Kael stood on the scorched hills outside the eastern forest, the wind carrying the scent of ash and broken earth. The first battle of Avarin had left a crimson stain across the soil. Bodies of the invaders—clad in black and bronze—lay strewn across the ridge.
He had not expected to win. And yet, they had. Barely.
The people who followed him—freemen, exiles, former slaves, and thieves—were now blood-bound by survival, not loyalty. That would have to change.
Behind him, Yulda, the boisterous and sharp-tongued horsewoman from the northern steppes, spat into the dirt. "We fight like cornered wolves," she growled. "Next time, we won't be so lucky."
Kael nodded. "Then we won't be wolves."
He turned to the survivors. Fires crackled around makeshift tents. A priest of the old tongue whispered blessings over the dead. Kael climbed atop a shattered cart and raised a battered sword into the air.
"We bled for this land," he roared. "Not for coin. Not for gods. For each other. For our right to choose our fate. If that makes us traitors, then so be it."
A few voices cheered. Most just stared.
He pointed his blade to the distant valley. "Tomorrow, we begin again. Brick by brick. Law by law. I will build you a home no king can burn. A kingdom not of gold—but of will."
He dropped from the cart. One by one, the survivors came forward. Not to kneel—but to touch the sword. To place their hands in his. A pact born of desperation and fire.
That night, beneath the stars, Kael took three oaths:
That no man would rule by birthright alone.
That the voice of the people would guide the blade.
That any who wore the sun-and-arrows seal would bleed for peace before war.
Yulda sat beside him as the embers burned low. "You just made a kingdom," she said, her grin crooked. "With a speech and a broken sword."
Kael stared at the stars, his voice low. "Now I just have to keep it from falling apart."
Far beyond the forest, shadows moved. A surviving warlord sent a raven with word: The Bastard Son of No-Name Lives.
And in the deserts of the east, a greater storm was stirring.