Chapter 4 THE FATHER OF LIES

Kaelen couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t the Spark this time. It was the face under the white hood.

"Dad?" The word felt like a stone in his throat.

Ten years. For ten years, Kaelen had remembered the smell of smoke and the sound of his mother’s final cry. He had survived as a scavenger, eating scraps and sleeping in dirt, believing he was the last of his blood. He had hated the Thresher for the fire, but he had mourned his father as a hero who died trying to save them.

The man on the rubble didn’t look like a hero. He looked like a king. His white robes were trimmed with gold, and his eyes were colder, deeper, and more heartless than the Thresher’s.

"Don't call me that," the man said. His voice carried across the ruins like a physical weight. "The man who was your father died in that fire so the High Exalt could be born. You were a mistake I thought I had burned away, Kaelen."

"You left us," Kaelen whispered. The gold veins in his neck began to pulse with a dark, angry heat. "You let her die. You let me rot in the slums while you wore gold?"

"I chose power," his father replied, raising his glowing staff. "And now, you have stolen a Spark that belongs to my kingdom. You are a scavenger playing with a sun. You will burn yourself out, or I will do it for you."

"Kaelen, we have to move!" Elara hissed, pulling on his arm. "The high guard is moving in!"

She was right. The five men in white were fanning out, their staves humming with divine energy. They weren't like the Thresher’s thugs. They were trained killers who lived to serve the crown.

"I'm not leaving," Kaelen said. The grief in his chest was turning into something sharp and jagged. "He’s right there. He’s the one who started all of this."

"You can't fight them all!" Elara cried. "Look at your hands!"

Kaelen looked down. The skin on his fingers was beginning to peel away, revealing raw, golden light underneath. 166 hours and 50 minutes. He was falling apart. Using that black power in the basement had taken hours off his life.

"Secure him," his father commanded. "Kill the girl. She is a traitor to the Tenders."

The high guard lunged. They moved like streaks of white lightning.

Kaelen pushed Elara behind a stone pillar just as a bolt of gold energy shattered the ground where she had been standing. He turned, his vision tunneling. The "Shadow-Kaelen" wasn't appearing this time. He was alone with the Spark.

"You want it?" Kaelen screamed at his father. "Come and take it!"

He slammed his hands together. A shockwave of kinetic force exploded outward. It caught the two nearest guards, throwing them back into the rubble, but the other three didn't stop. They landed in a circle around him, their staves hitting the ground in perfect timing.

A cage of golden bars erupted from the earth, trapping Kaelen and Elara.

"It’s a soul-lock," Elara whispered, her face pale. "It drains the spark. Kaelen, if you fight it, it will pull your heart out through your ribs."

Kaelen grabbed the bars. Agony surged through him. It felt like a thousand needles were stabbing into his palms. He fell to his knees, his teeth gritting so hard they felt like they would shatter.

His father walked down from the rubble, his boots clicking on the stone. He stopped just outside the cage and looked down at Kaelen with pure disgust.

"You have the All-Father’s Spark," his father said. A scavenger holding the soul of a god. It’s like a rat wearing a crown. It’s an insult to everything Oros stands for."

"I'll... kill you," Kaelen wheezed.

"No," his father said, leaning closer. "You're going to the Silent Forge. But not to be cured. We’ve been waiting for a pure vessel, someone of my own blood, to ripen a spark. You’ve done the hard work for us, Kaelen. In six days, we will harvest you, and I will become the god this world deserves."

"You're a monster," Elara spat.

His father glanced at her. "I am a survivor. Something you clearly aren't." He turned to the guards. "Load them into the transport. Make sure the boy stays weak. If he tries to use the Spark, kill the girl in front of him."

The guards deactivated the cage just enough to snap heavy, cold iron shackles onto Kaelen’s wrists. These weren't normal chains; they were lined with black stones that sucked the heat right out of his blood.

Kaelen felt his strength vanish. He slumped forward, his forehead hitting the cold dirt. He watched through blurry eyes as they dragged Elara away toward a heavy armored carriage.

"Kaelen!" she cried out.

He tried to reach for her, but his father’s boot slammed onto his hand, pinning it to the ground.

"Look at me, boy," his father whispered, leaning down. "Do you want to know the truth? I didn't just let your mother die. I locked the door."

Kaelen’s world stopped. The air left his lungs.

"She was crying for you," his father continued, his voice a cruel purr. "But a king doesn't need a Scavenger's wife. I needed to be free to climb. And look where I am now."

The man stood up and walked away, leaving Kaelen in the dirt.

The rage didn't come back as a flame this time. It came back as a cold, dark ocean. Deep inside Kaelen’s mind, the shadow man laughed.

Do you see now? The voice whispered. Love is a lie. Family is a cage. Only the dark is real.

Kaelen felt the black smoke beginning to leak from his eyes, even through the magic-suppressing chains. He didn't fight it this time. He fed it.

As the guards grabbed his arms to haul him up, a massive, booming roar echoed from across the sea. The ground beneath Sun City trembled. Everyone froze, the guards, the Thresher, even Kaelen’s father.

Out on the horizon, the Silent Sea was receding. Something was rising from the water. Something so big it blocked out the setting sun.

"What is that?" one of the guards shouted, his voice high with fear.

Elara looked toward the ocean, her eyes wide. "The Overseers," she whispered. "The All-Father didn't kill himself to hide the Sparks. He did it to hide Oros from them."

A beam of red light shot from the ocean, hitting the center of the city with the force of a thousand gods.

The world went black.