed over me and I closed my eyes.
I am the only one left, they’ve killed every single one of my brothers.
The Eshban may have lost, but we remain undefeated.
“With my blood I swear an oath,” I whispered as I ran Aithne, my spirit weapon across the skin of my forehead.
His eyes widened. Not at the gruesome sight of all the blood, but at the forbidden ritual I was performing.
I will not let my clan die in vain. I will not allow the Sovereign to have their ways.
I could feel the blood pouring down my face, my heart was already dull to all the pain. They broke me, mentally and physically. They killed my wife, my brothers, and my children, leaving me alone in this broken world that now belonged to the ice cold Sovereign.
Using the last bit of strength that I had, I erected a barrier between him and I so he could not stop me.
“My wife I am sorry, I couldn’t protect you,” I forced Aithne’s short into my left shoulder, feeling its tip breaking right through my shoulder bone. I trailed it down the entire length of my arm, feeling my flesh tear open in its wake.
“For the Eshban.”
Aithne’s hollow voice resounded in my mind as I dropped her onto the ground. With my good arm, I pulled my battered and bloody other arm over my chest, in the oldest form of salutation.
“I sacrifice myself, my powers and my clan, to have one born of the Eshban,” I forced my eyes open, letting the blood blur my vision.
“One, who will bring down the Sovereign.”
I smiled bitterly at my brother before me, trying in vain to break my barrier.
I loved him, taught him everything I was capable of, but he traded his fiery powers for ice and pledged to wipe his very own heritage bloodline off the face of the earth.
“May you be of the purest soul,” I whispered and closed my eyes.
Taking a step backwards, my death awaits, but I shall greet it with open arms.
“And may you wield the power to burn down the heavens.”
