The world did not owe anything to Kaelis. District Seven had shown him that—between the caked and rusted Wall dividing the city and the drones who watched but did not assist. And so, he woke with the taste of soil in his mouth and with flesh that belonged to somebody else and was not his own. He was not surprised. Just irritated. Dying on behalf of a rat was worse than sufficient. To be reborn as a child in the reject pile of some fantasy novel? That was insulting.
His bony, small hands grasped the coarse earth. His chest throbbed, lungs howling as if he'd been yanked from a sea of fire. The alleyway was conspicuous by its absence. Marcus's laugh, the rain, the rat's final breath—none of it was there. But the pain in his side still throbbed, a memento from a demise that hadn't taken.
[Monster Link System: Initialization Finished.]
[Core Characteristic: Empathic Bond — Take strength from those whom one rescues.]
[Current Links: None.]
Survive the Grimhollow Massacre. Bond Link reward. Oblivion penalty.
[Note: The Chained Pantheon is observing. Impress them… or not. They're not finicky.]
The phrases burned into his brain, not sound but surety, like a holographic sign flickering on in his head. Kaelis blinked, expecting a holoscreen to fizz and pop, but the system was genuine. A mission. Unite the Broken. Break the Chains. It sounded like something from the bootleg books Mom used to stash—grand, tragic, the sort of tale in which the hero dies in chapter one. "Great," he growled, voice breaking in a throat that was still far too young. "I'm already flunking the tutorial."
The color of the sky above him was gray ash, streaked with orange where a sun struggled to be. It was surrounded by black rock that split like broken glass, streaks of flowing fire twisting through it. The air was heavy—sulfur, blood, and something untamed, like freedom with teeth in it. Kaelis's heart beat hard, not with fear but with a wild spark. He'd already been dead once. What did one more terrible choice matter?
A howl sliced the air, low and rasping, wrenching his eyes to a jagged rock. A wolf emerged from the darkness—huge, fur as black as night, silver lines glinting in the firelight like knives. The molten gold in its eyes burned with knowledge, not hunger. Kaelis stood still, the emptiness recalling: this was the one that witnessed him, the boy who sacrificed for a rat.
Combat Link Opportunity: Nameless Direwolf.
Victory to borrow power. Danger: Instinct Takeover.
Bond Link Opportunity: The Nameless Direwolf.
[Forge through trust. Danger: Emotional Ties.]
[The Broken Crown is puzzled by your reluctance. +10 Curiosity Points.]
"Curiosity Points?" Kaelis scoffed, looking at the wolf. "Is this some sort of game show for gods or something?" The wolf cocked its head, ears perked up, a low growl in its chest—but not one of anger, one of inquiry. It did not rush to bite. It waited, like it sensed that he was not some child. He ought to be frightened, and instead he only felt a tug, like some thread sewn into his heart. "You're not devouring me," he murmured to himself. "So what's your thing?"
Before the wolf may answer—if it is even capable of doing so—a scream cut across the stillness. Human, panicked, near. Smoke billowed along the ridge, heavy with the acrid odor of ash and blood. Kaelis's gut churned. This sound he knew—the lullaby of District Seven, the cry of the one the world already counted dead.
[Intervention Opportunity: Goblin Child.]
[Save to unlock Bond Link. Danger: Hostile Engagement.]
The Chained Pantheon wagers 3:1 that you will die. Try to disprove
"Gambling on my demise already?" Kaelis growled, springing to his feet. He was frail, legs unsteady from a child's underfed body, and he rushed towards the cry, the wolf staying with him like a silent friend. The ridge topped into a valley, and Kaelis halted, breath arrested.
Grimhollow was burned. Huts made of mud and straw crumbled beneath the fire, bodies scattered across the ground—men with jagged spears, creatures with scales and too many arms. A massacre. At the center of it all, a boy, no older than Kaelis's new self, knelt in the ashes, ringed by three goblins. They were mottled green, with tusks protruding from snapping mouths. The boy hugged a shattered stick, tear-streaked and defiant on his face.
"Stay back!" he yelled, voice breaking. "I am not afraid!"
The biggest of the goblins, with its face cut by a scar in the shape of lightning, laughed—a grinding sound. "Meat's meat, runt. You'll sustain us longer than your kin." Its notched and blood-stained axe shone in the flames.
Kaelis's nails dug into the palmed skin. He saw that scarred goblin in the boy—same sneer, same venom. District Seven or whatever place this was, bullies did not change. He glanced toward the wolf, its golden eyes unblinking. "I'm no hero," he whispered. "But I'm not watching another kid die."
[Choice Made. The Broken Crown endorses. Favor gained: +20.]
[Beware: Chained Pantheon is displeased with disobedience. Chains are
He slid down the ridge, his heart racing. This was ridiculous. He was a kid, reborn with nothing, no weapons, no strategy, but with a wolf and with a system that sounded like it was trolling him. But the rat's last breath came back to him in flashes—small, shattered, alone. He had failed there. Not now.
"Hey!" His voice sliced through the laughter of the goblins, high and piercing. They spun about, eyes slanting suspiciously toward a spindly boy and a wolf that towered above him. The head of the goblin child jerked up, amber eyes filled with tenuous hope.
"Who is this?" Scar-face growled, raising his axe. "Another snack?"
Kaelis cracked a forced grin, summoning all of District Seven swagger. "Release him, or my friend here gets a new chew toy." The wolf—Direfang, the system named him—growled, baring teeth, its power a heaviness that vibrated through the air.
Scar-face's sneer dropped, but he laughed. "A pup and half-dead child? I've had scarier breakfasts." The rest of the goblins moved in, axes uplifted, but Kaelis reached out not with hands, but with that thread in the heart, the one that was so like the void.
[Striving Bond Link: Direfang
[Condition: Mutual Trust.]
[Risk: Shared Suffer
[The Shattered Crown draws closer. +50 Curiosity Points.]
They met eyes and he felt it—all that raw, deep pain. A pup who'd been left behind, abandoned to die in this world that despised it. Like the rat. Like him. "I'm not letting you battle alone," he whispered and the thread tautened.
Bond Link Created: Direfang.
[Strength Borrowed: Improved Reflexes
[Side Effect: Shared Pain.] [Great going, you're not dead yet. Keep it up.]
Power coursed, like a knife. Vision hardened, the world slowing while his muscles tightened. Goblins charged, and he acted—swifter than man, dodging Scar-face's swinging ax as it bit into his sleeve. Direfang leapt, jaws ripping the arm from one of the goblins with a sickening crunch. Pain seared in the side of Kaelis, echoed from Direfang's side flank, but he bit down, leaping toward the boy.
"Move!" Kaelis tackled him aside from the path of the second axe and tumbled into the ash. The boy gasped and clung to him, and Kaelis's head reeled, Direfang's wound searing like his own. The system's voice was relentless.
[Combat Link Opportunity: Goblin Warrior.]
Victory by borrowing power.
"No my style," growled Kaelis, pushing the young one behind him. Scar-face bellowed and swung again, but Direfang was quicker, holding him with a snarl. The third goblin hesitated, glancing toward the ground slathered with blood.
"Run," he murmured, adopting Direfang's growl. "Or you're next."
The goblin escaped, disappearing in the smoke. Kaelis fell, breathing hard, the boy shaking beside him. Direfang limped toward him, dripping with blood, but nuzzled Kaelis's hand, steady and warm. The agony dissipated, Direfang's wound healing, and Kaelis forced a shaky grin. "Not so bad as a tutorial, huh?"
[The Broken Crown praises your boldness. +100 Favor.]
[The Chained Pantheon is not pleased. Penalty: Heightened Surveillance.]
The boy—Rahk, he replied later—gaped, holding against the neck a charred leather thong from which dangled a small bone amulet. "You saved me," he whispered, voice shaking. "Why?"
Kaelis's smile relaxed, the memory of the rat heavy in his mind. "Because I've been alone." He met Direfang's gaze, and Rahk's. "I'm not anymore."
Bond Link Opportunity: Rahk Forge through trust.
[Scenario: Survive the Grimhollow Massacre — Cleared
[Reward: Bond Link Unlocked. Bonus: The Shattered Crown's Gaze.]
The sky grew darker and he sensed it—something enormous and cold, watching from behind the stars. The Chained Pantheon, possibly, or worse. But Direfang's heat against him, Rahk's tiny hand holding onto his own, and for the first time since District Seven, Kaelis was not frightened.
This world was a narrative, and he was rewriting it—one shattered heart at a time.