The sun rose slow over Blackthorn Academy, but for once, no one cared about the light. Everyone was still talking about one thing.
Kael.
The boy with no beast... who summoned something the instructors couldn't even name.
He had passed the Guild Trial.
But not with glory.
With fear.
Kael sat alone in the back of the library, eyes fixed on a half-burned bestiary. It was useless. Nothing inside described what he had called.
Not even close.
He flipped the pages in silence until someone cleared their throat.
"Kael of Orien"
He looked up.
A woman stood before him. Long dark coat. Guild pin on her collar. Eyes sharp like knives behind gold-rimmed glasses.
"My name is Vira. I represent the Guild of Broken Flame."
Kael didn't speak.
She sat down anyway.
"We saw your Trial. Unofficial or not, you've awakened a Class Unknown summon. Our Guild believes in making use of rare talents... especially the cursed ones."
She placed a sealed scroll on the table.
"That's a formal invitation."
Kael looked at it. Didn't touch it.
"I'm not interested."
Vira's smile never moved.
"You should be. There are others who've seen what you summoned. They won't offer a scroll. They'll send blades."
Kael narrowed his eyes.
"I don't trust Guilds."
"And they don't trust you either. That's what makes you useful."
She stood.
"Think it over. But don't wait too long. Power like yours doesn't go unnoticed. Or unchallenged."
Then she walked away, silent as a shadow.
That night, the cursed mark on Kael's arm burned hot. Not in pain. In warning.
Something was near.
He moved through the ruins toward the underground chamber. The one hidden behind the wall he touched before.
This time, it opened on its own.
Darkness swallowed him as he stepped through.
At the bottom of the stone stairway was a pit.
And from the pit came breathing.
Not a whisper.
Not a growl.
Breathing.
Slow. Hollow. Ancient.
Then came the voice.
Not the beast's.
A different one.
"You shouldn't have come here, Binder."
Kael froze.
A second watcher had arrived.
And this one wasn't curious.
It was hungry.