The air was different here.
Even the trees seemed to lean away from the ravine.
Caelum stood at the edge of the Dreadfen Gorge, where clouds crawled low and thick across twisted stone like coiled serpents. The wind howled with no rhythm, no source. It was a place untouched by law or flame. A place where maps faded and compasses spun.
Ashra landed beside him, her wings folding like curtains of golden dusk. Her form shimmered, uneasy.
"This place remembers pain."
Caelum nodded. "Thorne said the scent led here. Said it was familiar."
Behind him, the chimera-beast Thorne let out a low, gravel-rumbling growl, eyes focused downward. His tail flicked sharply. He knew what was beneath.
Caelum could feel it too like a thread pulling from his chest. His sigil had been reacting since sunrise, the ember marks now branching in darker hues, as if preparing for something more primal.
"There's something below," he murmured.
Ashra did not answer immediately.
Then:
"A Forbidden One. Not just a beast,an abomination. It was sealed before the Godfall. Before even my kind sang flame into the sky."
He looked at her. "Then why call me here?"
Ashra turned her blazing eyes on him, and for the first time, Caelum saw something new in her doubt.
"Because it called you."
The descent was steep.
Caelum followed the ledge down into the gorge, the stone groaning beneath his steps. Ashra soared above in flame-form, while Thorne slinked through the shadows beside him like a living war.
As they passed into the gorge's heart, the light dimmed unnaturally.
It wasn't night.
It was memory.
The ground pulsed with faint symbols runic brands carved into the earth with divine cruelty. Bones of ancient beasts littered the path, many unrecognizable winged serpents with glass-spines, horned wolves the size of cottages, things that should not exist in flesh or legend.
Then, they found the pit.
And within it… a shape.
Massive. Shifting. Sleeping.
Caelum stepped closer, peering into the dark.
It looked like a dragon, but wrong six legs instead of four, a lion's mane of bone-plated fur, and a tail that split into spines. Its horns were twisted like tree roots, and glowing veins of red coursed along its blackened scales.
Ashra hovered beside him.
"It is a creation of war stitched from Sovereign blood and cursed to exist outside fate. Its name was once stricken from the Great Codex. It was not meant to awaken."
Caelum stared, heart pounding. "Then why does it stir when I'm near?"
A pause.
"Because you are not just the Forsaken Binder."
"You are the Flameweaver."
The sigil on Caelum's chest flared white-hot, and below, the creature stirred.
Its eyes opened ,slits of burning gold, locked instantly onto him.
The ground trembled.
The Chimera Beast rose.
It did not speak.
It roared.
A sound that shattered the cliffs, sending tremors across the gorge. Lightning danced along its back, and with a single swipe of its massive claw, it shredded the warding runes that had held it for centuries.
Ashra circled wide. "Caelum, it's not like Thorne! This one does not remember what it means to trust!"
"I'm not here to tame it."
He stepped forward.
"I'm here to understand it."
The creature charged.
Caelum raised his arm,not to fight, but to connect. Flame burst from his palm, shaped not into a weapon but a thread of golden light.
The bond spark.
But the beast resisted.
Instead of linking, it recoiled violently, forcing the thread back into Caelum like a venomous sting. He collapsed to one knee, gasping as his spirit was flooded with visions:
Chains of divine metal encasing the beast, melted in agony.
Sanctum priests chanting as the creature was branded.
A child crying as the beast was taken from its mother ,stitched into this horror to serve as a weapon of conquest.
The creature's pain was its shield.
Its rage, its only language.
"Let me in," Caelum whispered, pressing his hand to the ground. "I've suffered too. I know betrayal. I know what it's like to be unwanted."
"So do they," he added, glancing back at Ashra and Thorne. "But I gave them something the world refused."
"A choice."
The beast stopped.
Its tail lowered slightly.
Its claws pulled back.
And then… the bond spark flared again ,this time from the beast's chest.
A red-black sigil, shaped like a shattered crown, flared into existence.
It mirrored Caelum's mark.
Ashra's voice was soft, stunned:
"He… accepted."
The light grew.
A beam of thread connected them wild, unstable, chaotic. Not like the graceful bond he shared with Ashra or Thorne. This one fought, even as it bound, reshaping itself with every breath.
Caelum gritted his teeth as his body felt torn between flame and storm and shadow.
"What's his name?" he gasped.
Ashra's voice came slowly.
"He had many."
"But in the old tongue, they called him Vraenak. The Unblessed."
When the light dimmed, Vraenak stood beside Caelum massive, silent, and watchful.
Thorne approached carefully. They circled each other, sniffing, sizing up.
There was tension.
Then a shared grunt.
Then peace.
Ashra landed beside them, her form small now, glowing with ember light.
"Three bound beasts. All of Sovereign class."
"The prophecy begins."
That night, Caelum lay by a crackling fire beneath the stars. Thorne curled nearby. Vraenak stood sentinel, always awake. Ashra perched above.
He stared into the flames.
"What am I becoming?" he whispered.
Ashra answered gently.
"You are not becoming something new."
"You are remembering what you were always meant to be."
Caelum closed his eyes.
And for the first time, he dreamed not of chains but of wings.
End of Chapter 5