CHAPTER 99: SCREAM

The scream didn’t just sound.

It existed.

It tore through the air like fabric being ripped apart, shook the stone until ancient mortar crumbled to dust, and rolled across the landscape in a wave of pure, undiluted power that made every living thing within reach stop and listen.

It was the sound of a god remembering it had once been free.

Conversation hung suspended in the war tent, maps unfurled, lanterns flickering, plans being carved into the air like blades into ice. Soren’s voice was calm, steady, deliberate...

"I’ll draw the beasts’ attention. Lead them away from the main path. You continue with the procession—"

Ryse’s protest came sharp and instant.

"Your Majesty, that’s—"

Venrick’s tone followed, measured but strained. "We can’t leave you."

Soren’s gloved hand pressed flat against the table. The candlelight quivered under the weight of his authority. "We can’t afford to endanger these people any further."

His eyes, blue, unblinking, lifted from the map to the horizon beyond the tent flap. "I’ll rejoin you at the border."

And then,

The scream tore through the evening like divine judgment.

It wasn’t merely heard, it was felt.

A sound too vast to belong to any mortal throat. Too primal to be human. It shook the air, rattled teeth, sent vibrations crawling up the marrow of every soldier’s spine.

The sound reached through flesh and armor alike, made the earth hum beneath their boots, made the flames of their torches bow and gutter.

For one impossible moment, every man froze.

Then chaos broke loose.

Guards jerked to their feet, hands flying to their blades. Horses reared and shrieked, hooves striking sparks off stone. The air rippled with the weight of instinct, something ancient in their blood screamed at them to run.

Ryse stumbled out into the open courtyard, eyes wide. "What in the gods’ names—"

The ground trembled.

Not a quake, just a single, faint shudder, as though something massive had shifted its weight deep underground. It rolled through the stone beneath their feet, made pebbles dance and dust rise in small clouds, and then...

The scream faded.

And what replaced it was far worse.

Silence.

Not the soft quiet of peace, but the heavy, suffocating stillness that falls before a storm tears the world apart.

No one spoke. No one dared.

Even breathing felt like a risk, like making any sound at all might invite something terrible to notice them.

The birds had gone silent. Every chirp, every rustle, every cry... gone. The wind, which had been blowing steadily from the north, died completely, leaving the air stagnant and heavy. Even the beasts in the forest, the ones they’d been so wary of, the ones they’d been planning strategies around, had fallen utterly, impossibly quiet.

As though they, too, were holding their breath.

Waiting.

Lord Venrick broke first, his voice cracking. "What in the frozen hells was—"

"Eris."

Soren’s voice cut through the silence like a blade through silk.

One word. Her name. But the way he said it... flat, certain, terrified, made everyone turn to look at him.

His face had gone pale beneath the tan. Not the pallor of fear, but of realization, the color of a man who’d just solved an equation and discovered the answer was apocalypse.

His eyes were locked on the temple ruins, wide and unblinking, and for the first time since any of them had known him, the Ice Emperor looked rattled.

"That was her," he said, and his voice was barely above a whisper.

Ryse opened his mouth to argue, of course it wasn’t her, that hadn’t been human, that had been...

But Soren was already moving.

Snapping into command mode with the kind of precision that came from a lifetime of making impossible decisions in the space between one heartbeat and the next.

"Ryse." His voice cracked like a whip, sharp and absolute. "Take half the knights. Form a perimeter around the civilians. Nothing gets through. I don’t care if it’s a rabbit or a god, if it moves toward these people, you kill it."

Ryse straightened, instinct overriding shock. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"Venrick." Soren’s gaze snapped to the diplomat, who flinched like he’d been struck.

"Get the civillians into the carriages. Fortify positions. Barricade if you have to. If something comes and we’re not here to stop it, you run. Understood?"

Venrick nodded, too shaken to manage words.

"Everyone else—defensive formation. Shield wall facing the temple. Archers on the high ground. Whatever’s coming, we hold the line until I get back."

His voice carried absolute authority, the kind that allowed no room for argument, no space for doubt. Men twice his age with decades more experience moved to obey without question because when the Ice Emperor gave an order, you obeyed or you got out of the way.

He turned to Ryse, and his voice dropped, meant only for the knight’s ears.

"If I don’t return in ten minutes," he said quietly, "you leave without me."

Ryse’s face hardened. "Your Majesty—"

"That’s an order." No room for negotiation.

No softness. Just ice. "Get them to Nevareth. Get them to safety. Don’t wait. Don’t come looking. Just go."

For a moment, Ryse looked like he might argue. His jaw worked, his hand tightening on his sword hilt.

Then he bowed. Sharp. Military. Final.

"As you command, Your Majesty."

But as he turned.

Something shifted again.

...

In the capital of Solmire, the council chamber was exactly as boring as council chambers had always been.

High ceilings meant to inspire awe.

Tapestries depicting glorious battles that were mostly propaganda. A long table polished to a mirror shine, surrounded by men who thought their opinions mattered more than they did.

Caelen sat at the head of the table, barely listening.

Trade routes. Tax reforms. Agricultural subsidies. The kind of minutiae that kept kingdoms running but made kings want to set themselves on fire just to feel something.

An advisor droned on about grain

shipments. Another argued about border tariffs. Caelen tuned them out entirely, staring at a spot on the wall and wondering if this was what the rest of his life would look like.

Meetings. Reports. Decisions that didn’t matter.

While somewhere far away, Eris was...

Then,