Night settled like velvet over the ember-lit camp.
The trees around Emberreach Hollow glowed faintly with old bond-magic. Above them, stars wheeled in silence, too distant to intervene, too ancient to care. But something watched.
Something deep.
Something waking.
Caelum sat alone at the edge of the fire, his palm resting over the tri-sealed sigil on his chest. It pulsed faintly now three Sovereigns bound within one soul.
Ashra.
Thorne.
Vraenak.
Too much for any Binder.
But somehow… not for him.
Across the fire, Lira leaned against a fallen tree trunk, braiding a thin vine into a charm. Her silver-white hair shimmered in the firelight, and though she looked relaxed, her eyes kept flicking toward him.
Not with suspicion.
With wonder.
"You're unraveling," she said softly.
Caelum looked up, startled. "What?"
She twirled the charm between her fingers. "Most Binders spread their souls across time. Decades between bonds. Training. Mastery. But you? You took in three Sovereigns in a handful of days. You're not stitching them to yourself ,you're drowning in them."
Ashra stirred above on a perch of broken stone, tail curled like a sleeping flame. "She's not wrong."
Caelum's voice was hoarse. "Then why hasn't it broken me?"
Lira's eyes narrowed. "That's what I want to know."
Later that night, Lira placed her hand gently over Caelum's.
"I can help you," she said. "But only if you let me inside."
He blinked. "Inside?"
She didn't flinch. "The Bondrealm. I want to see the roots of your thread. Not just the beasts you."
Ashra stirred immediately. "Dangerous. Bondsharing is intimacy of the deepest kind. If she sees too far, the Sovereign flame may burn her."
Lira met Ashra's gaze without fear. "I've danced through storms and cradled shattered minds. Let me try."
Caelum hesitated.
He looked at Ashra, then at Thorne dozing in beast-form beside the fire. Then finally, at Lira, whose fingers trembled just slightly beneath her calm exterior.
"Alright," he said.
"Let's see who I really am."
The Bondrealm was not a place.
It was a feeling.
Caelum's soul slipped through the sigil, dragging Lira's spirit-thread with him. The world around them shifted, spinning into glowing threads, floating stone platforms, and endless void between thoughts.
They stood together now Caelum and Lira beneath a sky of fractured flame, surrounded by echoes of roars and whispers.
Ashra appeared first, blazing and proud, wings folded like a queen on her throne of smoke.
Then Thorne, his humanoid form walking upright, wrapped in shadow-fur, eyes burning gold. He gave Lira a glance of wary warmth.
And then…
Vraenak.
He emerged like a thunderclap, towering and monstrous, his form constantly shifting lion, serpent, dragon, storm. He gave no greeting, but did not attack. His presence was enough to make the Bondrealm tremble.
Lira's breath hitched. "This is… more than I imagined."
Caelum touched her arm gently. "This is just the surface."
Then the threads changed color.
Blue. Cold. Wound with black.
Lira looked up sharply.
"What's that?" she asked.
Caelum frowned. "I… don't know. That's not one of them."
A fourth thread shimmered in the void unclaimed, but still connected to Caelum. Twisting. Tense. Alive.
Lira stepped toward it but the thread lashed out like a snake, striking the platform with a deafening crack.
She recoiled.
"Something else is bound to you," she whispered. "And it's not a beast."
Ashra's eyes narrowed.
"This thread smells of sanctum magic… but older. Twisted."
Lira turned toward Caelum, her voice urgent. "Caelum… this isn't a natural bond. This was implanted in you. Long ago. Maybe before you even awakened."
He staggered. "What are you saying?"
She looked heartbroken.
"I think the Sanctum knew you were different. I think they marked you not to guide you… but to control you."
And as she spoke, the fourth thread shimmered again.
And whispered a word.
"Obey."
Caelum fell to his knees, clutching his chest.
The Bondrealm cracked around them. Ashra roared, Thorne surged forward, and Vraenak hissed like molten metal.
The fourth thread tried to tighten, tried to invade.
But Caelum roared back.
"NO!"
His sigil blazed, and the invading thread was burned back, severed temporarily. The Bondrealm calmed.
Caelum panted, sweating. Blood dripped from his nose in the real world. But he looked at Lira now with clarity.
"They didn't just cast me out," he said bitterly. "They branded me. Shackled me."
Lira nodded. "And it's still there."
They returned to their bodies, gasping in the night. The fire had burned low, and even the beasts were restless.
Lira pulled herself up beside him. Her face was pale.
"You're more than just a Binder," she said softly. "You're a weapon they planted… and hoped never activated."
Caelum clenched his fists.
"They failed."
He turned toward the stars, eyes glowing faint gold.
"And now… I'm going to make them remember what they tried to erase."
Far away, deep within the Inner Sanctum of Veyhelm, a masked elder stood before a mirror of water and ash.
He watched the bond awaken.
He watched the hidden seal flicker.
And he turned to the shadows behind him.
"He's rejecting the Control Thread. The Sovereign Flame is shielding him."
"Then," said a voice of velvet poison, "it is time we send her."
The mirror showed a figure in black robes, lips painted red, eyes like moonlight.
The Sealed Siren.
The one bound to love him.
And betray him.
End of Chapter 7