Their journey took them to the ruined citadel of Ilvane—a city buried under ash.
There, among shattered mausoleums and soul-echoes, lived a Tomb-Speaker: a blind woman who whispered with the dead.
She welcomed them with silence.
"I need to speak to Vaelion's enemies," Kael said.
The Tomb-Speaker reached into her robes, pulling out a shard of obsidian. "Then bleed. The dead won't talk to the living… unless you're half-dead yourself."
Kael hesitated. Then he cut his palm.
The shard drank his blood and pulsed.
A voice emerged from the void:
"Vaelion fell... but he did not die. He became many."