I am Axel Voss. I keep the streets south of the Cinderwash quiet—through fear, through blood. The Iron Serpents call me when words stop working. That's fine. I'm good at silence. I wasn't born for mercy, not in a place like Veridia. But sometimes, when the city sleeps and the knives are sheathed, I remember hands that didn't tremble when they touched me. A voice that made me believe I wasn't just what the world carved out of me. And that… that's the part I can't kill.