60. Ammil: The Eye of the Storm

Ammil slices through the Veil’s storm, buoyed by white and gold magic siphoned from Arcady, Everen, and the dragonstone tree, determined to fix what was broken and make himself untouchable. Through Edin, he watches Arcady and Everen bound to the tree as he returns to the Dreamer after twelve years away.

Reaching the serpent’s wound—an infected red gash warping its coils—Ammil threads stolen power through the bond he has seized from Arcady and Everen. He draws further strength from Nalore’s monks, killing several, and channels the tree’s magic like a surgeon’s knife toward the injury while dragons on the far side fight failing battles against advancing wraiths.

Ammil exhales starlight onto the wound, carefully lifting rot and infecting clustered wraiths, which he cages in gold-and-white threads. As the Dreamer stirs, the storm’s whispers press on him. The wound begins to shrink; Ammil grows stronger, bones thickening and claws burning, even as the serpent edges toward wakefulness.

Memories of Barrow’s earlier caution war with Ammil’s hunger. He soothes the Dreamer toward sleep, then confronts the old temptation: to take more. Concluding that even the Dreamer is blood and bone, Ammil imagines boundless dominion and immortality.

Gathering every available strand—tree, bond, monks—Ammil resolves to dare the unthinkable: attempt a bond with the Dreamer itself, seeking limitless power despite the peril to both worlds.