Kael's legs were numb.
Not from injury. From shock.
The adrenaline had worn off, leaving only exhaustion—and the slow, growing ache that something inside him had changed. Again.
He sat by a cracked tree trunk, watching the horizon where smoke drifted across the ruinous sky like ghost trails. His arms were scorched to the elbows, though the fire no longer burned him.
Seris had retreated into silence. She stood with her back to him, arms crossed, staring at the wreckage of the shattered pedestal.
Neither of them spoke for a while.
Finally, Kael broke the quiet. "So… that was a normal day here?"
Seris glanced over her shoulder. "No. That was an abnormal disaster. You're the only reason we're still alive."
He gave a tired laugh. "That's… deeply unsettling."
She looked at him carefully. "You drew power from a bonded fragment. You know how rare that is?"
"I didn't do it on purpose," Kael muttered.
"And yet you did it."
He ran a hand through his soot-caked hair. "What does it mean?"
Seris approached, kneeling across from him. "It means your core doesn't follow our rules. Most people inherit a mark. Train. Bind a single element. But you? You're a thief. You steal fragments."
"Hijack them," he corrected quietly.
She nodded. "And now you carry Boneflame and a spark of Solar Fang. Unstable. Impossible. Dangerous."
Kael looked down at his wrist. The mark there shimmered faintly—part ember, part light. It pulsed with a rhythm not his own.
> "Status: Dual Fragment Signature. Integration: 37%."
He closed his eyes. "So how do I stabilize it?"
Seris tilted her head. "You survive long enough."
---
They traveled again.
Wounds healing slowly, minds heavier than before. The terrain shifted—ash plains giving way to fractured stone ridges and sharp, crystalline groves that shimmered with unstable energy. Trees bent at odd angles, whispering when touched. The wind carried faint howls, too deliberate to be natural.
Kael noticed Seris kept her blade unsheathed. Not for threats—but because the land itself was always watching.
He noticed her frown deepen the further they went.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
"There's too much residual energy in the air. Something passed through recently. Something strong."
Kael scanned the horizon. "Stronger than me?"
She smirked. "Everything's stronger than you until you stop hijacking like a madman."
They passed crystalline trees pulsing with trapped energy. Beneath one, they saw a corpse—still smoldering. Its skin had turned to cracked marble.
"A relic hunter," Seris muttered. "Poor fool tried to harvest without protection."
Kael paused. "How does anyone survive here?"
"They don't. Not for long. The ones who do… stop being people. They become something else."
---
They passed through a sunken ruin—what had once been a library, now bones and stone dust. The wind stirred scroll fragments into the air like falling ash.
Kael crouched beside an engraving in the floor. "What is this language?"
Seris leaned closer. "Old Zarethian. Dead tongue. Before the Fracturing."
He traced a symbol. It looked eerily similar to his glowing mark.
Seris stepped back. "Don't touch it. There are symbols that still listen."
That night, they camped under the remains of an ancient aqueduct. The wind carried whispers—actual voices caught in the currents, echoing across broken land.
Kael couldn't sleep.
He studied the dual-colored mark on his arm. It kept glowing gently, like a living ember. He felt no pain. Only... tension. A tightness in his chest, like something trying to get out—or get in.
Seris sat across from him, sharpening her blade again. Her silver hair gleamed in the firelight. She had removed her chestplate, revealing a jagged scar that ran from her collarbone to her ribs.
He asked, "Why are you helping me?"
She paused.
"Because I think you'll change something."
"That's vague."
"Good. Keeps you guessing."
He sighed. "Do you trust me?"
"No."
"Fair."
She looked up. "But I want to. That's more than most get."
Kael tilted his head. "And the others with marks like mine?"
"There aren't any."
He blinked. "None?"
"Not like yours. Fragment-thieves usually die within days. Core backlash. Instability. Madness. You… you stabilized two. That's unheard of."
He let that settle in silence, the fire crackling between them. "What happens if I try to take another?"
"Depends," she said. "You might combust. You might ascend."
"Great odds."
"Zareth rewards madness."
---
The next day, they arrived at an outpost—an actual structure. Half-sunken, reinforced with dark stone and veined with metal. A sigil above the gate flared as Seris approached.
Kael stared. "Is this… safe?"
"Safer than the wild. This is an Ember Rest. Neutral ground. Kind of."
Guards in hybrid armor—half forged, half grown—watched them silently. Their eyes glowed faint orange. No one spoke. But no one attacked.
Inside, the outpost buzzed with hushed activity. Traders, soldiers, scavengers. People who looked like they'd died once and came back angrier. Some wore chained fragments around their necks. Others had eyes like polished crystal.
Kael's presence drew eyes.
Seris whispered, "You glow. Dimly. They smell the fragments on you."
Kael hunched his shoulders. "Awesome."
They passed a merchant selling volatile crystals, a scarred woman calling out enchantments that bent the air. Kael turned to Seris. "What do they use fragments for?"
"Power. Defense. Trade. Mostly war."
He paused in front of a board covered in parchment. Names. Bounties. Symbols.
Seris read it. "Another Ascended went rogue. That makes five this month."
"Are they dangerous?"
"They're broken. Mad. Too much power, not enough soul. You risk that too."
They entered a hall carved from boneglass. Seris led him to a small chamber and sealed the door. The walls vibrated with low hums—warding tech or magic, he couldn't tell.
She turned. "Tomorrow, I take you to someone who can help stabilize you. Maybe teach you control."
Kael sat on the floor. "And if I lose control before then?"
"Then I kill you," she said simply.
He raised an eyebrow. "You're really bad at pep talks."
She smiled for real this time. "Get some rest, Kael. Tomorrow, you start becoming something more."
---
He tried to sleep.
Dreams came in fragments—fire, bone, shattered mirrors. A storm of voices. An ocean of faces burning away.
One voice louder than the rest: "Take. Burn. Become."
A child screamed.
Kael jolted upright.
He wasn't in the room anymore. He stood inside a swirling vision of the past—a memory that didn't belong to him.
A village burning. A girl with a Solar Fang mark chained to a stake. People screaming her name: Aelira. A symbol glowing above her. Fire blooming from her mouth.
Then a voice whispered in his ear: "She burned them all for love. You will too."
He awoke gasping, soaked in sweat.
The mark glowed. Again.
---
Far across the fractured continent, beneath a tower of writhing stone, a man sat upon a throne of bone and glass.
The red warrior knelt before him—broken, burned, but alive.
The throne-figure spoke with a voice that shook the room. "He pulled from your core?"
The warrior nodded. "A fragment. Hijacked it mid-bind."
The figure leaned forward. "So the parasite grows teeth."
"Shall I end him?"
"No," the figure said. "Not yet. We watch. The fracture-marked one may yet be our key."
He raised a hand. Dozens of shadowed eyes opened in the walls.
"Send the Others. Let him evolve... or let him burn."
---
> "Chapter 3 Complete. Core Status: Dual Signature (37%). Emotional Integrity: Stable. Host Adaptation: Accelerating." "New Questline: The Spire of Echoes — Initiated."
Kael turned once more in his sleep, unaware that his mark was glowing again.
And somewhere deep in the ash... something answered.