The Nameless King had not always been nameless.
Once, he bore a title forged in the First Tongue—one so potent, so defining, that it threatened to bind even his will.
So he shattered it.
Broke his own name into nine pieces, and sealed each fragment within a living host—Sigil-Keepers—scattered across timelines destined to collapse. Each bearer was cursed: should the name ever be spoken aloud again, they would die. And if all nine were uttered in order… the King would bleed.
The Godseed's awakening had stirred those fragments.
Now they whispered.
Now they burned.
Krael stood before the Council of Rebellion, Nidus Veil cloaking the silent child. Ashira read from the Echo Codex:
"To restore the True Name is to unravel the void-throne.
But the price is life.
And the path, despair."
The rebellion's course was set.
They would retrieve all nine fragments.
They would name the King—and unmake him.
But first: they had to reach the Ruins of I'Zun-Tel—an ancient plane swallowed by paradox, home to the first three Sigil-Keepers.
I. The Keeper of Grief
In the ash-wastes of I'Zun-Tel, they found a girl—no older than ten—digging graves in a city of smoke.
Her name was Yssra.
The first fragment was sealed in her tears.
She could not cry.
"I was born grieving," she said. "The King gave me this name in the womb. If I weep, it speaks."
Krael knelt beside her. "Then don't weep. Let me carry it."
She pressed her forehead to his—and the pain of her entire short life passed into him.
And the name echoed:
"Kha'tur."
Yssra fell silent. But lived.
The first had been spared.
---
II. The Keeper of Silence
They journeyed through a rift where sound died—where language was forbidden.
There, floating amidst threads of null, was a monk—Veym—mute for centuries, his tongue carved with runes.
The fragment was sealed in the unspoken word behind his eyes.
Ashira sang a song of unraveling, weaving the Nidus Veil's power into light.
Veym blinked once—and the word bloomed between them:
"Thael."
He smiled.
And crumbled into dust.
III. The Keeper of Mirrors
In the heart of the Ruins, beyond a maze of echo-reflections, stood Nithros—a man of mirrors, endlessly duplicating himself, fractured across identities. Each shard of him denied the others, all fighting to not be the one who carried the fragment.
The rebels could not fight him.
Krael let himself be mirrored—hundreds of versions, all bearing the Godseed child. And the one reflection that could still love, the one that had forgiven, reached Nithros.
The mirror wept.
"Zurael."
Nithros fused whole—and was gone.
---
Three names now known: Kha'tur. Thael. Zurael.
The first syllables of a name that once commanded stars.
But with each spoken name, the Nameless King felt it.
And now he sent The Unvoice—a harbinger of silence, a memory-eater—to hunt the rebels.
The sky over I'Zun-Tel split open.
A voice without sound screamed.
Ashira turned to Krael, her blade lit with defiance.
"Then let the names burn. One by one. Until even he remembers what he was."