The fire had died hours ago.
But the smell lingered—smoke, and something worse.
Kael walked slowly through what was left of the village.
His bare feet sank into warm ash.
Each step left a grey print, proof that he was still alive. For now.
The houses were skeletons of blackened wood.
No voices.
No cries.
Only silence.
A silence louder than the flames from the night before.
He stopped in front of what used to be his home.
It was nothing but charred beams and scattered embers now.
A memory rose, uninvited—
His mother smiling as she handed him a hard piece of bread, saved just for him.
Kael blinked hard, forcing the image away.
That was when he saw it.
A faint glimmer.
Not light… but shadow.
It sat half-buried in the ashes, as if hiding from the moonlight.
He knelt, pushing burnt planks aside.
His fingers brushed something cold, smooth… alive.
A book.
Bound in black leather that seemed to drink in the light around it.
No title.
Only a single symbol on the cover—a circle cut by three lines, carved deep into the skin.
Kael opened it.
A shiver ran down his spine.
The pages looked blank at first.
But when his fingertips touched them, dark letters bled into view, as if the ink had been waiting.
They moved.
They breathed.
"I have been waiting for you."
Kael dropped the book.
His heart thudded against his ribs.
The voice hadn't come from the air.
It had echoed inside his skull, deep and heavy, like something spoken from far away.
"Who… who's there?" he whispered, throat dry.
"The name is unimportant. What matters… is the pact."
A cold wind swept through the ruins.
The shadows around him stretched, twisted, crawling toward the book like hungry snakes.
Kael didn't understand why, but he knew he had only two choices:
Run…
Or accept.
He remembered the fire.
The hooded men.
The sunburst banners.
And the helplessness that had burned worse than the flames.
No. Not again.
He reached out and touched the black leather once more.
The voice smiled in his head.
"Welcome to the First Circle."
Pain lanced through his palm, sharp and invasive, like something carving into his flesh from within.
When he pulled his hand back, the book's symbol was seared into his skin—black and gleaming like onyx.
The shadows swirled around him now, light as smoke.
A strange pulse filled his veins.
He could see more clearly, even in the dark.
He could hear every creak of wood, every drop of rain hitting the ashes.
And deep inside, there was a new hunger.
One that wasn't entirely his.
"Three steps for each Circle. Three trials. Three sacrifices."
"What sacrifices?"
"You will learn. But know this—power is never free."
Kael held the book tightly.
He didn't care what it cost.
He would never be weak again.
A sound behind him made him turn.
A figure stumbled out of the ruins.
For a heartbeat, Kael thought it was a survivor.
But no.
The man's skin was blistered, his eyes glassy.
He moved with a slow, unnatural gait, a rusted blade in hand.
And two more shapes emerged behind him.
The fire hadn't killed everything.
Kael's pulse spiked.
No weapon.
No training.
No chance of outrunning them.
The book pulsed in his grip.
The shadows pooled at his feet.
"Say the word."
"What word?"
"Bound."
He hesitated for half a breath.
Then whispered—
"Bound."
The shadows surged.
They climbed his legs, his arms, forming a thin armor of darkness around him.
Fear drained away, replaced by a cold clarity.
He knew where to strike.
How to move.
It was as if the darkness itself was guiding him.
The first attacker raised his blade.
Kael moved before it could fall.
The shadows whipped forward, wrapping around the man's arm.
A sharp twist.
Bone cracked.
The other two froze—
Too slow.
The darkness lunged, striking like fangs.
Both men dropped, their weapons clattering onto the ash.
Silence returned.
Kael stood still, breathing hard.
The armor faded.
Cold seeped into his chest.
"First step complete."
The voice faded, but the book stayed warm in his hand.
He looked to the horizon.
The wind carried the village's ashes away.
He didn't know where he was going.
But he knew one thing—
He had begun climbing the Circles.
And nothing would stop him.