Once surrounded by nothing but shadows, a barely noticeable glimmer in the distance grew warmer and brighter. Like hope finally finding its voice. The flourishing light guided each step, a quiet assurance that the darkness was never meant to last. The exit neared.
My feet sunk deep into forgiving, sandy ground, a stark juxtaposition to the cobbled, cracking stone of the tunnel. Knees locking to catch myself as I dropped from the staggered edge, Noctis’s grip wrapped around my bicep. Heat immediately amplified in the opening, my eyes blinded at the influx of light.
The Shadeborne Bound.
What should have been relief of exiting the corridor only spiked immense panic. A vast expanse of humanoid skeletons swayed in a suffocating, fevered breeze, each tied to metal spikes in the cracked ground. As far as I could see. They clattered in a hollow rhythm, a sound too dry to belong to anything living.
Screams echoed over the brittle rattling of skeletal remains in every location, so scattered and far away that I couldn’t pinpoint who or where exactly they came from.
Flames erupted from our right side, billowing like fields of crimson flowers, burning the picked clean bones to charred ash. The fire worked its way over the ruins like waves ofdevastation. Heat radiated into our faces with strong gusts, scorching the hair that stood on my body.
What’d these people do to deserve this afterlife?
“Where is the piece of the trident, so we can get out of here?” I asked softly, scared that one of the fleshless bodies in the field might overhear.
“The only history books we have with it in record say it's guarded in the middle of the bones,” Zahara answered. “I should have reminded you all to bring extra blades.”
“If they’ll even work here,” Calvin ventured, voice tight as he unsheathed the sword along his back. At the mention, I palmed my dagger, rotating it in my hand until it felt comfortable to grip. One blade, thin and trembling in my grasp, poised to attack as if it could argue with what was coming; however, the awful knowing that it wouldn’t be enough settled deep in my stomach.
“Here,” Noctis said low at my side, offering another dagger from his own sheath.
My eyes trailed the blade first, then met his emerald gaze. There was something tucked far beneath his stare, flickering as if something in his eyes kept stepping back into shadow.
“You’re hiding something,” I shot, but Noctis’s lips only widened in a crooked smirk that didn’t reach his eyes.
“If there’s a secret, it’s only that I’ve started to hope again… and I’m just trying not to break under the fragility of that hope.” The scars along his jawline flared, catching my stranded attention.
His hand tried to gently close around mine as I reached for the dagger in his palm, but I turned ankle deep in the sand to join the crew who made their way further into the Shadeborne Bound.
If there was a secret, and he kept it from me again, I’d use the blades, including his own, to ensure I didn’t naively fall into his deceitful schemes again. Knowing the blade alonewouldn’t kill him, I’d relish in the pain it’d bring. Maybe that made me a bad person, or maybe it just proved I finally became ready to bite back.
We stalked slowly at first, Noctis shoving his sword into the eye sockets of the skulls hanging low at odd angles, knocking some of them to the ground and crumbling on impact.
“Just making sure,” he muttered to me with a scrunch of his nose. His disgust became palpable as he ventured widely around each bony structure.
“Does this Bound not have diplomacy? A ruler? People at all?” I asked as I scanned the vacant land, only hellish heat and charred bones occupying the Bound.
“King Wrenden rules Shadeborne Bound using the God of Death’s magic, Silethus,” Noctis answered. “Each Bound worships the god that reigns above them, and in return, that realm is gifted with magic as the god sees fit.”
“And what magic do the inhabitants have here?” I questioned further, trying to gauge what we were walking ourselves into.
“Many decades ago, it’s said that there were people who lived here within the realm to help run it. And their magic was gruesome—control of blood and mind,” Zahara responded curtly over her shoulder. “There are no inhabitants here now other than King Wrenden and the bodies you see around us. This realm is for the banished. The murderers. The evil people in the world. They are never granted a joyous afterlife.”
“Where is King Wrenden?” My tone dipped in uncertainty, trembling like the skeletons of the banished.
Calvin huffed. “If he didn’t have to rule this place, I’d want his job—traveling the Bounds in search of his next victim to bring here. In other circumstances, it might be enjoyable.”
Victim. “Do you consider each of these lives lost justified?”
“No,” Noctis responded firmly.
Our steps crunched in the sand, sweat dripping down my body, hair sticking uncomfortably to my face.
“It’s the reason we do not hesitate just coming in and taking their piece of the trident,” Jun answered quietly. “The other two Bounds will not be as easy.”
“Will the guards you all mentioned have powers?” I questioned.
No one answered beyond Zahara’s nod.
