Eclipse of Shattered Throne

The Stone Awakens

The first crack in the basalt pillar split the air like a gunshot.

Payune was moving before the echo faded, Dragonrend already blazing in her grip, its black flames casting grotesque shadows across the canyon walls. The blade screamed in her mind, its voice guttural with hunger.

"Blood! Blood! BLOOD!"

Hayuni didn't even stand up.

She lounged in the wrecked carriage, legs crossed, idly shuffling her stolen cards. Only the fox spirit coiled around her throat betrayed her tension—its blue-fire eyes locked on the crumbling pillar, its nine tails flickering like agitated snakes.

"Oh good," Hayuni drawled. "Entertainment."

Then the world exploded.

The shards came not as fragments, but as living weapons each stone sliver twisting midair to form jagged claws, serrated knives, screaming faces with hollow eyes and gaping mouths.

Payune dug Dragonrend into the earth, unleashing a tidal wave of black fire that vaporized the first wave. The heat scorched her skin, but she barely felt it—the sword's euphoria was too loud, too good.

Hayuni finally deigned to move.

With a sigh, she flicked a single card into the storm.

The Tower (Reversed).

It detonated in a burst of blue foxfire, shredding through stone like paper.

"Cheating," Payune snarled, cleaving through a shard shaped like a child's hand.

Hayuni's grin was all teeth. "Winning."

Then the real monster emerged.

The largest pillar shattered inward, revealing not just stone, but flesh—a grotesque fusion of living rock and pulsing veins, its body studded with still-screaming faces.

"THIEVES," it boomed, its voice the sound of a mountain dying. "YOU STOLE WHAT WAS NOT YOURS."

Payune's blood turned to ice. "What the hell is it talking about?"

Hayuni's smile faltered—just for a heartbeat. Then she leapt, her ribbons unspooling into whips of molten silver.

"Who cares?" she laughed, wild and bright. "It's ugly enough to kill!"

The Sentinel swung.

Hayuni dodged.

The ground where she'd stood vaporized into a crater of glowing embers.

Payune charged, Dragonrend's flames scorching her palms as she aimed for the creature's knee. The blade bit deep—too deep.

Black veins spread from the wound, crawling up the Sentinel's leg like parasitic roots.

The monster howled—not in pain, but recognition.

"YOU," it rasped, suddenly too human. "THE DRAGON'S MISTAKE."

Then its eyes locked on Hayuni.

"AND THE FOX'S SIN."

Hayuni froze.

For the first time in years, Payune saw real fear in her sister's eyes.

The Crow's Interruption

The air screamed as the Silent Crow descended, his cloak of living shadows smothering the Sentinel's flames.

"Enough," he intoned, his gold mask reflecting the carnage. "The game has rules."

Hayuni recovered instantly, her smirk razor-sharp. "Since when do you care about rules?"

The Crow ignored her, turning instead to Payune. "Your sword remembers what you do not." He reached out 

Dragonrend SCREAMED, its flames turning white-hot.

"DO NOT TOUCH ME, TRAITOR!"

The Crow recoiled. Interesting.

Then he was gone, taking the frozen Sentinel with him.

The canyon was silent again.

Payune's hands shook, Dragonrend's hilt fused to her skin by dried blood and dark magic. The blade purred, satisfied.

Hayuni wiped stone dust from her cheek, her usual bravado fraying at the edges.

"Well," she breathed. "That was... new."

Then Payune saw it—

A single crack in Hayuni's mirrored collar.

And beneath it—

Something moved.