The moment Caelum stepped into Thornspire Expanse, he knew the world had changed.
It wasn't the warmth of the air ,it was older than warmth. It breathed. It pulsed. The trees were colossal, their roots thicker than city walls, glowing faintly with primal bondrunes that hadn't been carved but… grown. Birds screeched in ancient dialects above them. Mist clung to the moss, whispering in forgotten tongues.
Ashra hovered above the canopy in ember-winged form. "This place… doesn't belong to the present."
Lira kept her bow low, scanning the thick jungle. "There are no footpaths. No decay. It's like the land decided not to rot."
Caelum touched one of the glowing roots. It shivered beneath his palm.
"It's awake."
They moved slowly, guided by instinct and flame-sight. With every step, the forest thickened around them not in darkness, but presence. Here, Caelum's bondflame didn't burn. It hummed. Every leaf, every stone, felt like it was watching.
Vraenak, usually silent, spoke in a low rumble.
"This land was once ruled by Wildbinders."
Ashra narrowed her eyes. "Impossible. That bloodline died before the Beast Wars."
Caelum looked up. "Then something survived."
Later, they made camp by a pool of starlit water deep in the hollow of a bone-white tree. Thorne kept watch, crouched in beast-form near the shadows. Vraenak slept against a stone wall, unmoving.
Caelum sat by the water, washing the dried blood from his arms.
Lira joined him quietly. She looked tired, but not weary. Her sharpness had softened in the jungle air.
He glanced at her. "How's your side?"
She lifted her shirt just slightly, revealing a healing rune-scab across her ribs. "Hurts less than betrayal."
He looked away. "Serenya."
"She's gone," Lira said. "You don't have to keep looking over your shoulder for her."
"I'm not," he replied softly. "I'm looking forward, wondering if I'll become the same thing."
She placed a hand over his. "You won't."
A pause. Then…
"But even if you did… I'd still be here."
He turned to her.
Their lips were close.
So close.
And then
A pulse.
A thread-shock rippled through Caelum's soul.
Someone had entered the Expanse.
Ashra landed hard in front of them, wings coiled. "Something's moving through the outer forest."
"Beast?" Caelum asked.
"Not just a beast," Thorne answered, sniffing the wind. "A binder."
Lira stood, knocking an arrow. "Sanctum?"
"No," Caelum murmured. "Something else."
They followed the pulse, deeper into the wilds, past towering fungi and whispering vines.
There at the edge of a glowing cliff overlooking an ancient beast graveyard ,they saw her.
She stood barefoot, her skin a warm copper brown, hair in long, woven braids adorned with crystal-thread beads. She wore no armor just a cloak made of living leaves. A massive wolf-beast lay beside her, its eyes glowing with wisdom, not rage.
She turned toward them, and her eyes.
They were gold.
Like Caelum's.
"Welcome," she said. Her voice was deep, melodic, wrapped in old power. "The forest told me you were coming."
Ashra hissed. "Who are you?"
The girl stepped forward, unfazed by the Sovereign beast's fire.
"I am Ayira," she said. "Daughter of the last Wildbinder."
"And Caelum Duskbane... you're the one they feared would awaken me."
Back at camp, Ayira sat by the fire like she belonged there.
She spoke calmly, but her words cut deep.
"The Sanctum tried to erase my people. Said our way of binding beasts with emotion, memory, love was unstable. Dangerous. Too human."
She looked at Caelum with unreadable warmth.
"But you're proof they failed."
Ashra bristled. "He's bonded with Sovereigns. It wasn't through love."
Ayira smiled. "Then why are you still by his side?"
Ashra looked away, jaw tight.
Caelum spoke quietly. "Why did the forest call to me?"
"Because it remembers you," Ayira said. "Your blood. Your flame. And because something beneath it is waking."
Lira leaned forward. "What's waking?"
Ayira's gaze flicked to her. For a moment, Caelum felt tension between them unspoken, primal, feminine.
"The last Trialbeast," Ayira whispered. "The guardian of the core. To meet it, you'll need more than power."
She looked at Caelum now into him.
"You'll need to decide which bond you trust most."
Later that night, Caelum lay awake under the moon-silver leaves.
He could feel Ayira's presence in his mind, like a thread brushing his soul.
He could also feel Lira, just feet away, heartbeat steady.
And somewhere deeper ,Ashra's bond burned, fierce and uncertain.
Three paths.
Three bonds.
One heart.
And beneath it all, the fourth thread still pulsed… waiting.
Far below the Thornspire, beneath roots that touched the bones of dragons, an eye opened.
Not of a beast.
But of something older.
A creature no binder ever claimed.
Until now.
"The boy comes," it whispered. "And he brings love."
"Let him bleed."
End of Chapter 11