The Shadow Knight
Time had run out.
Kaelen embraced his sister once more, ruffled Marcus's hair, and strode from the chamber. His footsteps rang against stone, each one carrying him away from the morning's triumph toward an uncertain darkness.
The last pure day of his life was ending. Though he didn't know it yet, Kaelen Dawnblade would never see the Eastern Marches again. Not as the man he was now. Not with his faith intact.
In years to come, when bards sang of the Shadow Knight's origin, they would begin here: with a good man answering a summons, believing in justice, trusting in the Light. They would sing of how that trust was betrayed, how faith became fury, how love transformed to loss.