Ethan's void-form was broken by the key.
Then he recalled.
Not his life in the past.
A sky without stars.
A council of Dawnheirs chanting as Veyra drank from the black cup.
The Thirsty King is a void-wearing flesh rather than a Ravenscroft.
"You were never meant to watch," Veyra said, echoing through the sea of vanishing glass. "You were meant to consume."
Ethan was a living manifestation of the failed ritual of the Dawnheirs, a storm of starlight and shadow, rather than a man or emptiness.
She was standing in front of him, her scar widening as the collapsing emptiness was shaken by the Thirsty King, who laughed.
"Finish what I started," she begged, putting her hands on his chest. Combine the memories. Become the Eclipse."
Her body merged with Ethan as it vanished into the light.
The last thing she whispered.
"The Well is not a place. It's a moment."
…..
In the waking world, the marked boy screamed as the ancient thorn in his palm pulsed.
Together, the scar-mouths of the other kids chanted, their voices distorting the truth.
The walls of the cave melted.
A crack appeared in the sky.
The ground breathed.
Jarek, or the thing wearing him, raised his corrupted arm.
"Blood of my blood," the Thirsty King hummed, "opens the door."
The first thorn jumped to his grasp, piercing Jarek's chest.
A burst of black light.
She did not feel pain as her thornmark burned.
With purpose.
Mara grabbed the nearest child, pressing her scar to his weeping wound.
"Reverse the chant!"
A gasp came from the boy's scar-mouth.
"Veyra of the Shattered Dawn!"
Golden light flared.
The other children followed, their voices rising in a counter-chant as Mara's scar bled light into theirs.
The thorn's roots burst into a hideous throne of bone and shadow as Jarek's body swelled.
The real form of the Thirsty King appeared, a man-like towering absence with a revolving face made of screaming constellations.
"The Feast begins!"
The ground split, revealing the Eclipse Well, not a physical place, but a rupture in time. Ethan watched as the same apocalypse played out over and over again through its mouth.
Duskheirs falling.
Stars consumed.
The Thirsty King eternal.
He went down as the opposing weight.
Veyra's memories guided him to the Dawnheirs' original purpose, not to sever or merge, but to balance. His new form, a hybrid of Watcher and Dawnheir, pounded with unstable power.
The Thirsty King turned around.
"Little thief. You wear my first failure's skin."
Ethan lifted his hands, which glowed with his emptiness and Veyra's light.
"She is no longer yours."
They clashed in the Well's heart.
Where the Thirsty King's touch erased, Ethan remembered.
Where the King's thorns spread decay, Ethan's light developed fragile new connections.
And where Mara's counter-chant reached them, reality itself stuttered.
With golden light streaming into the children, Mara collapsed as her scar burst. Their scars sealed one by one, transferring the Thirsty King's curse into her.
Jarek's human hand suddenly gripped the throne's arm.
"NOW!" he screamed in his voice.
Ethan pierced the void-face of the Thirsty King.
Silence.
Then—
A burst of complete blackness.
A burst of blinding light.
The Well was gone by the time it cleared.
The children slept scarless.
Jarek was still breathing despite being broken.
And Ethan...
...stood changed.
Now Veyra's scar was visible on one side of his body, which glowed with Dawnheir light, while the other side was a void that reflected the Thirsty King's hunger. A fresh thorn, black and gold tangled, throbbed in his palm.
Mara touched her scar, now silent.
"Did we win?"
With unnatural ripples in the horizon, Ethan looked to the east.
"We delayed the Feast."
Twelve stars glowed above them where none had previously existed.
The thirteenth remained hidden.
…..
Under the ruins, the sarcophagus lid was broken in the tomb.
No one is inside.
Just one word, older than time, engraved in blood.
SOON.