The city of Kael'drath was alive with light — but it was not the light of the sun.
Sunlight barely reached this place, for Kael'drath was built inside the bones of a god. Or at least, that's what the elders called it. The sprawling metropolis rested within the rib cage of a fallen Primordial Beast, one so immense that its bones arched over the sky like pale mountains.
Shops and markets hung from rib bones that glowed faintly with leftover energy. Homes were carved into the marrow-rich walls, and streets spiraled along the inner skeleton, buzzing with people. The heart of the city — and the source of its pride — was the Pulse Academy, perched atop the massive skull that jutted at the city's core. There, young warriors trained to bond with the Primordial Veins and wield the mysterious powers of the dead gods.
But not everyone was chosen.
And I, Erynd Kael, was living proof of that.
---
The Veinless Outcast
The laughter came first. It always did.
"Look at him—still empty!" shouted one of the older trainees, a boy named Jerric, his arm glowing with the faint golden lines of his Pulse bond. "Sixteen years old, and not a drop of Pulse in him. Veinless Erynd!"
The others laughed, a circle of mocking faces around me in the training yard. Each of them carried their bond proudly — glowing lines crawling beneath their skin like veins of light, proof of the beast remnants they'd connected to.
Some bore the flame-red glow of Firefang Veins. Others had the steel-gray shine of Ironhide Bonds. Even the weaker ones had something.
I had nothing.
The instructors didn't stop them anymore. At first they tried — but after years of my silence and failure, even the teachers began to treat me as if I weren't there.
I clenched my fists, jaw tight, but said nothing. If I fought back, they'd only hit harder. If I ignored them, the shame burned worse.
Jerric smirked, flexing his glowing arm. "Face it, Kael. You'll never wield Pulse. You'll never be one of us."
He wasn't wrong. I'd tried everything. Years of meditation, trials, desperate prayers to the bones of the dead Primordials. Nothing answered me. No glow, no bond, no whisper of power.
I was Veinless. An outcast in a city where Pulse was life itself.
---
Dreams I Couldn't Speak
That night, I sat where I always did when the weight became too much: inside the hollow of the great rib bones, high above the city. From there, I could see the academy lights flickering inside the skull and hear the murmurs of Kael'drath below.
The bones hummed faintly. Not enough to bond with — but enough to remind me that the Primordials were still here, lingering.
I pulled my knees up, staring at the faintly glowing marrow cracks under the twilight sky. I should have been used to it by now — the whispers, the pity, the mocking. But every night, I dreamed of something more.
Of fighting alongside the others. Of proving I wasn't nothing. Of carving a name they couldn't laugh at.
I just never said it aloud. Because in Kael'drath, dreams without Pulse were nothing but madness.
---
The Heartbeat
It happened suddenly.
At first, I thought it was just the echo of my own breath in the hollow bones. A faint thump under my palms. But the sound didn't match my heartbeat.
Thump.
Deeper. Stronger.
I froze, pressing my hand against the rib I sat on. The glow inside the marrow flickered, pulsing faintly in rhythm.
Thump-thump.
My chest burned. Not just on the surface — deep inside. Like something clawed at my ribs from within. I gasped, stumbling to my feet, but the sound only grew louder.
Thump. Thump. THUMP.
The ground beneath me cracked. The giant rib cage vibrated, dust raining down as if the Primordial itself still lived.
Pain exploded across my chest. I fell to my knees, clutching myself as a searing light carved across my skin.
When I looked down, a sigil was burning itself into me — a jagged mark shaped like a flaming heart, pulsing with a rhythm not my own.
And then it came — a voice, deep and endless, whispering inside my skull.
"You are mine now."
---
The Forbidden Sigil
I screamed as the energy surged through me, fire and lightning pouring into veins that had once been empty. My body convulsed, bones rattling with power too great to hold. The rib cage around me cracked further, marrow glowing red like molten lava.
Visions flashed — shadows of titanic beasts, roars that shook the skies, blood that painted the earth crimson. A throne of bones. A crown of fire.
And at the center — a heart.
A colossal, beating heart, black as night, chained in eternal rhythm.
The Primordial Heart.
When I collapsed, panting, the mark still glowed across my chest. My skin burned, but I could feel it now — power, raw and unstable, coursing through me.
It was impossible.
No one in Kael'drath dared speak of it, but I'd heard the rumors whispered by drunk soldiers and half-mad scribes.
The Primordial King, the one who led the beasts in the ancient war, had been slain at last — but his heart never died. They called it cursed. Forbidden. The Heart of the Fallen One.
And now, somehow, it had chosen me.
---
The Awakening's Cost
By the time I staggered back into the city, dawn was breaking. My clothes were torn, my chest wrapped in makeshift bandages I'd torn from my tunic. The glow had faded — but the sigil remained, etched into my skin like a brand.
I thought I could hide it. Pretend nothing happened. But my trembling hands and bloodshot eyes betrayed me. People stared as I stumbled through the streets, whispering.
The moment I reached the academy gates, I collapsed.
And as the instructors rushed forward, I saw the fear in their eyes when the bandages slipped and the faint red glow of the sigil pulsed beneath.
They recoiled as if I were poison.
One whispered the words I'd dreaded all my life.
"The Heart… He bears the Heart."
---
The Curse Becomes Destiny
The news spread like wildfire. By nightfall, everyone in Kael'drath knew.
The boy who was once Veinless had awakened — but not to any ordinary Pulse. Not to a Fang, or Spine, or Song.
I had become heir to the one Pulse that should not exist.
The Primordial Heart.
And the world would never look at me the same again.