He always dared too much, but she loved him anyway.

He was born reaching for more. Chasing glory, chasing riches, chasing the promise that he could be a change in the world if only he gambled high enough.

He gambled, and he lost.

A pact whispered in the dark and a hand extended from the fire : his name on a seal that burned.

Servitude eternal, not in chains, but in will.

Revna never knew.

She searched the mortal lands until her feet bled, until her prayers turned to dust.

When a stranger offered her passage to the depths — one day, one chance, the strength of a Valkyrie in exchange for a price untold — she did not ask the cost.

Through the darkness and flames of Hell she found him.

But the brother she remembered was gone.

Only a creature remained, soul consumed by damnation and eyes dimmed by obedience.

When the master called, he obeyed.

Now she lies still. And he.... he can just look.

What have I done?

The claws are mine.

The blood is hers.

Why did I do it?

What was the promise, the purpose?

Her eyes fade, her echo slowly dims in the dark emptiness.

And in the silence that follows something else awakens,

something that smiles with my mouth,

breathes with my lungs,

and whispers in a voice that isn’t mine:

“Now you know what you’ve become.”