“I saw it parry a Mantra of Unmaking,” Kaelen shot back. “The Dagger didn’t break. The attunement did.”
Kaelen nodded. He felt no fear. He felt the weight of the dagger, and the weight of the words carved into it. champions dagger deepwoken
He ran his thumb along the flat of the blade. There, barely visible, were words etched in High Lumen: “I will not turn my back.” “I saw it parry a Mantra of Unmaking,” Kaelen shot back
Kaelen took the dagger. This time, it felt heavier. He felt no fear
That night, Kaelen did not sleep. He sat in his rented room above the Drowned Spoils tavern, the dagger laid across his knees. He thought of the Depths—the endless dark, the whispers that peeled sanity like bark from a tree. He had gone down twice before. Both times, he had run.