Shackles of Power

There was silence in the cave. Quiet. As though the outside world had never been there.

With his back against the chilly stone wall, Riven took a seat close to the centre. The black chain wrapped around his forearm hadn't moved again—it simply lay there, coiled like it belonged. Breathing with him.

"This power..."

His eyes scanned the cave walls as he slowly exhaled. The stone was still dotted with strange symbols that had been etched long ago by someone who obviously didn't fear the dark.

A dim glow, barely visible.

concealed behind a pillar of broken stone.

Riven got up and walked cautiously towards it. A black gem was embedded in the wall, partially covered in dust. It was not as shiny as metal or glass. Like a heartbeat, it pulsed. cold, slow, and faint.

He extended his hand to touch it.

Everything vanished.

Silence.

Then—

Came Darkness.

Pitch black. A place without weight, air, and time.

Riven stood, or perhaps he floated. He was unable to tell. There was no sky, no ground. Just nothing.

Then came the voice.

"So you found it…"

It wasn't loud. It didn't echo. But it cut deep—like it had always been there, waiting.

Riven spun around. He saw nothing.

"Who—who are you?" His voice sounded tiny in the void as he called out.

"You stand at the edge of something vast. Something cruel. This world… will devour you."

"Unless you learn to devour it first."

The voice was rough and similar and at the same time felt ancient. Like it had crawled out of something forgotten.

Riven clenched his fists. "Answer me! Who the f*ck are you?!"

Not a word.

"This bastard is he trying to mess with me? I don't understand his intentions."

"You are hunted now. Marked. The chains will grow. With them, your pain."

"Prepare yourself."

"Or be broken from this world's deeds."

Then everything crumbled piece by piece.

He gasped—lungs aching—eyes wide.

He was kneeling back in the cave. It was as though the black gem had never been there. Just a crack in the stone wall remained.

"Chains… pain… hunted…I am finally getting it. Ha..Haha.., seems like things are getting more interesting in my life." 

With unsteady legs and a racing mind, he stood slowly.

"But what was that? No, more importantly who was that?"

He didn't know if it was a dream, a memory, or something else entirely. But one thing was clear—he wasn't just cursed.

He was getting prepared for something big.

Further back in the cave, he spotted a small, broken passage. Stones were crumbled along the edges like it had collapsed years ago. Most people wouldn't notice it in the dark.

But he was led to it by something.

Through a narrow slit between two boulders, he crawled, scraping his arms and knees on sharp rocks, and came out.

Outside air hit his face.

Light.

He covered his eyes.

He was greeted once more by the mist of the forest. The trees wobbled. In the distance, birds screamed.

He was on the southern edge of the Forest of Balinha—the very place where he'd first entered.

He had come full circle.

"Seems like that cave is the key to return back. The people who have entered the forest must have not found this cave. I think I should give my curs-No, my power a thanks."

And he was no longer the same. Not the old Riven he once was.