Chapter 9: Ember

Cael awoke disorientated, and hurt.

Blood coated his tongue, bitter and metallic, but he forced himself to swallow it down.

He took three agonizing breaths, the cold stung him deep in his frail lungs.

"The fire that once burned was gone. Along with it, his friends."

Every breath he took scraped against his ribs. 

"Jarrik...?" he grunted.

Nothing.

"Jarrik...?" he grunted again, this time louder. 

But unfortunately. Nothing.

The fog clung hard to the air like rot. The kind that didn't just hide—it swallowed.

He tried to raise himself to a sitting position, but failed. 

When he finally crawled himself up, his hand covered in dust and something red. Someones else's blood.

Near the crumbled wall, he saw it.A strip of dark cloth, twisted on broken rock. Jarrik's scarf.

A faint glow flickered beneath his skin, threads of regret twisting weakly. But the others…

He felt nothing.

Just empty air where their emotions used to be.

"No…"

He staggered into the mist, calling names he already knew wouldn't answer.

The fog didn't care.It took what it wanted.

He started walking.

Not because he had an idea where he was going, not because it made any sense. 

But he couldnt stay still.

Stillness meant thinking.

And thinking meant remembering.

Myka's eyes. That smile that wasn't hers.

The sound of Elise's scream when the Wretched tore her from the group.

The way Sela had looked back through the smoke, reaching for him—and then the floor had cracked, the stone split, and the fog ate everything else.

Cael kept moving.

His Soulbrand ached against his hand. The threads within it tugged and shuddered, twitching like dying nerves. There was nothing to anchor to now. No grief to catch. No regrets but his own.

And those were… vast.

He fell once. Then again.

The world blurred around the edges. Hunger twisted in his gut like a coiled snake. His coat was torn. A cut on his leg had stopped bleeding only because the cold froze it shut.

Then in the distance he saw... A fire?

Something glowed in the distance. Maybe a promise. Maybe a lie.

But whatever it was he was gonna find out.

After wandering for what felt like hours— maybe days. 

He had lost track of time while wandering towards the distant light. 

The world had turned quiet. Almost too quiet.

Cael moved through the creepy woods with nothing but a cracked blade that once belonged to Myka, a black coat, and the hum of his own thoughts eating holes in his mind.

Myka's scream still echoed in him.The look on Jarrik's face when the Mockers tore into him.Elise's last spell flare vanishing into the fog.

And Sela... gone.

He didn't know if any survived. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to know.

Days blurred together. He didn't sleep. Didn't eat right.His Soulbrand, Mournthread, pulsed weakly with each step — useless out here. 

He thought the worst had passed.He was wrong.

The trees began to shift. Slowly at first, then faster.. and faster until it was unnatural. A sound — like bone grating on stone — crawled up his spine.

Cael turned. Nothing. Just that fog.

Then he saw it. Low. Broad. Pale. Bones sticking out from it´s limbs like spears.

Its eyes weren't eyes. Just empty space of darkness. But it tracked him perfectly.

It didn't hesitate. Didn't waver. It charged.

Bones rippled through the air as the creature lunged, its claws like jagged spears

Cael barely dodged the first swipe. His coat tore open like paper. Blood sprayed across the trees.

A stinging sensation hit him, but — he was alive. 

This creature was fast.No emotion. No memory. No regret. Just killing.

"It's not Wretched," Cael muttered, stumbling back. Cael had only up till now faced Wretcheds so this was new to him.

He tried to tap the Mournthread. Tried to attack the creature with anything — fear, guilt, shame.Nothing.No soul to touch.

It slammed into him. Bones cracked. He coughed up blood. He rolled to the side to dodge the creatures next pounce.

He struck it with his blade — useless. It snapped on impact.He grabbed a shard of it, jamming it into the beast's neck.It barely noticed. But it bled.

It can be hurt.

Cael with his new found hope dragged himself to his feet. A broken rib threatened to puncture his lung.

"You don't think. You don't feel. You're just hunger."

His torn shirt exposed his glowing Soulbrand underneath. It pulsed — weak at first — then flared.

He forced all of his own regret out. Myka. Jarrik. Sela. Elise. Himself.

The air pulsed.

Not at the creature.

At himself.

Mournthread snapped — and reformed. A second thread spun from his chest, dark red, molten black at the edges. Regret fused with survival.

Mournthread Trait Awakened:[Bloodbind Thread] — Physical regret solidified. Temporary binding of body and soul.

Cael grabbed the thread, wove it between his fingers, and caught the beast's lunging jaws with it.

The creature convulsed — bound by emotion it couldn't feel, but Cael could.

"You don't get to walk away," he whispered, wrapping the thread tighter."You'll remember me."

The final blow wasn't clean. It wasn't pretty.Just steel, blood, and screaming.

Cael collapsed beside the twitching corpse. His hands were raw. Soulbrand dimmed. His vision swam.

But he was breathing.

And the thing wasn't.

He'd survived his first real kill alone.

But something inside him broke to do it.

[You have slain a bloodfang, Ashborne stalker]

Rank 2. No wonder it nearly killed me

Then something changed inside Cael

SOULRANK INCREASED: EMBER

Cael rubbed his eyes. He wasn't hallucinating again... Was he?

But no. It stayed there.

Cael was now

Rank 2, Ember