The ash had settled, but silence weighed heavier than stone.
Draven sat beneath the shattered frame of a ruined outpost, walls half-eaten by fire, the roof nothing but blackened ribs against the ember sky. The air was still thick with smoke, each breath scratching his throat raw. Feyra lay curled at his side, ears flicking in restless dreams. Stonehide dozed near the doorway, emerald plates cracked, chest rising slow with rumbling breaths.
Alive. All of them. But for how long?
Draven's fingers traced the haft of his halberd, knuckles white. Images of the Ruins would not leave him — phantom shackles writhing like vipers, the weight of a mountain of fire pressing his bones to breaking. The Magma Drake's aura had nearly shattered him, not even in combat, just presence.
If fire like that exists… then what chance do I have?
The lotus mark pulsed, faint under his shirt, answering the thought with warmth. The Codex stirred in his mind, pages whispering, flickering. Faint runes bled into vision, like words struggling to form:
"Marks enslave. Bonds endure. Choice can be written… as script."
Draven froze. The runes vanished as quickly as they came, but the echo lingered, heavy, undeniable. Script? Another way to bind?
His grip loosened. He looked at Feyra, her flank rising steady now, no chain branding her skin, only the glow of their bond. At Stonehide, scarred but proud, plates etched with emerald light. No slaves. No masters. Just choice.
The Codex wasn't only recording. It was guiding.
For a long time, he sat in the stillness, ash drifting across his boots, listening to the faint breaths of his beasts. Outside, the world trembled faintly with the Drake's presence, even at rest. It felt like standing at the edge of a cliff where the ground itself might fall away at any moment.
But his mind was clearer than it had been in years.
Branthollow.
His village. His roots. Mira still held the sanctuary there, defending the beasts they had saved, waiting in silence for his return. They were part of him too. The Codex had linked them once; he could feel faint threads even now, like sparks carried on wind. If he returned, if he joined with them again, he would not just survive — he would rise.
The thought of Mira's steady eyes, the beasts sheltered under her care, filled his chest with something warmer than fire: belonging. He had left Branthollow powerless, a man who could only dream of choice. Now he would return bearing a fragment of the cosmos, bonds stronger than chains.
Draven clenched his fists, resolve burning hotter than ash. If the world chains beasts to men, then I will write another way. If marks are forged in fire… then I will write in bloom.
The Codex pulsed at his vow, runes briefly glowing across the edges of his vision before fading. A promise.
Far across the scorched ridges, shadows slipped between trees — the League scouts, battered, limping, muttering as they pressed on toward their camp.
"He broke chains," one whispered hoarsely. "Not Dominion. Not us. Someone else."
"If commanders learn of this," another muttered, "the war itself will twist."
They vanished into the haze, but the ripples they carried would spread.
Draven rose, gripping his halberd, exhaustion etched into every line of his body, but eyes steady now. Feyra stirred, pressing close to his leg, while Stonehide heaved himself upright with a groaning rumble.
The ash-storm swirled past them, glowing faintly in the dim sky like stars that had lost their place. Draven breathed it in, coughed, then smiled grimly.
"We go home," he said softly, voice ragged but certain.
The beasts lifted their heads, as if they understood.
Branthollow awaited. Mira awaited. And the sanctuary beasts — his kin, his strength — would walk beside him.
The horizon still glowed like a furnace door, fire remembering. But Draven turned from it, stepping into the ash-laden wind, toward the only place that could ground him.
Toward the beginning of something greater.