When the empire burned the sky to ash, they said all witches died. But one lived — and the knight who killed her still carries her voice inside his heart.

The Pale Empire, a faith-ruled power that harvested magic from human souls, fought against the Veiled Sanctum, a hidden order of witches who guarded the balance of life and decay. In the empire's final crusade, they burned the Sanctum using a weapon called the Ember Star, which ripped open the veil between life and death. The result: a gray, eternal dusk.

During the fall of the Sanctum, a witch named Veyra Solenn performed a forbidden rite as she was struck down by the empire's champion, Sir Seth Vale. The rite was designed to preserve her essence by anchoring it to her killer. But something went wrong — it didn't just attach her spirit, it split their souls.

Now, they share one heartbeat, one spiritual center, half in light and half in shadow. When one dreams, the other wakes inside the dream. When one kills, the other feels the weight of that death. Their reflections flicker with the other's face when they're near death. And if either dies permanently, both will be pulled into the rift between worlds — an eternal purgatory called The Unwake.

Seth Vale, the empire's most devout “Ash Splitter,” is now a heretic hunted by his own order after the curse left him marked with glowing runes that shift across his veins. He is driven by survival and personal gain, seeing the curse as both a burden and an opportunity. He believes the witch is manipulating him — but can't resist listening to her voice when he senses potential advantage in their connection. He carries her old grimoire, which he cannot read… but it sometimes reads him.

Veyra Solenn, the last of the Veiled Sanctum, a lineage that believed decay was sacred — that death fed life. Her spirit lives partially in Seth's mind, but her body reconstitutes slowly elsewhere, drawing on the bond to anchor her return. She speaks in dreams, in shadows, in moments of silence when Seth doubts himself. The curse makes her feel Seth's every emotion; she begins to doubt her hatred as his pragmatic nature challenges her beliefs.

The curse makes her feel Seth's every emotion; she begins to doubt her hatred. She believes if the soul completes its merging, she could be reborn — but it might erase Seth entirely.

Both are hunted: The Inquisitors, who see Seth as proof that witches still live. The Ashborn, half-dead children born after the Ember Star, who whisper that the knight and witch must unite to end the dusk.

Their choice is cruelly simple: Break the curse — which means killing one another for good. Fulfill it — become a single being that could restore the sun or end humanity.

Seth is drawn to the ruins of the Sanctum by whispers in his dreams, sensing an opportunity in understanding the curse's power. The world is losing color; ash covers everything. In a cave of bone and glass, he finds Veyra's half-reformed body pulsing faintly in a cocoon of dark roots. She remembers his sins; he calculates potential gain. Neither can exist without the other, but both despise the tether.

They uncover that the Ember Star is not destroyed; it's beating inside Seth's chest — the source of both their curse and the world's decay. Veyra starts influencing his actions directly, sometimes taking control of his reflection or shadow. He starts losing his sense of self, unsure which thoughts are his. Together they learn that the curse wasn't an accident — it was designed by the Sanctum to ensure one witch's soul survived within her killer, as a seed for rebirth.

Seth and Veyra's souls begin merging physically; their veins glow with twin light and shadow. As armies close in, they discover the truth: to restore the world, they must accept their union — or destroy it, dooming the world to permanent dusk.

The final moment becomes a question of identity: “If we are one, will you still be you? Or will we both vanish into something neither of us understands?”*