...Corin didn’t speak on the way back from the dungeon. Commander Rellan followed in silence, the heels of his boots echoing behind him like a second heartbeat. The deeper Corin ascended into the High Keep, the heavier the air became not from the storm outside, but from the weight of what waited above....
...Duty. Ceremony. Fate....
...They had names for it. Pretty words, polished like silver and fed to him since childhood like holy scripture....
...He didn’t believe in any of it....
...Not anymore....
...The corridor to his chambers was empty, save for two guards stationed at the archway. They saluted as he passed, but he barely saw them. His thoughts were still in the cell below, where silver hair draped across pale skin, and one violet and one golden eye watched him like they already knew how he would end....
...You came to see the monster....
...But there had been no monster in that room....
...Only a boy....
...Corin shoved open the door to his chamber and stepped inside. The fire had already been lit in the hearth, casting long shadows across stone walls draped in royal blue tapestries. A table had been set with untouched wine and fruit. His bed was neatly made, the linens smoothed and stiff. Everything in its place....
...Except him....
...He crossed to the far side of the room and braced his hands against the cold stone windowsill, staring out at the capital beyond. Thunder cracked again, low and distant. Red lightning flickered across the underbelly of the clouds like bloodstained veins....
...“A good omen,” the priests would call it. “Crimson sky on the eve of the vow.”...
...Corin closed his eyes. He didn’t want omens. He wanted answers....
...He thought of Silas’s voice. Low. Measured. Like he’d been forced to learn how to speak without trembling....
...“I don’t want to die,” Silas had said....
...The words haunted him....
...Not because they were tragic but because they were honest. And Corin had grown up choking on lies disguised as loyalty....
...His reflection caught in the glass, sharp cheekbones, dark brows furrowed, mouth set in a grim line. He looked like his father. Not in features, but in weight. In the way responsibility hunched his shoulders and hardened his gaze....
...When he was thirteen, they told him he would be the first royal to bind a mage in over two centuries....
...When he was fifteen, they told him the Crimson Vow could only be done once in a generation and it would cost someone their life....
...When he was seventeen, he watched a prisoner collapse after a failed bond. Bones turned to ash in front of the Council. Magic surged out like a scream that had no voice....
...They warned him then. This is what happens when the soul rejects the chain....
...And now he was twenty-one....
...And Silas was waiting....
...A knock at the door broke the silence. Corin didn’t move....
...“Enter,” he called without turning....
...Rellan stepped in, rain clinging to his cloak....
...“The Council wants your confirmation,” he said. “That you accept the Binding. Officially.”...
...Corin didn’t answer....
...“You knew this was coming,” Rellan said, softer now. “You’ve been trained for it.”...
...“I was trained to be a weapon,” Corin snapped. “Not a killer.”...
...Rellan didn’t flinch. “This is not murder. It’s sacrifice. The mage understands that.”...
...“No. He accepts it. There’s a difference.” Corin turned, eyes sharp. “He’s not broken, Rellan. Just… resigned. Like he’s been waiting for someone to finish burying him.”...
...Rellan said nothing. Which only made Corin angrier....
...“He said he saw me in flames. That we were both burning.” His hands curled into fists. “He knew I was coming.”...
...“A seer’s vision,” Rellan muttered. “Fragments. Dreams. They mean little.”...
...“No,” Corin said, stepping forward. “He felt it. And I did too.”...
...The air thickened with silence....
...Finally, Rellan sighed and removed his gloves. “I served your father for twenty years. I’ve seen the way duty can rot a man from the inside out. But this, this is bigger than you. Bigger than him. You know the cost if the bond fails. You’ve seen the capital tearing itself apart. War is at our doorstep, and the gods aren’t answering anymore.”...
...Corin sat heavily on the edge of his bed....
...“I don’t want to kill him,” he said quietly. “But if the Vow works… and it chooses him to die…”...
...He trailed off....
...What was the point in finishing the sentence? Everyone knew how it ended....
...The Crimson Vow only bound one mage to one soul. Only one of them walked away whole. The other became… ash....
...“It’s not your choice who dies,” Rellan said. “It’s the magic.”...
...But Corin wasn’t sure that made it better....
...Eventually, Rellan left. Corin stayed seated, staring at the fire like it might hold an answer....
...And still, in the back of his mind, Silas lingered....
...Don’t let him be kind, the mage had whispered, once, in a vision Corin didn’t understand....
...Because I’ll let him....
...That had been the moment he realized. Silas wasn’t afraid of pain or death....
...He was afraid of hope....
...Of being seen....
...And Corin, damn him was already starting to look....
...He stood and crossed the room. At his desk, he opened the small lacquered box that held his father’s seal. Beneath it, folded in careful parchment, was the original Binding decree the ritual instructions, the vow lines, the execution orders....
...He ran a hand over the paper, fingers trembling slightly....
...Then he did something reckless....
...He took out a blank sheet of vellum and began to write....
...To the Council of High Magi, and the Circle of Royal Blood,...
...If one life must be taken, I offer mine....
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