The arrow sang past my ear, close enough to feel the wind of it.

  I dove left, dragging Vera with me, as three more arrows thunked into the wooden beam where I'd been standing. The Ace's soldiers were spreading out in a half-circle, cutting off any retreat toward the forest.

  "Shadow Lunge!" I shouted, activating the skill. My body blurred forward through the shadows, but not toward escape. Toward the Ace herself.

  She reacte

  d faster than anyone I'd ever seen. Her bow swung up, an arrow already nocked, aimed dead center at my chest. But I wasn't trying to kill her. I was buying time.

  "Vessel Channeling," I whispered.

  The card activated.

  It felt nothing like my other skills. Void Slice was a blade of pure annihilation. Shadow Lunge was speed made manifest. This was different, the air around me thickened, turned heavy, like I was standing in water that wanted to pull me down. The First Prisoner's power. The entity beneath the Veil Family Tomb.

  The Ace's arrow struck my chest, but it didn't pierce. It just... stopped. Frozen in the air two inches from my heart, as if the world itself had decided I wasn't done yet.

  Her gray eyes widened.

  "What," she started.

  I slammed into her at full speed, both of us crashing into the waystation's crumbling wall. The frozen arrow clattered to the ground. The Ace was strong, stronger than any human should be, but Vessel Channeling gave me something I'd never had before: weight. Presence. The ability to make the world bend around me instead of the other way around.

  "Vera, GO!" I roared.

  My sister didn't hesitate. She sprinted for the horses, her red-spade riders forming up behind her. Two of them engaged the nearest soldiers, blades flashing.

  The Ace threw me off, or rather, I let her. I wasn't trying to win this fight. I was trying to not lose it completely.

  "Shadow Step," I muttered, and the damaged card flared to life one last time. I blinked through the shadows, reappearing ten feet away, then ran.

  The Ace's voice followed me: "You can't run forever, Seventh Child!"

  She was right. But right now, I just needed to run far enough to breathe.

  We rode hard for an hour before Vera called the halt.

  The road had turned to dirt, winding through hills that blocked any sight of pursuit. Six red-spade riders remained with us, the others had peeled off at cross-paths, taking different routes to confuse any trackers. Smart. Necessary.

  "We need to rest the horses," Vera said, reining in at a small creek. "They won't maintain this pace much longer."

  I slid off my mount, legs aching. The Vessel Channeling had left me drained in a way I didn't fully understand, not muscles, not mind, something deeper. Like I'd borrowed power from a bank and now had to repay with interest.

  "How do you feel?" Vera asked, approaching me quietly.

  "Like I got hit by a carriage," I said. "Then borrowed another carriage to hit me again."

  She almost smiled. "The Ace looked surprised. That's rare."

  "She should be. I didn't know what that card would do."

  "You found it in a hidden cache at a waystation." Vera's expression turned thoughtful. "The First Prisoner... I've heard rumors. Veil family legends say something is sealed beneath their oldest tombs. Something that existed before the cards."

  "Before the cards," I repeated. "That doesn't make sense. Everything is cards."

  "The legends say otherwise." She touched my arm. "Rest. I'll take first watch."

  But sleep wouldn't come.

  I sat against a tree, the [Vessel of the First] card burning in my mind, not literally, but in that space where my skills lived. It had activated so differently than I expected. Not a burst of power, but a hold. A refusal.

  I closed my eyes and focused on the card's presence.

  [Vessel of the First] (Beyond Tier 0) - Incomplete

  [Vessel Channeling Lv.1]

  Channeling. Not using. Not attacking. Channeling. Like a pipe, not a sword.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  The First Prisoner had been bound to the source itself, according to the legends the First Players had told me. An ancient soul sealed beneath the tomb. And now part of that soul was inside me, pressed into card form.

  I thought about what that meant. What it meant to carry something that old. That powerful.

  Then I thought about what the King had said in that vision: The Seventh Child will wake the source.

  And I thought about what I was carrying: a piece of the source's first prisoner.

  The creek burbled nearby. The horses cropped grass. Somewhere behind us, the Ace was regrouping her forces.

  And in my mind, the card... shifted.

  I woke to the sound of birds and Vera's hand on my shoulder.

  "You meditated all night," she said. "I was starting to worry."

  I blinked. The sun was high. My body felt strange, not worse, but different. Like a bruise that had changed color, indicating healing was happening beneath the surface.

  "Let me see," I said, focusing inward.

  The [Vessel of the First] card glowed at the edge of my consciousness. But something had changed. The incomplete tag was still there, but the description had shifted.

  [SYSTEM]

  [Vessel of the First] (Beyond Tier 0)

  Resonance Active: First Pressure Lv.1

  Passive Effect: Opposing skills below Tier 0 weakened by 20% within 10 feet

  New Skill Available: [Learn]

  I stared at the notification. Then I read it again.

  First Pressure. A passive field that weakened enemy skills. And I could learn another skill from the card, suggesting there was more locked inside, waiting.

  "Problem?" Vera asked, seeing my expression.

  "I think I broke something," I said. "In a good way."

  I stood, testing my body. The drained feeling from Vessel Channeling was gone. In its place was a strange hum, like a second heartbeat located somewhere behind my ribs.

  "Vera," I said slowly, "I think I'm getting stronger."

  She studied me. "You look different."

  "I feel different." I flexed my hand, feeling the new power settle into my bones. "The First Prisoner, it's not just a card anymore. It's starting to become part of me."

  Her eyes widened. Then she nodded, something like recognition passing across her face. "Mother's letters mentioned this. The path of the Seventh Child, it's not about collecting cards. It's about... becoming something else."

  "Being a battery isn't enough anymore?"

  "The source chose you for a reason." She stepped back, evaluating. "Whatever that reason is, you're getting closer to it with every step toward Qora."

  The mention of Qora sobered me. We had maybe two days of travel left. And waiting there was Uncle Kael, the man who'd sold our family to the King. The man holding three of the seven Tier 0 cards. The man who thought he was hunting a desperate kid.

  I wondered how desperate he'd be when he learned what his nephew had become.

  "We should move," I said. "The Ace will track us eventually."

  "And then?"

  I looked back toward the road, feeling the First Pressure hum beneath my skin. The world seemed sharper now, more defined, as if my senses had finally caught up to what my body had been trying to tell them.

  "Then we find out what I'm really capable of."

  The afternoon brought trouble in an unexpected form.

  We'd stopped at a small village to resupply when the screaming started. Three farmers ran through the main street, pointing toward the hills.

  "Bandits!" one shouted. "Professional-tier bandits!"

  Vera's riders drew their weapons instantly. But I felt it before I saw it, a familiar presence. A signature I recognized from the old mill.

  From the hills, twelve figures emerged. And leading them, his scarred face twisted into a cruel smile, was Garrett Voss.

  "Well, well," he called out, his voice carrying across the village. "The Classless little rabbit came to me instead."

  His eye had healed, the right side of his face was a mass of scar tissue, but his remaining eye glittered with intelligence. Professional-tier. Fully recovered. And he had a new team, all Skilled-level minimum.

  "Run while you can," I muttered to Vera. "I'll hold him."

  "Dere, you can't,"

  "Watch me."

  I stepped forward, feeling the First Pressure field activate automatically around me. Garrett's grin faltered as he felt his own skills dim slightly, the 20% reduction in full effect now.

  "New trick?" he asked. "I like new tricks."

  He drew a blade, a real one, not a shadow-construct. His team fanned out behind him, weapons ready.

  The villagers cowered. The red-spade riders readied their horses. Vera's hand found my shoulder, gripping tight.

  I raised my hand, feeling the Vessel of the First pulse beneath my skin.

  Garrett charged.

  And I realized, with a clarity that cut through my fear, that I had no idea if my new power would be enough.

  "Ready?" I asked, though the question was really for myself.

  Vera's answer was to draw her second blade. "You first."

  Garrett closed the distance in a thunder of footsteps, his blade raised for a killing stroke. I could see the calculations in his remaining eye, where to strike, how to follow through, how to make it slow enough to send a message.

  I raised my hand and whispered, "Vessel Channeling."

  The world went heavy. Garrett's blade slowed, not much, but enough. Enough for me to sidestep, enough for my own shadow-blade to form in my grip.

  Void Slice met steel.

  The impact sent shockwaves through my arm, but I held. His blade didn't break, I'd expected it to shatter like the last one. Professional-tier made a difference.

  "You're stronger," Garrett snarled, pressing forward. "But strength isn't everything."

  His free hand shot out, and I realized too late that this wasn't the same fight as the mill. He wasn't relying on shadow-powers alone anymore. His team moved in perfect coordination, two of them flanking Vera's riders, three more circling toward me.

  I was about to respond when Garrett's scarred face twisted into something worse than cruelty, anticipation.

  "Behind you," he said, almost kindly.

  I spun.

  and came face to face with the Ace of Veil.

  Her silver hair caught the sunset. Her bow was already drawn, an arrow notched and aimed at my heart.

  "Did you really think I'd lost your trail?" she asked. "I let you run. I let you rest. I let you build that little hope." Her smile was ice. "Hope makes the kill sweeter."

  Vera's blades sang, engaging two of Garrett's team. The red-spade riders fought desperately against impossible odds. But the Ace's arrow never wavered.

  "One arrow," she said. "One arrow and it's over. Your mother dies in her prison. Your sister joins her. Your uncle takes your cards. The Seventh Child becomes just another footnote."

  "Why do you care?" I demanded. "You're Veil's dog, why does any of this matter to you personally?"

  Her gray eyes flickered, something almost human beneath the mask.

  "Personal? Nothing's personal. Everything's just... business." The bowstring tightened. "Any last words?"

  I felt the First Pressure field pulsing around me, felt Vessel Channeling humming beneath my skin, felt Void Slice waiting to be released. None of it would be fast enough.

  So I did the only thing I could.

  I smiled.

  "Guess you'll have to find out what happens when you miss."

  Her eyes narrowed.

  And the arrow flew.