The ash clung to everything.
It coated my tongue. Settled into the corners of my eyes. Turned every breath into a reminder that I was still breathing when I had no right to be.
[EXHALE — dry, rasping]
Black crusts of the Ash Stalker's ichor cracked on my fingers as I flexed them. My shoulder throbbed where its claw had kissed me—shallow, survivable… close enough to whisper how thin the line really was.
Ahead, the temple loomed.
Obsidian walls rose from the gray sea of ash like broken fangs, their surfaces split and weathered, cracked like old leather pulled too tight. Sickly violet light pulsed from within—not warm, not inviting. The color of bruises. Of dying stars.
Every few seconds—
[DULL RUMBLE]
The ground trembled, faint but undeniable. As if something enormous shifted in its sleep far below.
I didn't want to go inside.
Every instinct screamed to turn back. To find another path. To do anything except walk willingly into the most obvious trap imaginable.
But there was no other path.
The First Nightmare always ended the same way for those who survived long enough.
You reached the heart.
You faced what waited.
You Awakened—
—or you became another corpse the Spell forgot.
So I walked.
The black thread in my chest tugged harder now. Not painful. Constant. Like a hook buried deep and pulled just enough to remind me it was there.
Toward the temple.
Toward what waited inside.
Toward whoever else was being dragged here by their own invisible chains.
I stopped at the threshold.
The entrance yawned open like a stone maw. Broken statues framed it—winged figures eroded to featureless ovals, arms raised in eternal supplication. Black iron chains dangled from their wrists, links disappearing into the ash below.
[You have entered the Temple of Chains.]
[The Trial of Binding awaits.]
The runes appeared calm.
Almost bored.
I stepped inside.
[TEMPERATURE DROP — IMMEDIATE]
The air thickened, cold and heavy, reeking of old blood and molten metal. The chamber was vast—one colossal space carved from darkness, lit by veins of violet light crawling through the walls like infected arteries.
At the center stood a raised platform of polished black stone.
An altar.
And chained to it—
A sword.
Not ornate. Not noble.
Just iron. Straight. Single-edged. Brutal.
Its hilt was wrapped in frayed black cloth. Even from here, I felt it—weight, age… hunger.
I took one step toward it.
Then—
The shadows moved.
Not mine.
Not the echo of the Stalker.
Hers.
She stepped from the darkness as if it had parted for her alone.
Tall.
Silver hair flowing like liquid moonlight over segmented armor forged from night itself.
Her eyes burned.
Not metaphorically.
Pale flame flickered in her irises, turning her gaze into twin welding torches.
Nephis.
Changing Star.
The instant our eyes met—
[THREAD — SNAP TIGHT]
Pain lanced through me. Not physical. Something deeper. Like recognition. Like inevitability slamming shut.
[Fate's Thread has resonated.]
[Bond partially formed.]
[Restriction: You cannot lie to her.]
[Restriction: She cannot abandon you in battle.]
The words hung there.
Final.
She stopped ten paces away. Her sword—already drawn—was white steel that drank the light. Controlled flame licked along its edge.
"You," she said softly.
That made it worse.
I swallowed ash. "Me."
Her gaze flicked to the chained blade. Then back to me.
"This is my Trial," she said.
Not a question.
"Looks like it isn't anymore."
Silence stretched.
[VIOLET PULSE — FASTER]
Then she moved.
Not toward me.
Toward the altar.
The chains rattled, iron whispering against stone. The sword leaned toward her, eager.
The thread in my chest pulled harder.
If she claimed it alone—
What happened to me?
Dragged along? Snapped apart?
I didn't know.
I only knew this:
If she walked away with that blade, fate would follow.
And if I tried to stop her—
I took a step forward.
"Wait."
She turned. Flame flared brighter in her eyes.
"Why?"
Because I know what you become if you burn everything—including yourself.
Because I know the Spell is laughing at us.
Because I've read this nightmare before.
I couldn't say any of it.
So I said the truth that mattered.
"Because if you take it alone," I said quietly, "we both lose."
A pause.
The faintest crease formed between her brows.
"Explain."
I gestured—uselessly—at the invisible bond humming between us.
"Something bound us the moment we met. I can't lie to you. You can't leave me behind in a fight. That isn't chance."
She listened.
Then: "And you think sharing the Trial changes fate?"
"I think trying to take it alone kills us."
Another beat.
[HEARTBEAT — TEMPLE SYNCED]
Finally—
"Then we share it."
She reached for the hilt.
So did I.
Our hands closed together.
[WHITE FIRE — BLACK SHADOW — COLLISION]
[Trial of Binding initiated.]
[Two souls.]
[One blade.]
[One fate.]
[Survive the Chains.]
The statues screamed.
Chains snapped free, lashing toward us like living serpents.
Nephis moved first—blinding. Her blade carved through iron in a burst of white flame.
[CLANG—HISS—DISSOLVE]
I ducked as another chain whipped for my throat. It grazed my cheek—blood bloomed.
The bond pulsed.
Her strength flooded through me—incandescent will, burning my veins.
I seized the chain that cut me and yanked.
[Shadow Bind — Secondary Effect Activated.]
[Claim what binds.]
It resisted.
Then broke.
I swung it like a flail, tangling another incoming strike.
Nephis cut. I bound.
Fire and shadow.
The chains thickened. Barbed. Faster.
One smashed into my ribs.
[IMPACT — BONE RATTLE]
I staggered.
She was there instantly—shoulder slamming into mine, shoving me clear.
She couldn't abandon me.
The bond held.
I roared, lashed out again.
The altar cracked.
The sword ignited—half pale flame, half devouring darkness.
One final chain rose from the floor.
Massive.
Judgment incarnate.
We met it together.
Her blade burned through half.
My chain-wrapped fist seized the rest—
And pulled.
[SHATTER—]
Silence fell.
The sword dimmed.
We released it together.
[Trial of Binding completed.]
[You have Awakened.]
[Aspect: Bound by Fate.]
[True Name: Hidden.]
[Flaw: Chains of Destiny.]
[Aspect Rank: Dormant.]
Nephis exhaled. The fire in her eyes dimmed to embers.
She looked at me—not as prey. Not as threat.
As something else.
"You knew," she said. "You knew this would happen."
"I knew a lot of things."
She didn't ask how.
Instead—
"What happens next?"
I looked at the fading chains. At the unbroken thread between us.
"Now," I said, "we survive the real world."
She nodded once.
"Then we leave."
As the Nightmare dissolved, I felt another thread stir—distant, faint, inevitable.
Another Awakened.
Another collision of fate.
The ash kept falling.
But this time—
We weren't falling alone.