The morning after the pendant's message, Ethan found Kael in the training yard before dawn, hammering strikes into a stone dummy as though it had insulted him personally. The rhythmic clang of metal against stone stopped the moment Ethan approached.
"You look like death," Kael muttered, not looking his way.
"I found something," Ethan said, skipping the pleasantries.
Kael finally turned, sweat clinging to his brow. "Go on."
Ethan hesitated, then pulled the pendant from beneath his shirt. "My mother left a message. A projection. She said I'm... part Riftblooded. Not just marked, but born from someone who was once human, and became something else."
Kael's expression didn't change, but Ethan saw the tension in his jaw. "You're saying your mother turned into one of them?"
"Not exactly," Ethan replied. "She said she was chosen. And that the answers are in a place called the Tomb of the First Beastmarked."
Kael cursed under his breath. "That's not just a legend?"
"You know it?"
"I've heard stories. Hunters who went after myths, chasing ruins buried under sandstorms in the Yurehn Wastes. No one comes back from that place."
"I don't have a choice," Ethan said. "If the Guild already suspects me, I need the truth. I need to understand what I am."
Kael stared at him for a long moment, then exhaled sharply. "You're going to need someone who knows the desert. I know just the lunatic."
---
Three days later, they rode across the blazing dunes of the Yurehn Wastes. The sun scorched everything it touched, and the heat shimmered off the sand like dancing spirits. Their guide, a wild-haired woman named Zeila, rode ahead atop a six-legged lizard mount, her cloak fluttering like torn wings.
"You sure you want the tomb?" she called back, grinning through cracked lips. "Plenty of people want treasure. But that place? It's got memories. The kind that scream."
Kael muttered, "She's cheerful."
"She's the only one who said yes," Ethan replied, adjusting the cloth over his face.
They reached the edge of a canyon just before sunset. Zeila pulled her mount to a stop and pointed downward. "There. Beneath the ash-black rocks. The tomb's hidden under the sand. I'll wait here and make sure your bones don't get stolen by vultures."
Kael and Ethan descended on foot, guided by the crystal in Ethan's pendant. The deeper they went, the cooler the air became—unnaturally so. A wind whistled through the rock, sounding almost like… chanting.
By nightfall, they reached it.
A massive stone door, half-buried in the canyon wall. Carvings spiraled across its surface—symbols identical to the ones that had glowed on the pendant. As Ethan stepped closer, the glyphs lit up.
He reached out, heart thudding. The door trembled, then slowly rumbled open.
Inside lay a vast chamber, lit by eerie blue flames dancing in sconces that hadn't burned for centuries. The walls were covered in murals—beasts locked in battle with humans, and in between them, warriors glowing with marks like Ethan's.
Kael stepped in behind him, gaze scanning the murals. "These... they were like you."
Ethan walked ahead. At the center of the chamber was a stone sarcophagus, ancient and sealed. But as he approached, the pendant pulsed again.
He placed it on the lid.
A hiss echoed through the chamber. The lid slid open.
Inside wasn't a corpse. It was a crystalized humanoid figure—neither beast nor man. Horns curled from its skull, and a brand glowed over its heart: the same mark that sometimes burned on Ethan's own chest.
Suddenly, the figure's eyes snapped open.
Ethan staggered back. Kael raised his weapon.
But the being did not move. It simply spoke.
"Child of Rift and flesh… your blood calls to me."
Ethan found his voice. "Who are you?"
"I was the first to walk the Rift and return… unchanged. I was the first Beastmarked."
The being's voice resonated through the chamber like a drumbeat.
"Your kind are not cursed. You are balance. Hunters fear you, beasts hunger for you. But the Rift… the Rift remembers you."
Ethan stepped closer again. "What am I supposed to do with this power?"
The being's crystal form cracked, light bleeding from its skin.
"Unite what was broken," it whispered. "The Rift stirs. A shadow rises. It seeks to open the Great Maw and consume both worlds."
"What shadow?" Kael asked, stepping forward.
"The one wearing man's face… with beast's hunger."
The being crumbled suddenly—shattering into dust and crystal fragments that rose into the air and surged toward Ethan.
The light hit his chest.
Pain exploded through him.
The mark burned alive.
He dropped to his knees, gasping as visions tore through his skull—cities swallowed by Rift portals, armies of beasts marching behind cloaked figures, and in the center of it all… a man with eyes like his own.
But twisted.
Cruel.
And smiling.
---