The soldiers did not handle him roughly. Their grip was firm, professional, as they helped Kaelen to his feet. His legs trembled, weak from the fight and the strange, draining power he had used. One of the armored figures offered him a canteen. Kaelen's hands shook as he took it, gulping down the clean, cool water. It was a taste he had almost forgotten. Another soldier handed him a strip of dried meat. It was tough and salty, but to Kaelen, it was a feast. He devoured it in seconds.
The woman, Commander Valeria, watched him the entire time. Her sharp, grey eyes missed nothing. She saw the desperate hunger in his movements, the way his vivid green eyes darted around, taking in every detail of her soldiers and their gear. He was like a wild animal, scared and cornered, yet too exhausted to run.
"Can you walk?" she asked. Her voice was not warm, but it wasn't cruel either. It was neutral, practical. The voice of someone used to giving orders that were followed.
Kaelen forced himself to stand straighter, pushing through the dizziness. He nodded. "Yes," he said, his own voice a rough, unused croak compared to hers.
"Good. Stay close to me. The mist is thin here, but that doesn't make it safe. Stay alert," she commanded. The order was for him, but also for her unit. With a series of silent hand signals, the soldiers fell into a practiced formation. Two took the lead, their heads constantly moving, scanning the ruins. Two fell behind, watching their backs. Valeria walked in the center, and Kaelen was motioned to walk beside her.
They began to move, a unit of disciplined silence cutting through the oppressive quiet of the ruins. Kaelen's mind raced. The voice. The runes. Eclipse Covenant. Umbral. Sovereign of the Waking Dark. The Anchor. The words echoed in his head, a confusing jumble of impossible concepts. He looked at the woman walking beside him. She moved with a powerful, easy grace, her body cutting through the mist as if she owned it.
"Your power," Valeria said suddenly, not looking at him. Her voice broke the silence, making him jump. "The shadows. The umbral energy. How long have you been able to do that?"
Kaelen hesitated, scrambling to form an answer. "I... I don't know. For a long time. It just... happened. When I was scared. Or in danger. It was weak before. Little things. Making a shadow darker to hide in. Sometimes making a small noise somewhere else to distract a beast. But today... today was different. It was stronger. And then the voice came."
Valeria nodded slowly, processing his words. "The voice was the Eclipse Covenant. The System. It didn't give you your power. It recognized it. It branded you, made it official. Put a name to it." She glanced at him, her gaze piercing. "But the System always takes its price. It gives you a Curse. What did it tell you your Curse was?"
Kaelen looked down at his worn-out boots, shame heating his face. "The Anchor," he mumbled. "It said... The Anchor - Active. It means they always find me. The monsters. They're always drawn to me. It's my fault." He gestured weakly back toward where the Shade-Stalker had appeared.
Valeria stopped walking for a moment. She turned her full gaze on him, and for the first time, he saw a flicker of something in her eyes that wasn't just cold assessment. It was intense, calculating interest.
"The Anchor," she repeated, the word hanging in the misty air. "A rare Curse. A dangerous one. It makes survival nearly impossible alone." She paused, her eyes scanning his thin frame. "But it is also often a sign of a potent, untamed power. The System does not burden the weak with such heavy curses."
She started walking again, and he hurried to keep up. Her words swirled in his head. Potent power. He had never thought of it as power. It was just a thing that happened, a desperate trick that usually made things worse.
They walked for what felt like hours. The landscape began to slowly change. The skeletal remains of skyscrapers became less frequent, replaced by the husks of smaller buildings and then by overgrown fields that were slowly being reclaimed by the gray mist. The air began to lose its heavy taste of dust and decay.
Then, as they crested a small hill, Kaelen saw it.
On the horizon, a line of immense, imposing light cut through the perpetual gloom. It was a wall. A colossal barrier of fused stone and gleaming metal that seemed to hold back the very gray of the world. It was taller than any structure he had ever seen, a defiant scar across the land. Along its top, massive, brilliantly shining lights pulsed with a steady rhythm, pushing the Slumbering Veil back and creating a halo of clear, safe air.
Havenfall.
The name popped into his head. He had heard scavengers whisper about it, a mythic place of safety he never believed was real. Yet, here it was. A real, physical thing.
A strange feeling tightened in his chest. It was too big to process. Too immense. He just stared, his feet moving automatically, his entire world narrowing to that single, shining point on the horizon. It was the first hope he had seen in years, and it was terrifying.
Commander Valeria watched his reaction, a slight, unreadable smile touching her lips. "The wall is not just stone and metal," she said, her voice pulling him from his trance. "It is a promise. A promise that life does not have to be short, brutal, and forgotten. For those strong enough to grasp it, the Covenant offers a future."
Kaelen looked at her, confusion clear on his face.
"Your Curse is your price," she explained, her tone becoming instructive. "But the System's reward is life itself. With each rank you conquer, with each Trial of Ascension you survive, the Covenant doesn't just make you stronger. It purges the weakness from your body. It grants you time. Those who reach the higher ranks are granted not just power, but centuries to wield it. That is the true prize. That is what we defend."
She gestured toward the gleaming city. "What you see is not just a refuge. It is the only place where humanity can build a future longer than a single, struggling generation. Now, come. Your new life begins at that wall."