The Last Ritual

We killed God.
Carved rituals from its corpse-long lives, healing, weapons.
Millennia of prosperity, enough to make you weep.
But nothing comes without a cost.
Three curses carved in kind.

The Leath are winning.
And now something worse threatens us both: mindless, hideous, final.

Oh, the goats? They want our help.
Well. They can have it.
It's time for another ritual.
Yes.
This one will be different.

I and three others will go. We will not return-we understand this.
But if we succeed, then you who remain must carry on.
Maybe find a cure for your... affliction.
Pass this note down.
Let something of us survive.

P.S. Saa, give the younglings my farewell. Nothing too sentimental, you understand. Yes, both of them.
P.P.S. You're still wrong about the portraits.

-Excerpt from a gray's final message, found in Ironwall's inn.

A dark fantasy novel about sacrifice, ruin, and philosophy made manifest.
For fans of grimdark, tragic legacies, friendship, and choices with consequences.

Approximately 72,000 words. Contains themes of war, decay, memory, and (in)human resilience.

Their last ritual wasn't for power. It was for you.