The Warden and the Priestess: (The Shattered Song, 0.5)

The Warden and the Priestess

Months into a sacred bond, warden Kaelor and priestess Kiera break temple law to reach a forbidden ritual site — and find a village already dying, a rune animating the dead into something that hungers, still feeding while its victims watch through eyes that haven't stopped seeing.

Forced into their first real fight together, blade and Light find a rhythm neither of them knew they had, and win a victory that costs them more than either admits.

In the ruin, Kiera finds her fragment of buried truth. In the wreckage above it, Kaelor finds a second, forbidden core stirring awake inside him — one the temple swore was sealed for good.

On the road home, shaken and closer than they've ever let themselves be, they vow to never part, whatever the temple asks.

Readers of The Tethered God already know how that vow ends. This is the story of everything it cost to make.