Chapter 10: The Null Sovereign

The Null Sovereign was the seal's final eastern fracture made hunger — a void orb that had grown where the unseen hand's sabotage met the Warden's restored barrier. It did not speak. It did not bargain. It simply held the rift open, and Velharrow's sky trembled with every pulse of its light.

Archivist Vale watched from the shattered bridge as the traveler descended. Rowan, Dunn, Ilya, Nera, and Arlo would learn later that the eastern wound had closed; they would not pretend the war was won. The hand that cut the seal's supports had never stood in the Firmament Rift.

When the Sovereign fell still, the rift sealed. The apex stopped drifting. For the first time since the Iron Wound opened, the sky above Velharrow held without tremor. Book One of the Broken Seal ended not with a named enemy, but with a region mended and a question still burning: who weakened the seals, and where would they strike next?