That night, the dormitories of Oakhaven were silent, save for the rhythmic breathing of thirty tired boys. But in Kael's mind, there was no peace.
He lay on the thin cot, staring at the stone ceiling. On his chest, Varg was a flat, vibrating disc of grey matter. The bond was deepening. Usually, a Shifter takes months to sync with a host, but Kael's soul was so dense, so heavy with the weight of a past life, that Varg was drinking him in like a starving man at a banquet.
Close your eyes, Little King, a voice hissed in his mind.
It wasn't his mother's voice. It wasn't Silas's. It was a voice like grinding icebergs.
The moment Kael's eyelids drifted shut, the dormitory vanished.
He was standing on a cliffside. Below him, the sea was boiling—not with heat, but with the thrashing of a Great Serpent. Rain lashed against his face, stinging like needles. He looked down. He wasn't in Kael's small, soft body. He was Skane again. His arms were thick as tree trunks, mapped with the blue-ink tattoos of the Kraken-Slayers.
In his right hand, he held a Great Axe. In his left... he held a crown. Harald's crown.
"You took it," a shadow whispered from the spray of the waves.
Skane turned. Standing there was a figure draped in a cloak of raven feathers. One eye was a pit of stars; the other was a milky void. An Old God.
"I took what was earned in blood," Skane growled, his voice a thunderclap.
"You took a piece of the World-Thread," the Raven-God replied. "And for that, Harald didn't just kill you. He performed the Blood-Eagle of the Soul. He tore your destiny apart. That is why you are here, Skane. You didn't just 'reincarnate.' You escaped a prison that hasn't been built yet."
The scene shifted violently.
The cliff dissolved into a white-tiled hallway. Kael—the boy—was running. He was in the Academy, but it was different. The walls were bleeding. At the end of the hall stood a golden door, and behind it, he could hear the singing.
The same songs they sang for Skane in the mead halls.
"The Bone-Breaker comes... with a ghost at his side..."
Kael reached for the door, but his hands were suddenly covered in black slime. Varg surged up his arms, not as a weapon, but as a shroud.
"Remember," the Raven-God's voice echoed. "The gods of this world are just the ghosts of the ones you failed."
Kael bolted upright in bed.
His tunic was soaked with sweat. His heart was hammering a rhythm that felt like a war drum. He gasped for air, clutching his throat.
"Varg..." he choked out.
The Shifter reacted instantly. It flowed from his chest to his hand, glowing with a strange, sickly violet light. It began to shift—not into a blade, and not into a tool.
It turned into a perfect, miniature replica of the Great Axe Skane had held in his dream. It was only six inches long, but the detail was terrifying. Every notch in the blade, every wrap of the leather grip was there.
Kael stared at it. A Shifter is supposed to mimic what it sees. Varg had never seen a Viking axe.
"You're reading my memories," Kael whispered, his eyes wide.
The little axe rippled and turned back into a curious blob, tilting its 'head' at him.
Kael realized the truth. He wasn't just a student learning magic. He was a bridge. Every time he remembered a piece of his old life, Varg would gain a new "template." The monsters he had fought, the weapons he had mastered, the tactics he had used—all of it was being downloaded into this world through the Shifter.
He stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the glowing Mana-Tree in the center of the city.
He felt it now. A pull. Somewhere in this world, there was a fragment of the "World-Thread" the Raven-God had mentioned. And he knew, with the certainty of a man who had died once, that King Harald's soul wasn't just a memory.
If Skane could cross over, so could his murderer.
"I'm coming for you," Kael whispered to the night sky. "I don't care what world you're hiding in. I will find you, and I will show you that a Viking's grudge is longer than a god's life."
On his shoulder, Varg turned its surface into a row of tiny, razor-sharp teeth. It was hungry too.