Kael didn't sleep.
The mark left by the Harbinger burned beneath his skin like a sun buried under frost. Every time he closed his eyes, golden chains danced behind his lids, whispering things he couldn't unhear.
Lira sat nearby, tuning her rifle in silence. She didn't speak much after what happened. Not out of fear, but understanding. There were some truths you didn't prod until they surfaced on their own.
At dawn, they moved.
The path to the next fragment led through the Bone Cradle — a derelict undercity buried beneath the corpse of a fallen skyship. A city made from the bones of giants and dead machines.
Kael felt the shard calling.
But so did something else.
---
> Sigil Fragments: 4/7
Location: Bone Cradle (Tier-3 Zone)
Threat Level: Red
Environmental Hazard: Echo Fog Detected
Recommendation: Do not proceed alone.
---
They stood at the edge of a fractured metal tunnel, lined with rusted sigils and blinking hazard glyphs. A low fog clung to the floor, glowing faintly with corrupted light.
Lira activated her visor. "Movement ahead. Three… no, four bio-signs. Not human."
Kael tightened his grip on the Revenant Edge. "What kind of Echo-born?"
Lira hesitated. "The kind that used to be us."
They advanced slowly through the corridor, blades drawn, senses high. The Bone Cradle was alive with memory—broken whisper-echoes playing on loop. Snippets of laughter. Screams. Machine hums. Then silence.
The first creature appeared suddenly—a twisted echo of a soldier, half-machine, half-shadow. Its eyes flickered with red static as it lunged.
Kael struck first, his blade whistling through the fog. The Edge cut through the monster cleanly—but the creature exploded into mist, reforming behind him.
"They're unstable," Lira warned, firing two shots. The Echo-born staggered, then collapsed, turning into flickering sparks.
More came.
A dozen, maybe more.
Kael moved like a storm, his mind half-lost in instinct. Each kill fed something inside him—the shard pulsing hotter, deeper. Lira fought back to back with him, her shots precise, her movement fluid. Together, they carved a path through the ruins.
Then they reached the core.
A circular chamber, pulsing with corrupted light. A throne of broken gears and bone sat at the center—and atop it, a girl.
Young.
Maybe thirteen.
Eyes blindfolded.
Skin stitched with rune-thread.
The shard pulsed inside her.
She was the vessel.
---
> Target Acquired: Sigil Fragment 5
Host Designation: Subject "Ilya"
Status: Dormant / Bound by Class-5 Seal
Warning: Host is still conscious.
---
Kael stepped forward.
Lira blocked him. "We can't just rip it out. She's alive."
"She's also suffering," Kael said quietly.
The girl stirred.
"...help...me..."
The room trembled. The throne reacted, gears spinning as ghostly arms reached out from the shadows.
Kael knew the choice already formed.
Take the shard.
Or free the girl.
Each path led deeper.
Each one, a price.
He stepped forward—and made his choice.
---
Chapter 24: Shardbound
Kael didn't hesitate.
He reached for the girl's hand—not the shard, not the chains, but her trembling, calloused hand. "I'm here. I won't abandon you."
As his fingers touched hers, a blinding pulse of Echo energy flared from the throne. The spectral arms shrieked, recoiling. The gears halted.
The bindings snapped.
And Ilya collapsed into his arms, unconscious but free.
Lira stared in disbelief. "You chose to save her over the shard."
Kael shook his head. "She is the shard now. There's more to this than fragments. They're alive. They remember us."
---
> Sigil Fragment 5 Acquired (Symbiotic Integration)
Fragment Name: Memory of the Lost Child
Host: Ilya (Bonded)
Kael: Linked
Passive Effect: Echo Link Established — Dreamsharing Enabled
Warning: Link is unstable. Further proximity required for full activation.
---
They escaped the Bone Cradle slowly, avoiding corrupted patrols and shifting fog fields. Kael carried Ilya on his back, the girl light as ash, but radiating with strange, warm power.
Halfway through the tunnels, she stirred.
"The voices… they're quieter now."
Kael met her eyes. They were no longer blindfolded—but glowing faintly blue.
Lira asked, "What are you, Ilya?"
The girl blinked slowly.
"I think I'm what happens when a soul doesn't shatter properly."
They reached the surface just as a new pulse echoed through the sky.
Far in the distance, a spire collapsed—the sixth fragment, destabilizing.
Kael stared at the storm brewing above the horizon.
"Then we're running out of time."
---
> Sigil Fragments: 5/7
Echo Sync: 72%
Corruption Level: 26% (Stabilized)
Linked Entity: Ilya — Dreamstate Guardian (Tier Unknown)
---
And deep beneath the ruins, where the throne had once stood, the shadows reformed into a shape. A whisper followed:
"He chose mercy.
Let us see what mercy costs."
---