The Vessel's Awakening: Seven Bound By Fate.

wake as

sciousness meeting reality. There was only nothingness-col

ric, searing through my mind as though I had been struck by lightning. My lungs burned.

asp

My first breath. My first tether to this world. My throat convulsed, my b

s fa

low my descent, no power to stop what was happening. I plummeted through the sky,

w the gods

efall? Thro

ten gold, forests so ancient their canopies swallowed the sky, mountains tha

oing to cra

and powerless, a soul flung from the heavens with no control ove

e last moment,

ct, not with the crushi

th a w

l at once. It wasn't earth, wasn't stone-wasn't real. I floated in the space be

vo

th an ethereal hum that s

as arr

and unfathomable, neither solid nor spectral. I wanted

e, softer than the first. Feminin

is

eavier this time, like t

bs were numb, my fingers unresponsive. I felt unfinished,

ut this time, they were n

e speaki

ak

asped again, my chest rising in a desperate attempt

ope

nched at the assault of colors, of shapes that were too real, too close

stars that did not belong to any constellation I recognized. Bioluminescent flowers p

n, I sa

gs who h

. Seven figures, cloaked in shadow and starlight, their features obs

Demi

leaded with the go

who had c

everence, or confusion, or something beyond t

felt was

en born missi

een sent her

them murmured, their voice la

re," anothe

he unde

in the air, thic

iar weight of a body that did not yet feel like my own. I had a v

d. My thro

unsteady, I spo

he

lowed, long a

evealing eyes that burned like dying stars, gold rimmed with crimson. He knelt be

you were meant

nt a shiver

, my tongue dry

interrupted. "Tha

e, a truth that should have belonged to

Ve

solution to a worl

ma

en rulers I h

them. I did n

he title left hi

sh

pu

her that coiled in my chest, weaving through the very core of

just

ve

rough my chest, as if invisible threads had tig

ods exchan

n," one of t

ely understanding the wr

happening?"

is gaze sharp, measuring. "The bonds,"

know what it meant. I d

thing more, something deeper, I r

not

g waited

uls, tie

them or not, I woul