Theron laughed—a dry, hollow sound. “They say. And you believed them?”
Theron pushed off his sword and walked closer. He held out a gnarled hand. “Let me feel its weight.”
Kaelen took the dagger. This time, it felt heavier. champions dagger deepwoken
“Do you know why a Champion’s Dagger is short?” Theron asked.
A knock came at the door. Three raps. A pause. Two more. The signal. Theron laughed—a dry, hollow sound
That night, Kaelen did not sleep. He sat in his rented room above the Drowned Spoils tavern, the dagger laid across his knees. He thought of the Depths—the endless dark, the whispers that peeled sanity like bark from a tree. He had gone down twice before. Both times, he had run.
He ran his thumb along the flat of the blade. There, barely visible, were words etched in High Lumen: “I will not turn my back.” He held out a gnarled hand
Kaelen tightened his grip. “They say a Champion of the Fivefold carved the Oath of Service into its steel. That every Dagger user who carried it into the Depths came back alive.”