Irkith walked a desert of his own people’s making, realizing in his haste to build the kingdom, he’d constructed far too many Ulkun. He’d originally planned for thousands, but after discovering the joy of raising offspring, he’d built ten-thousand, with many of his people serving to aid in raising them by the hundreds.

  The City of Kurg was now at the center of blighted lands, for any living thing that strayed close enough was soon consumed by his people, not just for sustenance, but to use for building new pieces of Kurg. Every passing day, the blight had spread wider and now his people were forced to walk the ocean floor in search of life to consume, for the land was barren and even the gatherers sent to the far reaches of the continent reported the same, because it had been completely scoured of life.

  This particular day, Irkith walked the desert to reach the ocean, that he might see for himself, since the ocean gatherers had complained they were forced to travel further and further to gather the life required to maintain the people.

  As he entered the water and beheld the lifeless skeleton of a coral reef, which had been teeming with life the last time he’d seen it, deep horror sunk into his soul, along with a realization: the Last Days had come, as prophesied by the Seventh Sage, one of his offspring that had been specially crafted to provide guidance regarding the future, with an unusual talent for remembering events in reverse of cause and effect.

  The words of the Seventh Sage had always been cryptic and difficult to decipher, for he spoke in riddles, but one of the few clear prophesies had spoken of a time when the life of the land would fail, calling it the Last Days. In the end, the Seventh Sage had been ignored by nearly everyone, including Irkith, for they could not puzzle meaning from his words, though there was one who’d paid close attention to everything he’d said: the Forbidden One Whose Name Cannot Be Recorded, a vile murderer that had been stripped of his name for his crimes. The Forbidden One had slain seven Ulkun by consuming the life from their life stones and had become an Everlasting Stone as a result, no longer needing to feed.

  Irkith returned to the land and turned toward the mountains, where he’d long ago imprisoned the Forbidden One. After a journey of several days, he followed a dusty trail into a mountain valley, where he entered a cave that appeared no different from any other, at least from the outside.

  Inside, however, was a secret fortress that Irkith had carved, alone, so none could free the criminal it was designed to hold. The natural stone of the walls and floor had been decorated with relief carvings, giving the appearance of tiling; anything Irkith built was a work of art.

  The seven locks barring the exit of the Forbidden One were worked and the winding path through the fortress became a straight line as entire sections of rock rotated within the mountain. As he watched, many trap-filled rooms rotated into view, until the appropriate path of each section was revealed. He stepped carefully through the most safe path, for even this path bore many traps, as well as life-imbued warding symbols that had been carved into the floor and walls, which were tuned to repel the killer’s life stone.

  Many times, Irkith had considered executing the criminal, but the Forbidden One’s words at the trial still rang in his mind: “I acted only according to prophesy, for the good of all.” Irkith hated those words and hated the vile murderer, but with the arrival of the Last Days, there was no longer any doubt or reason to avoid the criminal, for if one prophesy had come true, then surely all others would, as well. If there was any way to save the Ulkun, the Forbidden One would surely know how, for he was fiercely intelligent and acted of his own mind, without orders, a trait that wasn’t common to the others, for most of them had difficulty making decisions, turning to Irkith with their troubles.

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  It was time to make a dark bargain and even if it cost him his soul, Irkith would see his people saved. As king, it was his burden to bear and he would pay any price, no matter how vile.

  Irkith passed the seventh ring of wards and entered the lone cell of the prison, where the Forbidden One stood motionless at the center of seven circular wards he could not cross, which had been designed similar to the life patterns of Kurg. Each layer was capable of holding the criminal by itself and any one of them could repair the others, almost instantly. To remove them would require wiping the entire pattern, all in one go, but the energies of the criminal’s Everlasting Life Stone could not breach any of the layers and the criminal wasn’t powerful enough to wipe even a single layer.

  The only thing that could unlock the prison for the criminal to escape was if the criminal somehow obtained ownership of Irkith’s life stone, a condition he’d always considered impossible.

  The dark room was suddenly bathed in light, the imbued stones of the walls having responded to the presence of Irkith, by glowing.

  The Forbidden One’s husk resembled another of the small, crawling creatures of the land, but at a size larger than Irkith, because he’d once been a common laborer and a larger husk was useful for heavy lifting. Where Irkith resembled the local equivalent to an ant, the Forbidden One instead resembled something halfway between a beetle and a roach.

  Irkith asked, “Can my kingdom be saved from the failing of the world?”

  “No. I shall live to see your kingdom fall.” The Forbidden One spoke plainly and without emotion.

  Irkith pleaded, “Save my kingdom! I know you have the power!”

  “No. The Seventh Sage has spoken and Vuzan, he that wields life and death in opposing claws, has concurred. The kingdom is fated to fall and not even I, who wields the power to clasp the opposing claws of Vuzan together, can prevent it.”

  Vuzan was a mythical figure that governed the fates of all Ulkun, said to wield power over both life and death, with the power to hold the opposing hands of this being together referring to the fact that the Forbidden One was effectively immortal, so long as his life stone remained intact.

  Irkith bowed to the vile Forbidden One and removed his life stone from the socket in his husk, placing it on the prison floor, as an offering, “I give you my life, to save the kingdom!”

  So long as the stone was within a short distance of his husk, it would remain animate, at least until either it was placed in a new husk or ownership of the stone was claimed by another. In laying his life stone before the Forbidden One, the king was offering to make the ultimate sacrifice, both of himself and the kingdom, for whoever owned the king’s life stone could command the kingdom in his name and the people could not disobey.

  “It cannot be done.” The Forbidden One pushed the stone away, rejecting the offer.

  Irkith pushed the stone back and insisted, “There must be some way to preserve Ulkun! I will not live to see my kingdom fall to the failing of the world!”

  The Forbidden One scraped a claw down the side of his own life stone, gouging a small line into the living stone, the rare mark of an unbreakable pledge, just before he accepted Irkith’s life stone, “I cannot save Ulkun, but I will preserve it.”

  The light of life faded from the eyes of Irkith and his empty husk fell prone, for the bargain had been made and his life stone was no longer his own to command.

  Holding the life stone of Irkith, the Forbidden One passed the wards of his prison and exited, seeing the light of the sun for the first time in many thousands of solar revolutions.