The forest was too quiet.
Morning light stretched across the embers of the dying campfire, casting long shadows over the moss-covered ruins. Ashra paced in her wingless human form, golden eyes locked on the treeline. Thorne lay curled by the stream, still tense from the bond-realm disturbance. Vraenak crouched among the trees like a silent monolith alert but unreadable.
Caelum sat alone, legs in the stream, watching his reflection shimmer over the water. His face looked older today. The fourth thread ,the implanted seal still pulsed faintly beneath his skin, a parasite pretending to sleep.
Behind him, Lira approached slowly. She sat beside him without a word. Their hands brushed once. She didn't pull away.
"You've changed," she murmured.
Caelum stared ahead. "They planted a lie inside me. Now I don't know which parts of me were mine… and which were theirs."
Lira looked at him gently. "Then take them all, twist them into your truth, and burn the rest."
He almost smiled.
But the wind shifted.
And a new scent arrived.
She walked through the trees like moonlight made flesh.
Long hair the color of fresh snow. A silver veil covered the lower half of her face. Her eyes were the strangest thing ,one violet, one pale blue, both glowing faintly beneath long white lashes. She wore no armor, no weapons. Just a flowing dark robe, slit along one side to reveal her leg, where ancient runes shimmered faintly with silver light.
Thorne rose instantly, low growl in his throat. Ashra dropped into a crouch, wings half-unfurled.
But Vraenak stepped forward and… bowed.
Caelum stood slowly. "Who are you?"
The woman's voice was soft, melodic, like a harp played at dusk.
"I am called Serenya," she said. "The one who sees through threads. And I have come… for you."
Ashra stepped forward immediately. "She smells like bound silk and liar's blood."
Thorne circled her, unconvinced. "How did you find us?"
Serenya smiled faintly beneath her veil. "The fourth thread burns bright in the Weaving. When it flickered, the Court trembled. They sent hunters. They sent blades. They sent lies." She stepped forward. "But I came alone."
Lira narrowed her eyes. "You're not alone. You're wearing a binding rune on your leg. That's Royal Sanctum magic."
Serenya lifted her leg slightly, revealing the silver glyph.
"I was once theirs," she said. "But they tried to chain the wrong heart."
Caelum studied her closely. There was power in her. He could feel it not force like Vraenak or flame like Ashra but something more subtle.
Allure. Pull. Threadcraft.
"She's a Siren," Ashra whispered. "An emotional binder. They twist loyalty. Charm beasts and hearts alike."
Serenya met Caelum's gaze. "I came because I was meant to trick you. To slide into your circle and unravel you from within."
She pulled off the veil.
Her lips were soft. Her face, heartbreakingly delicate. She looked barely older than Caelum but her eyes… her eyes held centuries.
"But when I saw your threads…" Her voice cracked. "I couldn't."
Later that night, Serenya sat by the fire, speaking softly to Lira. Ashra kept her distance, ever watchful. Thorne grunted from the shadows. And Vraenak watched Serenya without blinking.
Caelum stood outside the campfire glow, looking into the forest.
He didn't like what was happening in his chest.
He felt drawn to Serenya. Her presence was soothing. Her voice slid under his thoughts. She asked about his fears. About the dreams. She said things he hadn't told anyone.
But Lira…
She was real. Grounded. Warm.
He felt like he was standing between two flames.
That night, she came to him.
Serenya stepped through the bondveil,a special threshold Caelum had instinctively placed in his dreamscape. She arrived barefoot, her voice whispering into his mind like silk on skin.
"Caelum…"
"Let me in."
He felt his soul react not violently like it had with Vraenak. Not instinctively like it had with Ashra.
But intimately.
His guard cracked.
"You want to know why you survived them?" she said.
"Because you were made not to belong to the world…"
"You were made to bind it."
Caelum turned to her. "You're not here just to warn me. You're here to test me."
Her lips trembled.
Then, slowly ,she reached out.
Their bondlines touched.
Not a full pact.
But a thread.
Silver. Gentle. Not yet sealed.
Suddenly,flame roared.
Ashra burst into the bondrealm, wings ablaze.
"Caelum ,wake up!"
He gasped awake.
The forest was burning.
Lira stood over him, bow drawn, firing arrows of silverroot flame into the trees.
Sanctum agents four of them, cloaked in illusion, had breached the camp. Thorne was in beast form, fangs drenched in blood. Vraenak surged forward like a meteor of bone and lightning.
And Serenya…?
Gone.
They drove the attackers off, but the damage had been done.
When the fire died down, Caelum stood silently by the ashes of the camp, fists clenched.
"She led them here."
Lira came beside him, bruised, bleeding, but firm.
"I told you," she said. "She may have felt something. But she's still theirs."
Ashra approached, licking her scorched wing. "This was a test. Of your heart. Of your focus."
Caelum didn't reply.
His sigil burned.
The fourth thread was twitching again hungry.
And he knew now:
Serenya wasn't the last.
She was the first.
Far away, within a crystal chamber, Serenya knelt before the veiled elder.
"I could've finished it," she said, voice cracked. "He trusted me."
The elder turned.
"You let the thread form," he said coldly.
"I did."
"You let him touch your heart."
She looked down.
"…I didn't mean to."
The elder raised a blade of woven starlight.
"Then you no longer serve us."
The chamber dimmed.
And Serenya smiled faintly, eyes glimmering with tears.
"Good".
End of Chapter 8