The Inquisitor’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?”
He looked at the girl. He looked at the golden band on his wrist, now pulsing with a slow, rhythmic light. And for the first time, he tried to take it off. sovereign bangle deepwoken
Kaelen felt the Bangle’s suggestion before he even formed the thought. Make her dance , it whispered. Make her dance until her feet bleed. It would be funny. The Inquisitor’s eyes widened
He didn’t try to take it off. He knew he couldn’t. And for the first time, he tried to take it off
And that night, as she walked home to her family, she found herself wondering, just for a moment, what her husband’s face would look like if she asked him to cut off his own fingers. One by one.
The descent was rapid after that. He became a tyrant in a week. He used the Bangle to enthrall a crew of Deepwoken, turning their free will into a chorus of obedient drones. They sailed the Sea of Teeth, and wherever Kaelen went, smiles were painted on faces that had forgotten how to form them. He made a duke strangle his own court jester for a poorly timed joke. He made a mother sell her child for a shiny pebble. Each command felt like a splinter driving deeper into his soul.