The Shadowroads stretched before them, a cracked and uneven highway shrouded in gloom. Ruined milestones jutted out of the earth like the broken teeth of some ancient beast, and the faint echoes of distant screams carried on the wind.
Veiss moved quickly, his eyes scanning every shadow for movement. His instincts, honed from years of fighting both man and monster, told him this place was alive with danger. Kaela followed in silence, her small frame almost swallowed by the oversized cloak he had thrown over her.
She was slowing him down.
"Keep up," he barked, glancing over his shoulder.
The girl stumbled but didn't respond. She hadn't spoken a word since they left the village, and her silence was beginning to grate on him.
Ahead, the road narrowed, hemmed in by twisted trees whose bare branches clawed at the sky. The air grew colder, carrying with it the faint, acrid scent of decay. Veiss slowed his pace, his grip tightening on Umbraclaw.
"This stretch is bad," he muttered, more to himself than to Kaela.
He crouched low, motioning for her to stop. She obeyed, sinking to the ground without a sound. Veiss crept forward, his boots barely making a sound on the broken stone. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he spotted movement up ahead—a flicker of torchlight, faint but unmistakable.
Cultists.
There were three of them, their grotesque masks and robes marking them as servants of the Black Sun. They stood in a loose circle, their heads bowed as they muttered in a guttural, alien tongue. A crude altar lay between them, stained with blood and adorned with bones.
Veiss's jaw tightened. He'd seen enough of their rituals to know what came next, and he wasn't in the mood to let them finish.
He returned to Kaela, who sat motionless, her wide eyes staring at him.
"Stay here," he whispered.
She nodded, curling her knees to her chest.
Veiss moved like a shadow, his body low to the ground as he approached the cultists. He could hear their chanting more clearly now, the words scraping against his ears like rusted nails. The sigils on their robes pulsed faintly, mirroring the glow of the Black Sun in the sky above.
He stepped on a twig.
The snap was deafening in the silence. The cultists froze, their heads snapping up in unison.
"Damn it," Veiss muttered.
One of them let out a guttural cry, reaching for the twisted dagger at his belt. Veiss didn't give him the chance.
He surged forward, Umbraclaw arcing through the air in a blur of black steel. The first cultist's head hit the ground before his body realized it was dead.
The second one charged, his dagger flashing in the dim light. Veiss sidestepped the clumsy attack, his blade carving a jagged line across the cultist's torso. The man let out a choking gasp before collapsing in a heap.
The third tried to run. Veiss snarled and hurled Umbraclaw like a spear. The blade struck true, burying itself in the man's back. He crumpled to the ground, his body twitching as the weapon pulsed with a sickening glow.
Veiss approached the altar, wrenching the blade free from the corpse. Blood dripped from its jagged edges, pooling at his feet.
"Well done," the weapon whispered, its voice tinged with satisfaction.
He ignored it, turning to inspect the altar. There was nothing of value—just more of the same twisted offerings he'd seen a hundred times before. Still, the sight of it made his blood boil.
"Veiss," the blade murmured.
"What?" he snapped.
"The girl," it said. "She watched."
His head whipped around, his one good eye narrowing. Kaela stood at the edge of the clearing, her tiny figure illuminated by the faint glow of the altar.
"I told you to stay back," he growled, stalking toward her.
She flinched but didn't move. Her gaze flicked to the corpses, then back to him. Her expression was unreadable, but her trembling hands betrayed her fear.
"Don't look at me like that," he said, his voice harsh. "They would've killed you if they'd seen you."
She didn't respond, her eyes still fixed on the blood dripping from his blade.
Veiss sighed and knelt in front of her, his tone softening slightly. "You don't get to judge me. Not in a world like this. Do you understand?"
Kaela's gaze dropped to the ground, and she nodded faintly.
"Good," he said, rising to his feet. "Let's go."
He walked past her without looking back, but he could feel her eyes on him, heavy with unspoken questions.
The road ahead seemed darker than before, the shadows deeper and more hostile. Veiss kept moving, his jaw set and his grip on Umbraclaw firm. Behind him, Kaela followed in silence, her steps hesitant but steady.
The whispers of the blade were quiet now, but Veiss knew they would return. They always did.