The courtyard smelled of smoke and rust. Ash from the Summoning still clung to the air, drifting like gray snowflakes. Soldiers stood in a ring around the cracked stones, rifles in hand, eyes fixed on the boy at the center as if he were a bomb that might detonate at any moment.
Caden stood barefoot on the cold flagstones, chains heavy on his wrists. Every breath came shallow. The memories of yesterday still gnawed at him. Mara's scream, the square splitting open, the void answering his fear with hunger. He wished he could forget. But the soldiers watching him would not allow that. Neither would the man who stepped forward now, scar catching the morning light.
Ravel.
The warlord's chosen hound, the one who had dragged Caden from his cell and ordered the guards to bring him here. Unlike the others, Ravel wasn't afraid. His posture was calm, precise. His eyes were steady, unreadable.
"Again," Ravel said, his voice flat as steel.
Caden's mouth was dry. "I can't."
"You can."
The soldiers muttered. One spat in the dust. "Damn curse-child." Another sneered, "Bet he'll eat us all if we let him."
Their words pricked at Caden like needles. He wanted to shout that he didn't ask for this. That he hadn't chosen the hunger. But his throat locked. All he managed was a hoarse whisper: "I don't know how."
Ravel studied him for a long moment, then moved closer, lowering his voice so the others wouldn't hear. "Listen. What happened yesterday, that was fear. Uncontrolled. If you don't master it, the warlord will force you until you break. But if you learn to aim it, maybe you survive."
Caden clenched his fists. "Survive? By turning into a monster?"
Ravel's jaw tightened. For a second, something flickered in his eyes, not pity, but something older, heavier. Then it was gone. "Monster or not, boy, you're alive. That's more than most in this city."
The words sat heavy between them.
"Focus," Ravel said finally, stepping back. "Close your eyes. Remember the void."
Caden stiffened. He didn't want to remember. But the soldiers ringed around him shifted, rifles ready. He had no choice. Slowly, he shut his eyes.
Darkness bloomed. Not the gentle dark of night, but a crushing absence, vast and endless. He felt it stir beneath his skin, gnawing at the edges of his thoughts. A cold whisper slid through his mind.
Hungry.
His eyes snapped open, chest heaving. "No—"
The ground at his feet cracked. Stone split, dust rising as if pulled toward him. Soldiers shouted, stumbling back.
"Control it!" Ravel barked.
"I can't!" Caden's voice broke. He threw up his shackled hands, as though to push it away, but the void answered anyway. Shadows warped, edges of the courtyard bending inward like the world itself was being tugged.
Panic clawed his throat. All he could see was Mara's face, all he could hear was Taren's scream.
"No! Stop!"
The pull snapped shut. Silence crashed over the courtyard. Dust swirled and fell. The soldiers gaped, muttering prayers.
Caden collapsed to his knees, trembling so hard his chains rattled. His stomach heaved, bile rising. He tasted iron at the back of his throat.
For a long moment, no one spoke. Then one soldier hissed, "Abomination." Another: "We should kill him now, before he swallows us all."
Their rifles shifted, barrels glinting in the light.
"Stand down," Ravel snapped. His tone was cold, but it cut like a blade. The soldiers hesitated, muttering, but lowered their weapons.
Ravel looked back at Caden. Not with fear. Not with disgust. Just that same unreadable stare. "You felt it, didn't you?"
Caden shook his head violently. "I don't want it. I don't want any of this."
"Want has nothing to do with it." Ravel crouched beside him, voice low. "You can spend the rest of your life chained and dragged into battle like a beast. Or…" He paused, as if the word tasted bitter. "…you can learn. Learn to cage it. To use it before it uses you."
Caden's throat burned. His chest ached with the weight of all he'd lost. He wanted to scream, to tear the chains off, to vanish. Instead, he whispered the only truth he had left: "I'm scared."
Ravel's scarred face softened just barely. "Good. Fear means you're still human."
He stood, signaling the guards. "Enough for today."
The soldiers grumbled, but obeyed. Chains dragged as they hauled Caden back toward the cells. His legs barely held him. His mind buzzed with echoes of the void, the whispers, the hunger, the pull.
As they passed through the ruined courtyard, he caught sight of the city walls beyond. People were gathered there, watching. Their faces were pale, wide-eyed, their whispers thick with fear. Children clutched their mothers' hands, staring at him as though he were some nightmare given flesh.
Caden dropped his gaze. He didn't want to see what he had become in their eyes.
Back in the cell, the chains clanged shut. The guards left, torchlight flickering. Silence returned, heavy and suffocating.
But when he closed his eyes, he heard it again, not the soldiers, not Ravel, but the whisper that slithered through the cracks in his thoughts.
Devourer.
Weapon.
Ours.
Caden curled on the cold stone, shaking, whispering into the dark: "I'm not yours. I'm not."
The void didn't answer. But he felt it waiting, patient as hunger itself.