Esteban made his way across the Fallen city ruins, hurrying to put as much distance between himself and his hometown of Ardan. His shoes scuffed against the smooth black stone that the Fallen had used to build their roads, a part of him lost with each step away from the only place he had ever known. But there was no turning back. He had killed one of the Bound. It was only a Singler, so the Valyr would most likely not scour the wastes looking for him. But they would be on the lookout in Ardan and the surrounding towns. Within a day or two, he expected his likeness to be plastered on every gate-post, drawn with charcoal on the magically waterproofed parchment the Valyr used in their decrees. But at least he had no family left, and that was a solace. Not because he wouldn’t be missed–although he doubted that he would be–but because the Valyr had no one to punish in his stead.

  He scanned the crumbling Fallen structures for a safe place to spend the night. The long day of hard labor had left him tired, and his empty stomach growled, but the ruins offered nothing but dirt and stone. He would have to find sustenance in the wilderness the next day. But more than food or sleep, he had another reason to seek shelter. He needed to examine the Black Ring that was now burned into his mind. It was a persistent vision that he could still see even when he closed his eyes.

  Perhaps “see” wasn’t the right word. The Ring did not obstruct his vision. It did not disappear when he closed his eyes. But it was there nonetheless, ever-present and inescapable. He had no words to describe this new awareness. It was like he had been granted a new sense, separate from his sight or hearing, whose sole purpose was to perceive the Ring.

  The sun began to set as he approached the northern edge of the ruined city. This was a good place to shelter for the night, close to the wilderness that he’d traverse the following day. Several potentially suitable spots were visible in the wreckage of what must have been a vibrant city, full of people, less than a century ago. The accomplishments of the Fallen still amazed Esteban, even in their current state. Some of the tallest buildings around him rose more than ten floors high. He had heard rumors of ruins with structures reaching over fifty floors, although he wasn’t sure he believed that. Regardless, his ancestors must have been truly mighty. And yet, their mastery of the world could not save them from the Valyr. He shook his head and tried to stay focused on the task at hand. It wouldn’t do him any good to let his mind wander down that thorny path.

  He thought about pushing past the city and into the dense woods beyond. The closest portal was more than twenty miles away. He knew the stronger Echoes usually stayed near the portals, but the weaker, more desperate ones would sometimes stray beyond their typical range. There was no sense in inviting an ambush in the dark, when the ruins at least offered some cover from the demonic creatures.

  Seeing an opening in one of the ruined buildings, he swung his pickaxe and chipped away at the gray stone, until it was wide enough for him to squeeze through. He fell onto the gravel in the dark chamber, and he heard a rat scurrying away, startled by the noise, and seeking safety from the unexpected intruder. Esteban got up and cleared away some of the debris to make space to lie down. It was said that before the Fall, thousands of different animals, some much larger than humans, filled the wilderness. Only those nurtured by humans, like horses and cows, remained. In the wild, rats were among the few to survive the Fall, the Great Devastation that followed, and the Echoes the Devastation summoned. The Bound liked to use “rat” as an insult, but Esteban saw no insult in the word. To the contrary, he admired rats. Whether in towns, ruins, or even the Echoes filled wilderness, rats found a way to endure. If he was to persevere, he would have to be as resourceful as a rat.

  He sat down on the floor, the naked stone cold against his skin. It would have been completely dark, if not for the faint, red light of the setting sun bleeding through the gap in the collapsed entrance. That would be gone soon, leaving any other man completely blind. But the Black Ring would remain, just as visible in the dark as it was in the light.

  He lay back and reached for the ring in the space behind his brow, in the place he had begun to think of as his mind’s eye. The Ring was pitch black, with faint white flames erupting from its surface. The fire touched the rim, but it did not touch its darkness. While examining the Ring, he thought about the entity he had seen as he lay dying in the jeweler’s shop an hour before.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  Take my hand and your righteous hate shall bear fruit.

  The hair on his arms stood and his skin curled into a hard grit as the vision replayed in his mind.

  He had entered a covenant with an entity far beyond his understanding. He’d communed with a force that operated on scales he could not imagine. He did not know what the pact would ultimately cost him. But as he lay in the dark, the weight of what the Valyr and their puppets had done to his family, to other families, and to the entire world, was far heavier than any doubt. He would gladly pay the price.

  Six stars orbited the Black Ring. He focused on one, and he knew, through knowledge that wasn’t his own, what it was. The Star of Might. Esteban scratched his head, trying to understand how he knew what that star was called. It was not labeled. Not that labels would have helped him, because like most of the Unbound, he had never been taught to read. He simply knew it was called the Star of Might, just like he knew it possessed a value of five.

  Similarly, he knew the names of the other stars. The Star of Celerity, The Star of Vitality, The Star of Acuity, The Star of Mind, and The Star of Will. Each hummed with a different value between three and five.

  The stars reminded Esteban of the Temple of the Sphere and the Augur Stone housed within. Every town had a temple, and every child had to be tested for Attunement. The child would touch the stone, and the crystals on that alien device would shine with different colors, each marking a different path that a potential Bound could take. While the exact workings of the Augur Stone remained a mystery to him, its connection to the Black Ring was hard to ignore. Six crystals lay on the Augur Stone. Six nested spheres made up the half-dome topping each temple. Six stars orbited the Black Ring.

  On the surface of the Ring, offset from the very top, the number “1” burned with the same white flame that crowned the circle. Esteban had no concept of what that signified, but he understood that it, like the rest of the display, was related to the power he had been promised. He had accepted the black tether, and in return, he was given the Ring. He wasn’t certain how that power was supposed to manifest. The entity had mended his shattered ribs and ruined lungs, yet he felt no stronger than he had this morning. He might have been made whole, but he was still alone in the dark.

  He closed his eyes and tried to force the Black Ring and its orbiting stars out of his thoughts. That was not an easy task, as the Ring’s presence was as naggingly persistent as a ringing in the ears, but he needed rest if he was to leave at the break of dawn. His first objective was clear. He needed to know how to wield this new power. To do that, he would need to find someone with knowledge about the arcane.

  Any questions about such subjects from a simple Unbound would surely raise suspicions, but Esteban saw no other way forward. He would have to travel to a place where men with such knowledge lived. He decided he would head to Estoril. That was the closest large city, and he would be able to blend in with the crowds. Additionally, the city contained a Crucible and a Culling House. The Crucible wouldn’t do him much good, as he was Unbound and would be denied entry. But perhaps he could find answers among the Threshers. He would join the Culling House and earn their trust. Unlike the Crucible, the Threshers did not have the luxury of turning their back on anyone who offered their life to help keep the Echoes’ encroachment in check.

  Esteban had never visited Estoril, but he knew much about the city. Unlike the quiet town of Ardan, Estoril was home to thousands of people. It even had a permanent population of Valyr within their own gated quarter. Esteban had seen the stone-skinned masters only once, during an unusual Binding ceremony. But even the Valyr rarely involved themselves in these matters. Such ceremonies were typically performed by a Bound, provided they held the rank of Tripler or higher. Ardan did not have any Triplers. The town was overseen by a Doubler, who was the town’s mayor, and a handful of Singlers. Whenever a Binding was required, a Tripler had to be summoned from another town or from Estoril itself.

  He did not know Estoril’s exact location, but he knew the city was only three days to the north on horseback. He figured he would reach it within a week on foot. He would not keep to the road, of course, as that would risk the questions that would surely follow a lone Unbound traveler. He would stay in the woods, following along the road as best as he could, while trying to remain unseen. The journey would be perilous, for nobody travelled through Echoes territory on their own and expected to survive.