The tavern roared with drunken laughter as Kareth slipped into a shadowy alley, clutching the stolen dagger. The blade hummed softly, the ancient runes etched along its edge glowing faintly. Behind him, the sound of pursuing boots grew louder. He had no time to think\u2014only to act.<\/p>\n
Vaulting over crates, Kareth ducked into a crumbling archway, the air thick with the stink of decay. A sorcerer\u2019s lair, the locals had whispered. Perfect. His pursuers\u2014mercenaries hired by the slaver he\u2019d robbed\u2014hesitated at the threshold, but their fear wasn\u2019t enough. One leapt in with a howl. Kareth parried with the dagger, the runes flaring to life. The blade drank deeply, the man\u2019s scream cut short as the magic consumed him.<\/p>\n
More rushed in. Kareth fought like a cornered beast. The dagger\u2019s power surged, but with every soul it devoured, its pull on him grew. His vision blurred, and the whispers of ancient wrath clawed at his mind.<\/p>\n
When the last mercenary fell, Kareth stood trembling. The dagger pulsed in his hand, hungering for more. He wanted to toss it away, but as the slaver\u2019s mocking face flashed in his mind, he tightened his grip. For his sister, still bound in chains, he would pay the price.<\/p>\n
The dagger\u2019s glow dimmed, but the whispers promised they would return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The blade hungers, and so does he.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fantasy","category-fiction"],"_wp_attached_file":null,"_wp_attachment_metadata":null,"_thumbnail_id":"684","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}