The air in the underground chamber was heavy with torch smoke and the stench of greed. Chains rattled as the children shifted, their bruised wrists raw from the iron. The nobles of the Trade Realm whispered among themselves, laughter oozing like slime.
Kairo sat still, eyes lowered, while the voices of the gods pressed into his mind.
"Chains again, boy. You left one prison only to sit in another."
"Are you satisfied? Is this what immortality has given you?"
"Fight. Break. Tear. We grow tired of waiting."
Kairo clenched his teeth. His hands twitched against the shackles. He didn't want to reveal himself—not yet. He had been careful to let the world believe he was only a boy who could heal. But the voices would not stop. They clawed at him like carrion birds.
Igron stirred beside him, still groggy from the drugged meal, and muttered weakly, "Don't do anything stupid…" before drifting back into a shallow, forced sleep.
Then one of the nobles, the one who had taunted earlier, stepped forward. He grabbed Selaih's chin, forcing her face upward as if inspecting merchandise.
"Pretty little thing," he sneered. "Worth more than half this lot. Shame she's too young for other uses—"
That was the last straw.
Kairo's head lifted, and for the first time that night, his crimson eyes glowed faintly in the dim light. The gods roared approval in his skull.
He pulled against the chains—not with brute strength, but with something deeper. His bones began to shift beneath his skin, shrinking and reshaping, sliding free from the manacles that were built for a body slightly larger.
The iron clattered to the floor.
The room froze.
One noble gasped. "What—how—?"
Kairo stood slowly, his posture straightening as if he had never been bound at all. His voice was quiet, almost calm, but it cut through the silence like a blade.
"I am not… just a healer."
The air thickened. The guards reached for their weapons, but there was a ripple of unease—something unnatural was stirring in the boy's presence.
And in the corner, the mistress who had betrayed them leaned forward, her lips curling into a thin smile.