The Ashglass Canyons were silent—but not in the way ordinary places fell quiet.
This silence breathed.
It slithered through jagged black stone like a serpent stalking the careless. The wind didn't howl—it whispered. And when Kael Ryuu looked into the canyon walls, the obsidian glared back with a hundred versions of himself. Some were fractured. Others smiled when he didn't.
He gripped Kurozan tighter.
"These rocks feel… alive," he muttered.
"They are," Kitsune replied, his tone unusually grim. "This is cursed land. Scarred by something ancient. The Ashglass remembers."
Kael arched a brow. "Remembers what?"
"Death. Blood. Regret. Pick one."
They moved in silence after that, boots crunching across soot-gray dust. The canyon walls narrowed the deeper they went, and the sky above seemed to darken unnaturally—even though it was barely past noon. Time felt slow here. Wrong.
Every few steps, Kael caught flickers in the glass—shadows he didn't cast. Whispers he didn't speak. He thought he saw Senn once, staring at him from a ledge… only for the image to fade into smoke.
Then the voices began.
"You should have died in the slums."
"Weak."
"You abandoned her. Just like your father."
Kael stopped walking. The air chilled.
A figure stood ahead in the path—tall, armored, face obscured by a familiar executioner's mask.
Kael's breath caught. That face belonged to the enforcer who used to patrol the slums with iron fists and boots that didn't hesitate.
He hadn't seen that mask in years. It shouldn't be here.
But it was.
The figure lunged.
Kael dodged left instinctively, sliding beneath a low-hanging ledge. Kurozan flashed out from his soul-space and he raised it—only to hesitate.
There was no mana signature. No pulse. Just… shadow.
An illusion?
Another figure emerged behind the first—this time, a woman made of cinders. Her face shifted like ash in the wind.
"…Mother?" Kael whispered.
She reached out.
Then burst into embers.
Kael staggered back. "No—no, you're not her—!"
Kurozan! he called mentally. What are these things?
::Reflections,:: the blade answered. ::Echoes imprinted into the stone. Not alive. Not truly. But dangerous if believed.::
Kael took a shaky breath, refocusing. "Then I won't fight shadows," he murmured. "I'll walk through them."
Instead of slashing, he closed his eyes and moved forward using the Tenebris footwork. Fluid steps. Breath centered. Mind clear.
The illusions faltered. The shadows hissed.
And then they vanished.
---
Kitsune wasn't as lucky.
The fire-bearer stood rigid in a dead-end fork, his twin daggers drawn. Before him stood a towering figure wreathed in flame—his old mentor from the Flame Temple. Kael caught only snippets of the wraith's voice.
"…traitor… disgrace… you let them burn…"
Kitsune's hands shook. His fire sputtered.
"Stop listening to it!" Kael shouted, rushing over. "It's not him!"
The illusion surged forward.
Kael grabbed Kitsune's shoulder and snapped, "You're not the only one burned."
That did it.
Kitsune blinked. The flames around him stilled—and the wraith dissolved into heat haze.
For a long moment, neither said anything.
"…Thanks," Kitsune muttered. He didn't meet Kael's eyes. "These canyons mess with your head."
"Yeah," Kael said softly. "But you held on."
---
They made camp beneath a natural stone arch, just wide enough to offer shelter from the strange ash winds.
Kael pulled a rune-marked stone from his satchel and began inscribing it with chalk and whisper-sparks. Kitsune watched in silence as the stone lit with a warm, flickering glow.
"Didn't know you were that good with runes," he said.
"I wasn't," Kael admitted. "I had to learn fast."
He glanced up. "You ever regret surviving?"
Kitsune exhaled. "Every day… until I meet someone who shouldn't have survived either."
Kael gave a tired smile. "Then we keep walking. Together."
---
Above the canyon, unseen and silent, three figures stood at the rim—cloaked in dust-gray garb, their faces marked by obsidian masks.
The lead scout held a strange Crest relic. It pulsed in his hand, a violet light blinking toward the canyon's heart.
"He's here," the scout whispered. "The Void stirs."