The journey took three days by sand, and five more through the Dead Wind Flats.By the time we saw the city, my lips were cracked. Caeryn hadn't spoken in hours.And the shard? It had gone quiet.
Which was worse than screaming.
The City of Salt rose from the cliffs like a half-buried cathedral—carved into a canyon made of dead ocean. White stone domes, spiraling towers, bridges made of fossilized coral, and no sun.
The sky above the city was gray, always. It hadn't seen real daylight since the day it made a deal with the gods of shadow.
A hundred thousand people lived here.
And not one of them cast a reflection.
We crossed through the Gate of Sighs.
No guards. No signs. Just a toll: a drop of blood on a stone basin, shaped like a mouth.
Caeryn went first. Her blood hissed like steam.
When mine hit the stone, the basin laughed.
Just once.
Low. Deep. Knowing.
Inside, the city whispered.
Not with mouths. With walls. With shadows. The cobblestones hummed names we didn't know. The air smelled like salt, ink, and regret.
"Where do we go?" I asked.
Caeryn held the letter again. The words had shifted.
"Below the Oracle's Teeth. Find the girl who remembers too much."
I blinked. "You ever heard of that?"
"Once," she said. "In a story meant to scare children."
"Comforting."
We found the Oracle's Teeth beneath a crumbling temple.A vault of white spikes—like stalactites carved from salt and bone. Beneath them: an abandoned bathhouse, doors chained shut by vines made of flesh.
Caeryn sliced them.
Inside: dark. Stagnant water. Mosaics of things no man should have painted.And in the center…a girl.
No older than sixteen.White eyes. Pale skin. Sitting in a chair of mirrors—each one cracked except the one behind her.
She looked at us and smiled.
"You're late."
Caeryn stepped forward. "You sent the letter."
"I did," the girl said. "Because I've seen what you'll become."
Her gaze locked onto me."You… you're not just Elion's mistake."
I stiffened.
"You're his punishment."
The girl stood.
"I remember every life. Every version. Every loop he tried to fix this world. Thousands of times, he tried to place the shard in someone who would bend. Break. Obey."
"But I'm still here."
"And this is the first life," she said, eyes glowing, "where you don't."
Silence.
Then:
Caeryn whispered, "What happens if we keep going?"
The girl turned toward her.
"You start the war."
She handed Caeryn a key. Iron, etched in three languages. Then looked at me.
"And you," she said, "will have to decide which god dies first."