Lucas sat against the cave wall, head tipped back, trying to slow his breathing. His shirt stuck to his skin with sweat, and the cut from the arrow still throbbed, though Kaelen had wrapped it with strips of clean cloth.
Kaelen was pacing, staff in hand, muttering under his breath.
Lucas finally broke the silence. "You gonna tell me what the hell just happened out there, or just keep walking in circles?"
Kaelen stopped. His eyes — sharp, gold, unblinking — fixed on Lucas. "You used Chaos. The ninth affinity."
Lucas shrugged weakly. "I didn't mean to."
"That's exactly the problem." Kaelen knelt, planting the staff between them. "Chaos isn't like the others. Fire, water, earth, wind — those can be commanded. Chaos commands you. It feeds on your instincts, your anger, your fear. Give it too much, and it will strip you down until there's nothing left but the hunger."
Lucas glanced away. He remembered the feeling — the strength, the rush, the way the world bent to him. And the way it hadn't wanted to let go.
Kaelen's voice softened slightly. "You've bonded with the Rainbow Orb, Lucas. That means you've inherited every affinity it ever held. But the Orb was never meant to be whole. It was created to contain Chaos — to keep it locked away where it couldn't destroy this world again."
Lucas frowned. "Contain? Who made it?"
Kaelen hesitated, then pulled a small leather-bound book from his satchel. The cover was cracked and worn, the pages smelling faintly of smoke. He opened it to a sketch — a circle of eight glowing runes surrounding a ninth rune, jagged and black.
"Thousands of years ago, when the first affinities were born, Chaos came with them," Kaelen said. "It was… unbalanced. Where the others built and shaped, Chaos only destroyed. Entire kingdoms were erased in a single night."
Lucas stared at the jagged rune. "So they trapped it in the Orb."
Kaelen nodded. "The Eightfold Alliance — the first elemental masters — bound their powers together and sealed Chaos away. The Orb was hidden, protected by wards, so it could never fall into mortal hands."
Lucas snorted. "Great job. I found it in a hole."
Kaelen's expression darkened. "It wasn't an accident. The wards were broken years ago. And now the wrong people are searching for it."
"The hunters?"
"They serve the Ashlord," Kaelen said quietly. "A warlord who believes the elements should be ruled by one will — his own. With Chaos, he could crush the elemental realms and bend them into one empire. The prophecy says that when Chaos returns, so will the Ashlord's reign of fire."
Lucas tilted his head. "Prophecy? Seriously?"
Kaelen flipped to another page — this one showing a figure standing in a storm of colors, shadows twisting around them.
> "Bearer of all, vessel of none — when the rainbow shatters, the world shall burn or be reborn."
Lucas read it twice, then looked up. "And you think that's… me."
Kaelen didn't blink. "You are the first in history to hold all affinities at once. You are either this world's salvation… or the spark that ends it."
Silence stretched between them. Outside, the wind whispered through the trees like the forest was listening.
Lucas finally sighed. "So what now?"
Kaelen's answer was immediate. "We run. We train. We stay ahead of the Ashlord's reach until you can control every affinity — including Chaos."
Lucas raised an eyebrow. "And how long's that gonna take?"
Kaelen looked toward the dark horizon. "If we're lucky… before the Ashlord finds you."