A New Dawn (3): "The Binder's Mark"

Heat shimmered ahead, the sky quivering where it met the horizon. My boots sank with a muted crunch, each push forward tugging the cloth behind me in a slow, rasping sweep. The weight at the other end pulled at my arm like a stubborn shadow, leaving a faint scar in the sand. The desert tilted with every stride, the sun glaring harder, as if daring me to stop.

I didn’t dare to think that was the real sun, not after what had just happened.

Behind me, her brother lay on the dragging cloth — a shape half-torn from this world. No skin, muscles split open like butchered meat, veins twitching as they pumped the bare minimum of blood to keep him alive. That he was breathing at all was a miracle. A miracle no human should survive.

She stopped. The silence was heavy. Her gaze on him was sharper than the heat.

He turned his head, feeling it. “What?”

Her voice was low. “How are you alive? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’re breathing. But trust me… no one survives that.”

He shrugged faintly. “Who knows. Maybe I’m not meant to die like this. Feels like I already did, though.”

“Explain.”

His eyes lingered on her. For a long time he said nothing, then:

“It’s exactly what I said. I died there. Or something close enough. I’m not talking about it. That kind of pain… I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Ever. So is that why you stopped?”

“Oh, no.” Her tone shifted, eyes narrowing past me. “We’ve got company. The bad kind.”

A pressure gripped my chest, sharp and sudden. My blood spiked; my heart pounded like it wanted out. Of course I knew what she meant. You don’t mistake that feeling when one of them is near.

An anomaly.

Not the kind you tell campfire stories about — the kind the Foundation buries in classified files.

And from the look on her face, this wasn’t a small one.

Turning her head towards me, she said :

"Stay", feeling the heat dropping around me, It felt like I was looking at one of them, Sometimes because she's my sister I end up forgetting who she really is now.

I look at her, the air felt more heavy than before," it's not like I can move anyway". Giving me a side glance, she turns away, gripping the blade at her waist. As she says :

"True".

The sand ahead shivered.

She stepped forward, the black blade in her hand catching no light, as if it drank it. The air was already a furnace, but the ground ahead steamed — heat radiating so violently it blurred her outline.

The earth erupted.

A geyser of sand burst upward, scattering grit like shrapnel. From it rose a column of flesh — pale, slick, and steaming hot, ten times hotter than the air. The heat rolled off it in waves, bending the horizon.

Her brother flinched. She didn’t.

The worm lunged. She moved — not fast, but precise — pivoting just enough for the thing to miss. The sword flashed, carving a smoking line down its side. Flesh split, hissing, but the worm’s scream was more fury than pain.

It dove back into the sand.

Her brother’s voice was tight. “It’s under—”

The ground split at her flank. She spun, blade intercepting a strike meant for him. The impact jarred her arm, forcing her back a step.

The worm withdrew. She exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing. A faint ripple crossed her skin. Her irises darkened to a deep, molten gold. The air around her seemed heavier.

When the worm lunged again, she didn’t just dodge — she vanished. One heartbeat she was in front of her brother, the next she reappeared beside the worm, sword already sinking deep into its flesh.

It shrieked, twisting violently. She tore the blade free, but its bulk slammed her aside, sending her skidding through the sand. Blood dripped from her lip. She wiped it away with the back of her hand.

Black markings crawled faintly across her cheek, forming the shape of a devilish mask.

She rose slowly, injured side protesting. “Stay down,” she told it.

The worm circled, burrowing in and out of the sand, spitting bursts of burning grit that hissed against her clothes. She batted them aside, irritation flickering across her face.

It struck from below, bursting up between them. She intercepted mid-air, her blade slicing clean through the first meter of its body. The heat scorched the edges of the wound, but the worm thrashed on.

Her breathing was ragged now. More scales spread along her forearms and neck, glinting faintly in the sun, her pupils narrowing into vertical slits.

The worm feinted left, then burst from her right, catching her off balance. She dropped low, shoving her brother aside with one arm while her sword came up in the other. The blade sank into the worm’s open mouth, black steel vanishing into steaming flesh.

A surge of heat raced up the weapon, burning her palm — but she didn’t let go. The mask fully formed now, sharp and inhuman, her voice carrying a resonance that wasn’t hers alone.

“Stay. Dead.”

She twisted the blade and ripped it free. The worm convulsed, then collapsed into the sand with a hiss like boiling water.

Silence.

Her skin smoothed, the scales receding, the mask fading until only her ragged breathing remained. She glanced at her brother.

“Euclid-class,” she muttered. “And alone. We’re lucky.”

He looks at his sister and the Euclid–class that was enough to lay waste to hundreds of humans, taken down by her alone. "Well if that's what she calls lucky".

She walks towards him, her blade already back in its sheath like it had just slayed a normal chicken, he could have sworn he felt the sword scorn at the beast, well if that wasn't he's imagination, he isn't even in the right mind... or body.

Gripping the clothes, she continues to drag him along the hot plains of sand like nothing had happened. "We need to leave, it's one of the Queen, she'll have known that one of her, pest is down".

He looks at her, he's eyes wide open." The... Queen, wasn't her spawns supposed to be outside the IRON HOLD"

Walking ahead, her boots leaving deep fissure in the sand, she answers"The blast ... Whatever it was, must have wiped more than just scout holds... the damage down is probably more than we think". She turns her ahead towards him. “How are you”

Staring at her cold eyes, only the sound of her heavy footsteps and the sound of the cloth scraping the hellish sand was what was left in the air as she turns her head back ahead,.. I answered:

"I'm not sure, I feel less pain that before, but still it hurts, so I'll be in this state for a long time I presume"

Almost immediately she answered." I think not"

Stunned by her answer, with a questioning look in my eyes, though she can't see me, her face was still facing forward, so I decided to ask. " What do you mean "

She stops once again, making my already calming heart, rise with pressure, she turns her head, looking me in the eye ever since the battle, her words leaving me stunned and not being able to react, "I think you are a Binder now.... and it seems like it was a SURVIVAL IMPRINT PROTOCOL"

I stare at her, the pressure in my heart didn't calm down like it should, since there wasn't any one of the Queen's around, looking at her as she turns her head and resumes walking, like she didn't just drop a life changing fact with a straight face too me.

" WHAT!?".

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