The dreams were jagged.
Not nightmares—too quiet for that. But not memories either. Just… impressions. Fire. Screaming metal. A child sobbing in a hallway full of red light. A door that wouldn't open. And beneath it all, two voices—his and mine—echoing in the dark, not speaking, but circling. Like wolves.
When I woke, the air was still heavy with dust.
No birds this time. Just the low hum of the mana veins, quiet as a second heartbeat, threading under my skin.
The System hadn't returned since the last flicker. But I knew it was there. Watching. Listening. Waiting.
I sat up slowly. Muscles burned, but less than yesterday. The water must've helped. Or maybe the System was doing more than it let on.
My coat still smelled of stone and rot, but the leather was thick, tough enough to last a winter. I shrugged into it. Let the weight settle. Felt like armor, in a way.
I crossed the room, opened the warped wooden chest by the window. Inside: torn linens, a half-broken dagger, and a small, round mirror. Cracked. Dust-coated. I lifted it.
The face that stared back wasn't mine.
Gaunt. Hair dark and unkempt. Pale skin bruised at the throat, lips chapped, eyes slightly sunken. But it was the eyes that held me—faintly glowing at the edges, like candlelight reflected in a wolf's stare.
No wonder Liri said I looked different.
I closed the mirror.
The estate was still silent as I walked the upper halls. My footsteps echoed against old stone and splintered wood. Curtains moved faintly in the morning air.
There were rooms I hadn't seen. Locked wings. Storage chambers. A once-grand dining hall now used for storing rotting crates. A few of the other so-called servants moved through like ghosts, ignoring me. They were old, broken men and women. Forgotten here, just like the prince.
But none of them looked me in the eye.
Good.
That gave me space.
I spent most of the morning in the old library, flipping through books that hadn't been touched in decades. One was full of folk legends—half-truths, mismatched dates, forgotten rituals. Another was a codex of the Seven Kingdoms, torn halfway through. The Dragon Empire had been circled in ink over and over again, like the old prince was obsessed with it.
Then, at midday, the screaming started.
I was already at the window when I heard it—the high, desperate voice of a woman, hoarse with exhaustion.
"Help! Please, someone! He's—he's dying!"
The voice came from the lower courtyard, where the cracked flagstones led to the outer gate. I moved without thinking, down the stairs two at a time, ignoring the ache in my ribs.
Two figures were dragging a third.
The woman—a wastelander, thin and wrapped in scavenged leathers—had the hollow-eyed look of someone who hadn't eaten in days. Beside her, a boy, younger, maybe sixteen. They held between them a man—bloodied, burned, barely breathing.
He looked like he'd lost a fight with the earth itself. One leg twisted the wrong way. His tunic soaked through with crimson. His eyes unfocused.
They saw me and froze.
I didn't speak. Just studied them.
The woman fell to her knees, panting hard.
"Please… my husband," she said. "He went into the ravine after the storm. Found something. Got attacked by beasts. The nearest village said… said this place has a healer."
Her voice cracked.
A lie. No one here had called me anything but exile.
But they were desperate. Or stupid.
I walked forward, slow.
No healer. No medicine. No miracles.
But I had something else.
The System flickered into view like it had just been waiting for me to make a choice.
[Wounded Subject Detected][Compatibility: 22%][Initiate Soul Contract? Y/N]
I crouched beside the man. His face was barely visible under the bruises. He breathed in shallow, uneven gasps. The kind of breath that meant death was already deciding how to take him.
"I don't want to waste time," I said softly, more to myself than anyone else. "I need to know if this works."
The System responded instantly.
[Warning: Subject Life Force Critically Unstable][Soul Contract Execution: Risk Level — Severe][Proceed? Y/N]
"Yes," I said.
My hand moved on instinct. I pressed my palm to his chest.
The woman screamed. The boy lunged forward, but I raised my other hand. A pulse of energy surged from my fingers, raw and blue, flattening the dust around us in a tight ring. Static filled the air. The hairs on my arms rose.
The System reacted.
[Soul Contract Protocol Initializing — Stage 1][Linking Threads…][Mana Threshold: Overloaded][WARNING — UNSTABLE CONVERGENCE][Forcing Stabilization][Engage!]
The world dropped out from under me.
Everything narrowed into light and pressure. My head cracked back. My mouth opened in a silent scream. Energy poured from me like water through a broken dam.
I saw the man's life—flashes of it. A child clinging to a mother's apron. A sword stained with blood. Screaming in the dark. Love, fear, death—all of it rushed into me, unwanted.
And I gave something back.
A piece of me.
When it ended, I collapsed to the ground, gasping, fingers scorched black at the tips.
The man—he lived.
Not just lived. He sat up.
Color flooded back into his face. Wounds closed rapidly, muscle fiber twitching beneath skin. He looked around, stunned, then saw me and knelt without a word.
The woman covered her mouth, sobbing.
[Soul Contract Complete][Status: Linked][Class: Enforcer (Locked)][Loyalty: Anchored][Abilities Boosted: Strength + 3 | Resolve + 5][Subject Name: GRAY][Assigned Name Accepted]
"Gray," I said aloud, breath still ragged.
He looked at me and nodded.
Liri found me minutes later, half-conscious on the marble steps, my back pressed to the wall. She said nothing at first. Just crouched beside me and looked at my hands.
"You're an idiot," she said quietly.
I chuckled, throat raw. "That's new. Most people just call me trash."
She took one of my hands gently and studied the burns. Her fingers pulsed once—soft warmth, pale green light. Elven magic. Healing, subtle and smooth.
"You're lucky you didn't shatter your own soul," she muttered.
"Did it work?"
She nodded. "Too well. That man… he'd follow you into a pit of fire right now."
"Good. I plan on walking through a few."
I met her eyes. For a second—just a second—I saw something flicker in them. Unease. Or maybe… awe.
Then she stood. "Rest. You'll need your strength."
Later that evening, I found Gray standing watch by the broken fountain in the courtyard. He hadn't spoken a word since the Contract. Just kept scanning the horizon, like a soldier reborn into duty.
"I didn't ask for your loyalty," I said.
"You didn't need to," he replied.
"You remember who you were?"
He nodded. "But it doesn't matter."
I watched him a moment longer.
"You're the first," I said. "But not the last."
He looked back at me.
"I know."
In a spire far away, lit by dragonfire, a figure in crimson armor stood over a scrying pool. The liquid surface rippled with an image: me, glowing with mana, hand outstretched.
The woman beside the armored figure frowned.
"The prince has awakened something forbidden."
The man's eyes narrowed.
"Then it's time we remind the kingdoms why we buried that power to begin with."
And the war—quiet, waiting, ancient—shifted one step closer to waking.