I. The Hall of the Three Thrones

In the far reaches of the East, where the winds sweep long across the iron plains of Kum, there stands a hall of cold stone and older pride. Within that hall, upon a dais hammered from the ore of the first mountain they ever claimed, the three sons of Kum were seated side by side, for in that land a single crown was borne upon three brows.

Ivan, eldest by minutes yet burdened as though by years, held himself still as a carved figure of judgment. Beside him, Pasha, restless as the steppe-sparrows that gather before storms, swung his foot idly. Vlad, quiet and watchful, turned his gaze from one corner of the hall to the other, as though listening for truths that whispered only when unobserved.

At their right hand stood Vana, tutor and guardian, her voice the gentlest reed in the Choir’s wind, and yet her will deeper and more hidden than the caverns of the Shadowed Gulf. Before them knelt Cairn, once a proud knight of their fathers, now a wanderer clad in the mute grey of the penitent, though the mark of the Black Sigil still clung to his armor like a brand unwilling to fade.

Vana spoke softly, and though her tone bore no weight of command, the hall bowed to it.

“Father Tai of Friar approaches,” she said. “He brings an Oathbind pact and words of alliance, for the tremors beneath the Reaper Lance grow louder, and creatures stir in the deep places.”

Ivan read from a copper tablet whose letters were cut with such precision that even a child’s trembling hand could not shake their meaning.

“We seek patrols shared, relics shared, law made equal upon our borders,” he recited. “For in the days to come, neither Friar nor Kum may bear their burdens alone.”

Cairn lifted his head slightly. “What Friar offers,” he murmured, “seldom comes without a hook hidden beneath the bait.”

Vana answered with a measured glance. “Hooks are known by their use, Ser Cairn, not by their shape.”

And in that hour, the wind struck the shutters like a herald’s fist, announcing the arrival that would stir the fates of kings and children alike.

Next Chapter, Next Monday!