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

He was born reaching for what others feared to touch — chasing glory, chasing meaning, chasing the promise that he could change the world if only he gambled high enough.

He gambled, and he lost.

A pact whispered in the dark, a hand extended from the fire and 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, skin burnt with the heat of damnation, eyes dimmed by obedience. And when the master called, he obeyed. Now she lies still. And he.... he looks at his hands.

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 fades, her echo dims.

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.”