Kael stepped deeper into the dark chamber.
The walls were covered in runes that pulsed faintly, like they were breathing. The air was thick, not with dust, but with memory. Old memory. The kind that shouldn't exist.
The breathing grew louder.
And then came the sound of chains.
Real ones.
Dragging.
Scraping.
He reached the bottom and saw it.
A pit.
Not empty.
Inside it was a thing. Massive. Twisted. Shaped like a man but with arms longer than its legs, skin cracked like stone, eyes glowing from deep within its skull.
It was chained to the floor, wrists covered in old runes that burned when it moved.
Kael stared.
The creature stared back.
"You… are not the first Binder to come here" it said, voice like sand grinding metal.
Kael clenched his fists.
"I'm the last one you'll see."
It laughed. A deep, ugly sound.
"Maybe. Or maybe you'll become like me. Chained by your own power. Forgotten by your own Guild."
Kael took a step forward.
"What are you"
"I was a tamer once. Chosen. Praised. Until I summoned something I shouldn't have. Something they feared more than war."
Kael didn't move.
The creature continued.
"So they locked me here. Called me a traitor. A curse. Just like they'll call you."
Kael's mark flared on his arm.
The shadow behind him flickered to life.
"You want me to feel fear" he said coldly.
"No" the chained man smiled. "I want you to remember. The deeper you go… the louder the abyss becomes."
Then something snapped.
The runes on the floor glowed red.
The chains rattled.
The creature screamed.
Kael stepped back as the room trembled.
"You're not ready" it roared. "They will hunt you. They will lie to you. And the abyss will demand payment."
The stone under his feet cracked.
The mark burned hot.
Kael turned and ran.
He didn't know what just woke up beneath the school...
But it saw him.
And now it would not forget.
Back in the Guild Tower, Vira sipped her tea in silence.
The scroll Kael refused burned itself to ash on her table.
She smiled faintly.
"So… he chose war."