Chapter One — The Bone Mark
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Paradise.
That was the name given to this land. The name itself sounded like hope, like a dream of peace. But anyone who had lived here long enough knew the truth: Paradise was built on marks, and marks were built on blood.
From the day a child was born, a sigil was etched into their neck. A tattoo of power, a symbol of destiny. Fire, water, steel, bone—each mark different, each one binding. A gift, a curse, and a brand that could never be removed.
Every glance in the crowded streets was the same. Eyes went to the throat. To see what mark a person carried. To judge. To fear.
They whispered about the rules.
You could kill and steal another's sigil, adding their mark to your own. The strong devoured the weak, and the weak… tried to survive.
But there was no way to escape the Mirror Rule.
If you killed an equal, you either died instantly or were consumed, your body twisted into something monstrous—a Sigil Devil, a creature whose neck burned with dozens of chaotic tattoos, glowing like fire.
That was Paradise. Beautiful. Deadly. A cage disguised as heaven.
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Stephan Wolke walked through the market square with his collar raised high. Sixteen years old, pale hair falling into his eyes, he was just another face in the crowd—or so people thought. He preferred it that way.
Merchants shouted prices. Children played, their faint glowing tattoos flashing as they boasted to each other. Yet Stephan said nothing. His hand stayed near his throat, as if to guard it.
Because under the fabric, hidden from the world, was his sigil.
When he finally ducked into an empty alley, silence wrapped around him. He tugged his collar down and stared at the mark that defined him.
A bone. Simple, jagged, sharp like a fractured shard. White light flickered faintly under his skin, tracing cracks down to his collarbone.
The Bone Sigil.
A power he never asked for, a fate he couldn't escape.
Stephan clenched his fist.
"This is my Paradise," he whispered, bitter. "A world that only sees the mark on your neck."
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