Abyssborn: The Forsaken King

Kael's body still thrummed with the mark's presence, its pulse syncing with his heartbeat.

The woman's smile lingered in his mind, unsettling yet… familiar. Who was she?

The whispers in his head had been cryptic before, but now they were constant, weaving into his thoughts like threads of an unseen web.

"Seek the truth… before it seeks you."

The words made his fingers twitch. Were they a warning? A threat?

He didn't know.

But he was done waiting for answers to come to him.

He moved.

Through the remnants of the battlefield, past the scattered bodies and lingering embers, following an instinct he didn't understand. The whispers, the pulse of the mark—they guided him, leading him deeper into the ruins beyond the city's edge.

Then, he felt it.

A shift in the air. A ripple in reality.

And suddenly—she was there.

Standing in the moonlit ruins, cloaked in the same shadows as before.

Kael didn't hesitate this time.

"Who are you?" His voice was sharp, edged with tension.

The woman studied him, her eyes gleaming like embers in the darkness.

"You already know."

Kael's jaw tightened. No riddles. No games.

"Say it."

She took a step closer. The air around her warped, her very presence distorting the space between them.

"Your power is changing," she murmured. "The mark is more than a wound. It's a door. And I am what waits beyond it."

Kael's fingers curled into a fist.

"I don't care about riddles. Give me a name."

A pause.

Then—

"Selene."

The name hit him like a spark to dry tinder.

It wasn't just a name. It meant something.

Kael didn't know how he knew—but he did.

"Why do I know you?"

Selene's lips curved slightly, but there was no amusement in her expression. Only something deeper. Something unreadable.

"Because you were never meant to forget me."

The words struck him harder than they should have.

Because deep down—he knew they were true.

And that terrified him more than anything else.