The campfire burned low, its light stretching across broken stone and jagged rubble. Beyond the barricades Kael's soldiers had built, the plaza lay in silence, torches flickering in neat rows. His army had order, purpose, even pride.
And then there was us the forgotten.
We sat at the edge of the firelight, a ragged circle of people no one wanted. An old man whose spine curved like a bowstring. A boy who limped on a cracked wooden crutch. A girl clutching a crowbar that shook in her grip. A mother holding her son so tightly the boy could hardly breathe.
And me, Ishaan Reed the curse at the center of their fear.
✦
The silence was heavier than any monster's roar.
I could hear them breathing. Hear their whispers when they thought I wasn't listening.
Stay away from him.The shadows follow him.If he dies, maybe we live.
I almost laughed. The gods didn't need to summon demons or dungeons. Fear alone was enough.
Dev, sitting beside me, leaned close. His voice was a whisper. "So… if someone betrays you in this trial, what happens?"
I stared into the flames. "I vanish."
He frowned. "Vanish?"
"Not dead. Not bleeding out in some corner. Just… erased. Like I was never written in the first place."
The words sank into the circle. The girl's hands tightened on her crowbar. The mother clutched her child so hard he whimpered. The boy on the crutch paled until he looked like a ghost already.
Even the old man, who rarely showed fear, muttered a prayer under his breath.
✦
The system's glow shimmered faintly above us.
[ Trial of Trust has begun. ][ Condition: At least one forgotten must choose to stay by your side until dawn. ][ Progress: 8%. ]
The fire popped. Shadows curled at the edge of my vision. My ink stirred faintly, restless.
Waiting.
Almost eager.
✦
The old man broke the silence first. His voice was sharp, cutting through the fire's crackle.
"This doesn't make sense. Why test us like this?"
"Because sense isn't the point," I muttered.
He ignored me, staring at the others instead. "If the gods demand one of us betray him, then why wait? Better to cut out the rot now before it festers."
The girl gasped. "Don't say that!"
The mother pressed her child's head against her chest, whispering, "Don't listen, don't listen…"
The boy with the crutch shifted uncomfortably. His voice cracked as he spoke. "But maybe he's right. If the trial is about trust, then maybe the only way to survive is to… not trust."
The air thickened instantly.
I could feel the system listening. Measuring. Waiting for a crack.
[ Trust Value: Declining. ]
I clenched my jaw. "Careful. The gods will take your words literally. Say the wrong thing, and you might hand them exactly what they want."
Dev hissed through his teeth. "Listen to him! You idiots want to test whether the Bug's powers work on betrayal too? Keep talking like that and he'll be gone."
But fear had already begun its slow infection.
✦
The girl spoke suddenly, her voice trembling but firm. "He saved us. All of us. If not for him, we'd have died back there. You think Kael or his soldiers would've spared a second glance? They would've left us to rot."
The old man scoffed. "And now what? You want to cling to a cursed man because he saved you once? What happens when his shadows turn on us? When the gods decide he's too dangerous to keep alive?"
The girl's eyes flashed. "I'd rather die following someone who fought for me than live cowering behind people who don't even know my name."
Her words cut deep into the circle. The mother bit her lip. The boy shifted on his crutch, eyes darting toward me.
I said nothing. Because every word mattered now, and the wrong one could be my execution.
✦
The Rewrite prompt hovered faintly at the edge of my vision.
[ Sentence: The forgotten turned against Ishaan Reed. ]Rewrite? (Y/N)
My hand twitched. It would be easy. Too easy. One word and I could tilt their thoughts, twist their fear into loyalty.
But the system was watching.
And I knew, deep down, if I cheated here the gods wouldn't just erase me—they'd erase us all.
I closed the prompt.
Dev saw my expression. "You could've fixed this."
"I won't."
"You'd rather gamble on people than use your own power?"
"Better to gamble on people than turn them into puppets."
The shadows pulsed, restless, like they agreed. Or like they were hungry.
✦
Hours dragged.
The fire shrank to embers. Every shift of breath, every creak of the old man's pipe, every whimper from the child sounded louder than thunder.
I stayed awake, blade across my knees, watching them.
One of them would betray me. I could feel it in the air.
The system wasn't waiting for dawn. It was waiting for a knife in my back.
✦
The boy stood first. His crutch scraped against the ground as he rose, pale and trembling.
Everyone's eyes followed him.
He swallowed, looking at me, then at the others. "I can't… I can't do this anymore. If someone has to betray him, then I'll do it. Better me than any of you."
The girl gasped. "No!"
The mother whispered, "Please don't…"
The boy's voice cracked. "Don't you get it? The gods don't want him here. Every second he stays, he curses us all. If giving him up means you live, then I'll be the one to carry it."
[ Betrayal Detected. ][ Trust Value Severed. ]
The fire flared, shadows spilling like ink across the stones.
✦
I didn't command them.
I didn't need to.
The ink surged like a storm, tendrils snapping forward, wrapping around the boy's crutch, his arms, his throat. He screamed, collapsing as black lines crawled across his skin.
The mother shielded her son, crying out. The girl raised her crowbar uselessly. Dev cursed, reaching for me.
"Reed! Call it off!"
The boy's eyes bulged, his voice breaking. "I I was trying to save them!"
The shadows hissed.
My pulse pounded. For a terrible moment I thought I'd lose control, that the ink would tear him apart before I could stop it.
Then I slashed my blade through the shadows themselves.
The ink recoiled with a soundless scream, vanishing back beneath my skin.
The boy crumpled, gasping, clawing at his throat where black marks lingered like bruises.
✦
Silence fell.
Every eye fixed on me not with gratitude. Not with trust.
With fear.
The old man spat. "You see? He can't even control the darkness in him."
The girl trembled, but her voice was soft. "No. He stopped it. He could've let it kill him, but he didn't."
Her words didn't ease the fear.
They only made it sharper.
✦
The system's voice returned, cold and merciless.
[ Betrayal acknowledged. ][ Trial of Trust continues. ][ Condition updated: At least one forgotten must choose to stay by your side until dawn. ]
The boy sobbed quietly, avoiding my gaze. The old man muttered curses under his breath. The girl hugged her crowbar like it was the only anchor she had left.
And the mother, rocking her child, whispered into the dark. "He held it back. He's still fighting."
The shadows pulsed faintly in answer.
But dawn was still far away.
And the gods weren't done yet.