Chainbound

The Accord does not grant freedom. It teaches its children how to earn their Chains.SerenI have always known what I am: expendable. Two weeks stand between me and my eighteenth year-the moment when I, like every other child under the Accord, will be thrown into the trials of Ascension, a merciless proving ground where power is promised to the victors and erasure awaits the Fallen. We are told it is an honor. A chance to become something greater. But I know what the others do not. Ascension is not a reward-it is a system. One that breaks the weak, rewards the ruthless, and crowns only the ones willing to sacrifice their humanity for power. It is the noble lie they have fed us for generations. Because the Accord doesn’t demand victory. It demands transformation. And once it remakes you-there is no going back. If I Fall, there will be nothing left of me. And if I win... There will be nothing left at all. CalixI’ve spent my life becoming the thing the Accord fears most: a weapon with nothing left to lose. They call me a Carver-one of the Dominarch’s prized Swords. The empire’s loyal monster. The nightmare they unleash when kingdoms need to kneel, and histories need to burn. And for years, I played my part perfectly. But now the leash is tightening. The Accord has sent me after missing relics, but the deeper I dig, the more rot I uncover beneath the Ascendant Empire’s polished veneer. And I’m starting to realize that some secrets might be dangerous enough to start wars-but others are dangerous enough to end empires. And if they want to drag me back into the dark... They’d better remember who taught me how to survive there in the first place.