Fragment II: Thorne - The Defender
From the Lorekeepers of the First Blood
Translated by Bryanna Thorvold, Archivist of the Forsaken
He stands in the ruins where his wife burned.
Crowsgate. Weather-ravaged. Soot-covered. The alehouse with its caved-in roof and oak doors hanging from broken hinges. Inside, the remains of his binding ceremony—charred bones, collapsed rafters, the scent of ash that never truly fades.
"You will feed," the Ari tells him, her hand on his arm. Her voice is sharp with warning. "You will not be a danger to our warriors. Not after everything."
The Defender knows she's right. The hunger pulses with its own heartbeat, thickening his tongue, engorging his muscles. Days without feeding have made him volatile. Reckless.
But the thought of feeding where Brenna died. . .
Bile rises in his throat.
The bond is quiet. Sylas and Lucian are too far south to feel this. It's only Ari, and her frustration bleeds into him like water through cracked stone.
"I know this is hell for you," she whispers. "But you must."
Later, in the barn behind the homestead where his sister raised a daughter who will never grow old, two shieldmaidens wait. Willing. Warm. Alive in ways Brenna will never be again.
He does not look at the house. At the wind chimes that once belonged to his niece.
The Defender feeds. He survives. The hunger quiets for a time.
But the cost . . .
Some hungers are worse than death.
_____
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The hunger is only beginning.