The Debt
of the Soul

I am fifty-three years old. My hands are calloused and my mortgage presses down on me a little harder every day. My name is Joseph. I live in New Jersey, I build houses for other people, and I sleep in mine without ever quite feeling like it belongs to me. I am not a hero. I never thought I was.

Then, one night, I met Armando. Elegant, precise, with that smile of a man who already knows how it will end. He offered me everything I wanted — debts cleared, a different life, Marie safe. In return, one simple task: guide lost souls through the nocturnal purgatories as a guardian of the Equilibrium.

I signed. Because desperate men always sign.

But no one tells you what it means to carry the weight of every soul you release. No one warns you that the VANTOR you wield at night won't let you sleep by day. No one explains that Armando is not a benefactor — he is Marek, and his debt is older than mine.

I became Averius, the Eagle of Truth. But the truth I learned did not set me free. It armed me.

What I found on the other side will change everything — for me, for the souls I guard, and for those who believed they had me in their grip.