Akua Anita

THE EMBER AND THE ECHOES . AI-Generated.

EPISODE 1: THE DEBT UNPAID The rain on the night of the Severing did not fall; it was a solid, weeping veil that drowned the world. It soaked through the midnight-blue velvet blanket, threatening to silence the weak cries of the infant wrapped within. The man who placed the bundle on the granite steps of the Iron Ridge Orphanage did not linger. He was a silhouette against the storm, tall and straight as a blade, his face a mask of terrible, empty purpose. He drove a dagger through the blanket, pinning it to the wood, the tip stopping a hair’s breadth from the infant’s side. It was not an attempt to kill; it was a punctuation mark. Attached to the hilt was a sodden scroll.