The wind moaned low through the ruins, carrying with it the stench of scorched flesh and decay. Kael sat with his back against a broken pillar, cradling his right arm. The heat of the Veinfire blade had scorched through the cloth and singed the skin beneath. His breath came in slow shudders.
Rei crouched nearby, scraping Rotspawn ichor from her blade with a shard of stone. She said nothing at first. The silence was heavy, like the air before a storm.
"I killed it," Kael muttered, more to himself than her.
Rei looked up. "You did."
He stared at his trembling hand. "I didn't mean to. I didn't even know what I was doing."
"You didn't need to," she said, walking over. She crouched in front of him and held out a waterskin. "You called the Core. It responded."
Kael drank, coughed, then looked up at her. "That thing… it knew my name."
Rei's face darkened. "Some of them do. Not all Rotspawn are empty."
"What does that mean?"
She sat down across from him, the firelight casting long shadows behind her. "You asked me earlier if I had a Vein Core. I don't. I was born in the Outskirts, far from the temples and the wars. But I've seen too much to stay out of it." She pointed at the corpse. "That one was once a Veinbound."
Kael flinched. "A person?"
"Yes. Maybe someone like you. Maybe not. When a Vein Core dies… it can rot. If the bearer dies violently, if the core is unstable, if it breaks without being purified — the energy seeps into the body. And the body starts to change."
"To that?"
"Rotspawn are not created in one way. Some were corrupted over time. Others were taken in battle. And the worst of them… the worst are the ones who still remember who they were."
Kael's stomach twisted. "It spoke my name."
"That means it saw you. Recognized something. Maybe the core you carry. Maybe more."
He stared at the smoldering remains, the spine of the creature still twitching. "Is it dead for good?"
Rei stood and walked toward it. She raised her blade, inspected the remains, and stabbed it once more through the skull. The sickening crunch echoed.
Now she nodded. "Yes."
Kael forced himself to his feet. "How do you know so much about them?"
Rei turned to him, her eyes unreadable. "Because my sister became one."
The words hit him like a hammer.
"She was taken during a core hunt in the Deep Paths," Rei continued, voice flat. "They said it was quick. I saw her again two weeks later. She was standing where the snow never melts, face half gone, veins blackened, but her eyes still hers. I knew it was her. She said my name."
Kael swallowed hard. "What… what did you do?"
"I gave her peace."
They stood in silence, the fire crackling between them. Kael stared at the shifting flames, the image of the Rotspawn whispering his name burned into his mind. "Do they all… whisper like that?"
"Not all," Rei said. "Some scream. Some sing. Some hunt in silence. But the ones who speak… those are the ones who still dream. They are the most dangerous."
He shook his head. "This Core… it's a curse, isn't it?"
Rei studied him for a moment. "No. The Core is power. What you do with it is your curse or salvation."
Kael clenched his fists. "I didn't ask for it."
"You don't get to choose what chooses you."
She stepped away from the fire, her silhouette framed by the half-lit sky beyond the crumbled archway. "You wielded Veinfire without training. Your Core is ancient. It responds to your instincts. That means it's not sleeping."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "So it's alive?"
"Not like you or me," Rei said. "But yes. Cores can be aware. Especially the old ones. They were once grown from living sources. Some even say they remember every bearer they've ever had."
"That's insane."
"And yet… it called the blade for you."
Kael looked at his palm again, remembering the heat, the way the energy had surged through him. Wild. Uncontrolled. Alive.
"So now what?" he asked.
Rei turned, eyes gleaming in the firelight. "Now we keep moving. You're not safe, not while your Core is still unbound. Others will sense it. Veinhunters, cults, scavengers. And the deeper we go, the more Rotspawn we'll find."
Kael looked toward the cracked path ahead, shadows twisting among the ruined stone. "Are there more like that thing?"
"Worse," Rei said. "Much worse."
She paused, then walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're not alone, Kael. But you need to understand — the Core inside you is a signal. Everything that walks this path will hear it. And not all of them want to kill you."
He blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"
She gave a tight smile. "Some will want to claim you."
He froze. "Claim?"
"They believe the Core is a key. To what, no one agrees. Some think it leads to the Seed. Others believe it holds a god's last breath. Whatever it is, you are now part of it."
Kael let out a shaky breath. "Fantastic."
She started packing up. "Get some rest. We move again at dawn."
Kael sat by the fire long after Rei lay still. The ruins whispered around him, and somewhere far off, something screamed. The wind carried the sound away before he could place it.
He looked up at the stars, then down at the faint glow in his chest. The Core pulsed softly, like a second heartbeat.
A thing that remembers.
He closed his eyes.