The Domini Saga :the Void War

The Senior Warden stirs the fallen wardens with a sharp sweep of their staff. The Young Warden jolts awake beside the bronze threshold, blinking into the suspended starlight.

Across the chamber, the tablets begin sealing themselves. One after another, their inscriptions fold inward beneath bands of pale light.

The final revealed inscription flares above the open door: Kynes, erased witness. Beneath it, a second mark appears, pointing through the crown's preserved crossing toward a deeper chamber. The Senior Warden reaches for the nearest tablet as the starlight dims.

Your witness-mark answers before the Senior Warden's fingers touch the tablet. Silver light races from your palm across the chamber, cutting through every closing band.

The surviving record tears free of Domini custody and folds into the mark beneath your skin. The Kynes inscription remains visible above the open door, joined by the unfamiliar symbol at the narrowed passage.

The claim burns sharply through your hand. A thin line of blood marks your palm, and the starlight flares loudly enough to shake dust from the vault ceiling.

Sil'Thalis turns his marked palm toward the inscription. The carried record opens as silver memory beneath his skin.

He sees Kynes standing among the ancient builders, not as a ruler, but as the first witness who preserved their testimony when the others were erased.

The vision settles into a clear pattern: the surviving record is a chain of testimony, carried now by Sil'Thalis and inaccessible to Domini custody.

The unfamiliar symbol at the passage base answers his examination. Sil'Thalis follows it down, and the narrowed stair opens into a deeper chamber of black stone and suspended silver script.

Beyond the threshold, the script forms a single waiting question beneath the inscription, Kynes, erased witness.

The command crosses the threshold and settles into the black stone with the weight of an oath.

The Senior Warden turns and plants himself at the stair mouth, placing his body between the chamber and the waking vault beyond.

Therefore, the surviving testimony remains under Sil'Thalis's control, but the marked palm opens again. Fresh blood threads across the witness-sign and darkens the first stair.

The silver script tightens into a single line beneath the inscription, Kynes, erased witness. Its final words become clear: Who will carry the testimony when the witness is gone?

The cold command leaves Sil'Thalis's lips and cuts cleanly through the chamber's hush.

Sael turns away from the suspended script and crosses to the stair mouth, taking position beside the Senior Warden.

Behind them, the unfamiliar symbol at the narrowed passage base brightens. The silver question beneath Kynes, erased witness, reshapes into a single waiting word: Who?

The word Who? folds inward, drawn through the witness-mark in Sil'Thalis's palm.

Silver script streams from the chamber walls into the mark, then settles as a clear chain of names beneath his skin.

The unfamiliar symbol dims. Beneath Kynes, erased witness, a second line appears: Speak, and the living shall remember.

The testimony settles beneath Sil'Thalis's skin, and the black-stone chamber releases its hold. The narrowed passage brightens just enough to show the stair leading back toward the sealed vault.

Sael falls in beside him. The Senior Warden takes the lead, and the wardens clear the stair without reaching for Sil'Thalis or the mark in his palm.

Together they pass through the bronze threshold. The sealed vault closes behind them with a deep stoneward report, leaving the surviving record beyond Domini custody and carried in Sil'Thalis's witness-mark.