Karl didn't move.
The flicker of movement in the mist had vanished, but its weight still pressed against the air. The trees held their breath. The silence listened.
Then—
A distant howl split the quiet.
Not high-pitched. Not wild.
Low. Grounded. Ancient.
The kind of sound that didn't just echo — it remembered.
Karl stepped back once, then again, his eyes scanning the trees.
Whatever that creature was… it had seen him. Not as prey. Not as threat.
As something more.
The mark on his chest still pulsed softly, like it was answering the call — not resisting it.
Torches began to flicker alive in the distance. Voices stirred through the mist.
"Did you hear that?"
"That wasn't a forest beast…"
"No… that was Bound."
Asterwall stirred awake.
The village wasn't large. Just a cluster of stonework homes nestled in the shadow of the eastern ridges. A forgotten place, tucked away from trade routes and major paths — the kind of village people passed around, not through.
But those who lived there… knew its silence wasn't just peace.
It was protection.
Or maybe… containment.
Karl stood on the edge of that line now — between forest and home, between silence and something waking.
He didn't know what the howl meant.
Or why it seemed to reach into him like a name he hadn't heard yet.
But deep in his chest, something stirred.
Behind him, near the old temple watch, a cloaked figure stepped from the shadows.
Their voice was low — barely audible.
"So the Soulbind begins…"