His own.
Older.
Crowned.
“You have suffered.”
Aren froze.
Corvin heard only noise.
“What is it saying?”
Aren could not answer.
The Shadow continued.
“They forgot you.”
Images filled the chamber.
Aren hungry beneath the bakery.
Guards shoving him.
Merchants laughing.
King Aldric ordering his death.
“You deserve the throne.”
Aren saw himself sitting above everyone.
Fed.
Warm.
Safe.
Never ignored again.
“I don’t want it.”
The Shadow smiled with his face.
“You came all this way because you do.”
Aren looked toward the Stone Throne.
Maybe.
That frightened him.
He had imagined it since learning the truth.
Not the crown exactly.
But people apologizing.
People seeing him.
People who once kicked him from doorways bowing.
Was that justice?
Or hunger wearing royal clothes?
The Shadow whispered.
“Take the sword.”
Aren already held it.
“Sit.”
The golden symbols on his palm brightened.
Oren shouted.
“Aren!”
Corvin grabbed his shoulder.
The Shadow threw him across the chamber.
“Corvin!”
Aldric drew his sword.
He attacked darkness.
Useless.
Shadow struck him down.
Oren crawled toward the ancient inscriptions around the throne.
“I can read it!”
Aren fought the pull.
“What?”
The historian shouted over the noise.
“The missing line!”
The damaged Covenant at the Abbey had not been incomplete here.
Gold symbols covered the floor.
Oren translated.
“When Crown commands Stone, Shadow rises.”
Aren stared.
“When Stone chooses freely, Shadow sleeps.”
The entire history collapsed into one sentence.
Control fed it.
The Shadow did not merely corrupt power.
It was power without consent.
Every King who tried binding the giants strengthened it.
Elara had changed the Covenant to weaken it.
But one final mechanism remained.
The Stone Throne.
Aren understood.
He lifted the Kingmaker Sword.
The Shadow screamed.
“YES.”
It thought he would claim the throne.
Aren swung.
Not at darkness.
At the Stone Throne.
The sword struck.
The chamber exploded with light.
The throne cracked.
Aldric shouted.
“What are you doing?”
“Ending it.”
“You’ll destroy the Crown bond!”
“Yes.”
“You’ll never control the giants.”
“That’s the point!”
He struck again.