The silence inside the Tower was heavier than any sound Kael had ever known. It pressed against his skin like a second layer, thick and suffocating, as though the air itself had weight.
Every step echoed far too loud, rebounding endlessly through the black corridors. His own heartbeat sounded foreign in his chest—slower, deeper, as if it were syncing with the pulse that ran through the walls.
The ember-veins glowed faintly in the stone, lighting the way forward in uneven flickers. Their rhythm was irregular, not quite alive but not dead either, as if the Tower were breathing with half-burnt lungs.
Kael gripped his staff tighter. Without the System's voice guiding him, there was nothing but the Tower's whispers at the edge of his thoughts.
Closer. Deeper. Shed the leash. Become what you are meant to be.
He clenched his jaw. He had chosen. He was Kael. He would remain Kael. But choices had a way of being tested, and the Tower was already watching.
Beside him, Liora moved like a blade—every sense sharp, her eyes flicking across every corner. She walked as though the Tower knew her steps, and she knew its traps in turn.
"What is this place doing to me?" Kael whispered. His voice sounded wrong in the air, devoured and returned to him an instant later, thinner, like an echo not quite his own.
"The Tower doesn't waste time with walls and stone," Liora murmured. "Its first weapon is always the mind. It gnaws at you until you can't tell which thought is yours and which belongs to it."
She hesitated, her gaze sliding briefly to the glowing veins. "You'll need to hold tighter than most. It already knows your name."
Kael's throat dried. The visions he had seen outside returned to him in fragments—chains, fire, the girl with defiant eyes. Were those illusions meant to break him? Or were they truths, pieces of a story he wasn't meant to see yet?
They reached a chamber wider than the corridors, circular, its ceiling lost in darkness. The floor was layered in ash so thick their boots sank with every step. In the center lay a circle of chains, perfectly arranged, their ends buried deep in the ground.
The emberlight dimmed as they entered, and the silence deepened into something brittle, dangerous.
Kael stopped at the edge of the circle. His chest tightened, his pulse hammering. The chains thrummed faintly, and he felt them in his veins as though they were an extension of him.
The Tower stirred.
A deep vibration rolled through the chamber, shaking the ash. The chains lifted from the ground, weightless, slithering through the air like serpents. They twisted around one another, forming spirals, then straightened with violent precision, pointing directly at Kael.
He staggered back, his staff clattering against the floor.
Liora moved in front of him, her sword raised, eyes sharp. "Stay behind me."
But the chains didn't strike. They quivered, trembling with anticipation. And then, like venom in his mind, the voice returned.
Step into the circle, child. Claim what is yours. Bind yourself, and be free.
Kael's knees trembled. Every instinct screamed to obey, to step forward and sink into the embrace of the chains. His blood burned, his thoughts blurred.
Liora turned sharply, catching his hesitation. "Kael—don't. That's how it begins. The first trial is always surrender. Give in, and you'll never walk out again."
He pressed a hand to his head, gritting his teeth. "It's… calling me."
"Then fight it!" Her shout echoed too loudly, bouncing through the chamber in a hundred distorted versions of itself.
The chains rattled violently at the sound, then lashed outward—not at Kael, but at Liora.
She swung her blade, sparks flying as steel met steel, but the impact drove her back. Three more chains coiled around her, binding her arms and legs before she could react.
Kael's blood turned to ice.
The chains lifted her into the air, twisting until she hung suspended. Her sword clattered to the ground. For the first time, Kael saw fear break through her hardened mask.
"No—" Kael lunged forward, only to be stopped by a sudden wall of heat. A barrier of burning ash erupted between him and the circle, cutting him off.
The Tower was isolating him.
Choose, the voice hissed. Step into the circle, claim your chains, and she lives. Refuse, and watch her burn.
Kael's breath came ragged. His hands shook as he pressed against the barrier, the heat scorching his palms.
Liora struggled in the air, her face twisted with fury. "Don't listen! Kael, it's a lie!"
The chains tightened around her chest, stealing her breath. Ash fell from above like snow, clinging to her skin, scorching where it touched.
Kael's heart thundered. Every fiber of him screamed to step into the circle, to end her suffering. The Tower's pull was relentless, intoxicating.
But beneath it, faint as a whisper, another memory rose.
Liora's voice at the threshold: You are Kael Ardyn. Do you hear me?
His own reply: I'm still Kael.
He grit his teeth, forcing his feet to stay rooted. "No."
The chamber shuddered violently, ash erupting in a storm. The chains convulsed, tightening around Liora until she cried out.
Kael raised his staff, summoning what fragments of the System's power remained in him. But the glyphs flickered weakly, unresponsive. The System was dead here. He was truly unbound.
For a terrible moment, despair clawed at him.
Then he remembered—the Tower itself pulsed through his veins now. It had tried to claim him, but in crossing the threshold, it had also given him a shard of its fire.
He closed his eyes, reaching inward. Not for the System. For the emberlight.
It answered.
His veins burned, his skin glowing faint red. The staff in his hand thrummed violently, resonating with the Tower's pulse.
Kael thrust it forward. A wave of fire erupted from its tip, raw and untamed, slamming into the barrier. The ash wall disintegrated in an instant, scattering into smoke.
The chains recoiled, screeching like wounded animals.
Liora fell to the ground, coughing, her body scorched but alive. She snatched up her sword with trembling hands, eyes blazing.
Kael staggered, panting, his vision swimming. His skin still glowed faintly, emberlight flickering in his blood.
The voice in his mind did not retreat. It laughed, dark and triumphant.
Yes. Good. That is the strength of the Tower. You deny me, but you use me all the same. You cannot resist what you are becoming.
Kael fell to his knees, clutching his head, trying to drown it out.
Liora crawled to his side, gripping his shoulder fiercely. "Listen to me! You didn't give in—you fought back. That's the difference. Do you understand? The Tower doesn't own you, Kael. You bent it to your will."
Her voice anchored him, pulling him from the edge of collapse. Slowly, the glow in his veins faded, leaving only exhaustion.
The chains slithered back into the circle, sinking into the ash as though retreating to await another chance. The chamber quieted, but the silence was no comfort now.
Kael raised his head, sweat dripping down his face. "If that was only the beginning…"
Liora's jaw tightened. She sheathed her sword with a sharp motion. "Then we survive the next one. And the one after that. Whatever it takes."
Kael nodded weakly, though in his chest he knew the truth: each trial would demand more of him, and each time the Tower's fire answered, he risked becoming what it wanted him to be.
And the Tower had eternity to wait.
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