Chapter 5: Chains and Fire
Steel sang as it left its sheath.
The sound cut through the room like a blade through cloth, sharp and final. The guards surged forward in disciplined formation, shields raised, swords drawn. Their captain stood at the threshold, eyes hard, jaw clenched as though he had already judged the outcome.
"On your knees," he commanded. "All of you."
Brom laughed once—a low, dangerous sound. "You've picked the wrong table, lad."
"Brom," Seris said sharply.
The dwarf's grin faded, replaced by a scowl. He lowered his axe a fraction but did not let go.
Kael stepped subtly in front of Arin, placing himself between the guards and the boy. "Let's not turn an inconvenience into a massacre."
The captain's gaze flicked to Arin's satchel, lingering there a beat too long. "That depends on the cooperation of the… guests."
Arin felt the crystal stir again, heat seeping through leather and cloth. Panic tightened his chest.
Seris raised her hands slowly. "We will come quietly."
Elowen's head snapped toward her. "Seris—"
"This is not the place," Seris said calmly. "Nor the time."
The guards hesitated, surprised by the lack of resistance. Two stepped forward and seized Seris's arms, binding her wrists with rune-etched iron manacles. Another pair moved for Brom, who snarled but allowed himself to be shackled.
Kael exhaled through his nose and offered his sword hilt-first. "Careful. It's sentimental."
The captain ignored the comment.
When they reached Arin, the guard paused. "The boy too?"
"Yes," the captain said. "Especially the boy."
Cold iron closed around Arin's wrists.
The moment the shackles clicked into place, the crystal flared—violently.
Arin cried out as heat surged through his arms, searing pain racing along his veins. The rune-etched iron glowed red, then cracked with a sharp report.
The guards recoiled, shouting.
"Arin!" Elowen snapped.
"I didn't—!" he gasped.
Light burst outward.
Not a beam this time, but a wave—raw, unfocused, fueled by fear. The nearest guard was thrown backward into the wall, his shield clattering uselessly to the floor. Windows shattered. The room filled with smoke and the acrid scent of burning metal.
"Now!" Kael shouted.
Brom roared and wrenched free, snapping his weakened shackles like twine. Elowen drew and fired in one fluid motion, arrows striking the ceiling beams, bringing down a cascade of dust and splinters that blocked the doorway.
Seris slammed her staff into the floor. Sigils flared beneath the guards' boots, freezing them in place for a heartbeat—long enough.
"Move, Arin!" she shouted.
They fled.
---
Stonehaven erupted into chaos.
Alarms rang from the watchtowers, bells tolling wildly as shouts echoed through the streets. Torches flared to life, turning night into a flickering maze of light and shadow.
They ran through back alleys and market lanes, boots slipping on cobblestone slick with spilled refuse. Brom took point, shoving aside crates and barrels with brute force. Kael guarded the rear, sword flashing whenever a guard came too close.
Elowen moved like a ghost, arrows whispering through the dark.
Arin stumbled, breath ragged, heart pounding so hard it felt as though it might burst. The crystal burned against his chest now, no longer gentle—no longer patient.
"I can't control it!" he shouted.
"You don't have to!" Seris called back. "Just don't let it choose for you!"
They burst into the central square.
Stonehaven's great tower loomed above them, its single flame blazing unnaturally bright. The sigil carved into its stone glowed faintly, responding to the fragment Arin carried.
The ground trembled.
Kael swore. "That's new."
From the base of the tower, stone cracked and split. A deep, resonant sound echoed through the square—not a roar, but a groan, as though the city itself were awakening.
Corven emerged from the shadows near a fountain, his expression grim. "This way!"
"You set us up," Elowen snarled.
"I warned you," Corven snapped. "The city listens to the flame. When it senses kin—"
The tower flared blindingly bright.
A shape began to form within the light—vague, colossal, bound by chains of glowing runes embedded in the stone.
"Run!" Corven shouted.
They ran.
---
The sewers were exactly as Arin imagined them.
Dark. Narrow. Reeking of rot and stagnant water.
They plunged into the tunnel Corven led them to just as a shockwave tore through the square above, stone screaming as it shifted. The ground shook violently, dust raining down from the ceiling.
They did not stop until their lungs burned and their legs trembled.
At last, they collapsed in a wider chamber, water lapping at their boots. The only light came from Seris's staff, its glow dim and strained.
Silence fell—broken only by their ragged breathing.
Brom wiped sweat and grime from his brow. "Next city," he growled, "we pass by."
Kael leaned against the wall, chest heaving. "Agreed."
Arin sank to his knees, hands shaking uncontrollably. The crystal's heat faded, leaving him cold and hollow.
"I almost killed them," he whispered. "Those guards… I didn't mean—"
Seris knelt in front of him, gripping his shoulders firmly. "Listen to me. Intent matters. Control comes later."
"But if I lose control again—"
"Then we deal with it," Kael said flatly. "Same as everything else."
Elowen, however, was staring at Corven.
"You," she said coldly. "You knew the tower would react."
Corven did not deny it. "I suspected."
"You used us," Brom snarled.
Corven met their fury with weary resolve. "I used opportunity. If the fragment had stayed hidden, Stonehaven would have fallen anyway—slowly, quietly. This way, people ran. Lives were saved."
Arin looked up sharply. "Saved… how?"
Corven hesitated.
Seris's eyes narrowed. "You didn't answer."
"The tower," Corven said slowly, "was never meant to protect the city."
A chill ran through the chamber.
"It was meant to contain something," he continued. "A remnant of the Old Flame. Twisted. Bound. Feeding on the city's growth."
Elowen's jaw tightened. "You let it awaken."
"I weakened its chains," Corven said. "Enough that it will break free… and leave."
"And the city?" Kael asked.
Corven's silence was answer enough.
Arin felt sick.
"You sacrificed them," he whispered.
Corven looked at him, eyes hard but not unkind. "Cities are built on sacrifice, boy. The difference is whether it's chosen… or ignored."
Brom turned away in disgust. "I don't like him."
"No one does," Corven said quietly. "But you need me."
"Why?" Arin asked.
"Because the fragment you carry is only one of several," Corven replied. "And others will come for it. Not shadows this time."
The sewer trembled again, more violently.
From far above, a roar echoed—deep, unearthly.
"It's free," Corven said.
Elowen swore softly. "Then Stonehaven is lost."
"Not lost," Seris corrected. "Changed."
She looked at Arin. "As will you."
They moved again, following the tunnel toward the river beyond the walls. When they emerged into the night air, Stonehaven burned behind them—not in flames, but in light, the tower's glow tearing itself free from stone and soaring into the sky like a wounded star.
Arin watched, tears streaming down his face.
"That's my fault," he said.
Kael rested a hand on his shoulder. "No. That's history moving."
Brom snorted. "And history doesn't ask permission."
As they turned north once more, leaving the broken city behind, Arin understood something at last:
The road had not chosen him.
The light had.
And from this moment on, every step he took would either bind the world together—
—or tear it further apart.