The Moohold was colder than the palace. Built into the cliffs behind the imperial sanctum, it had once housed seers and bone-readers, a sacred site where magic and madness blurred. Now, it was a prison for the dangerous: political threats, god blood traitors, cursed things the Empire didn't dare kill outright. Kaia had read about it. She'd never imagined she would sleep inside it.
But here she was, weak and scared, shivering in robes now stiff with magic and incarceration. with an entity she was taught to fear her whole life. Looming over her like a guardian or a predator.
The stone walls bled with old emblems and runes. Wards pulsed faintly in the mortar. Magic hung in the air like salt. Sharp and metallic, biting at the back of her throat. The air was colder here, not the chill of weather, but of warded stone and ancient silence.
Kaia sat on the narrow cot, still dressed in her apprentice robes, her hands folded tightly in her lap. Her muscles ached, her bones humming with residual magic. She hadn't slept. She could not bring herself to. Not with Rhyssa pacing three feet away like a restless flame ready to engulf everything.
Neither of them had spoken since the door slammed shut hours ago. The sound still echoed in Kaia's skull, loud and final. She had no idea what her life was becoming. She did not want to find out. She wished her eyes would shut, and she would wake up back in the garden where she rested before heading to the execution.
Her eyes followed Rhyssa's movements. It was graceful, calculated, every step both exhausted and poised to strike, yet there was an exhaustion in the tilt of her shoulders. Her bare feet made no sound on the cold stone floor, but Kaia felt them in her pulse. The demon queen's presence was a weight, a gravity Kaia couldn't escape.
Finally, Kaia broke the silence, tired and needing to shut her eyes. "You're not going to kill me in my sleep, are you?"
Rhyssa stopped mid-step, her look quizzical and amused. Her eyes glinted in the low torchlight. "If I wanted to kill you, little mage, you'd be dead. You think these walls are enough to strip me of the little strength I would need to snap your thin neck?"
Kaia flinched. Her throat tightened. "Then why haven't you?"
Rhyssa walked toward her at a slow pace that was not threatening. Just enough to make Kaia's breath lock in her throat. Her presence filled the space, even though she didn't raise her voice.
"Do you have any idea of the ancient spell you cast? Because now…" Rhyssa murmured, crouching to Kaia's level, and placed her hand on her temple. "If you die, I die. And I've survived too long to let some trembling apprentice like you, who does not know what magic she plays with, take me with her."
Kaia looked down at her arm. Parts of the mark still pulsed faintly. Twisting, arcane, alive. A symbol of ancient ruin. A chain between them. Her new life.
"What… what is this exactly?" Rhyssa tilted her head, curious. "You spoke a soul-binding. Without intent, but with power. That and a receptive soul are enough."
Kaia swallowed. "I didn't mean to. But what do you mean receptive soul?"
"Intent doesn't matter with old magic. Only blood and a deep desire. I desired to be free, truly free from everything. I wonder what you desired." Rhyssa went back to pacing, like it would somehow outdo the magical runes that surrounded them and sealed them in. "It is ironic how I am bound and locked down."
She fingered the runed walls like she knew their makers; Her eyes scanned the words not from fear but with respect. She knew the walls themselves were not thick enough to hold her, but the magic that backed them was strong enough to repel any escape attempts.
"What did you desire, apprentice?" She turned to Kaia, finally accepting that she had lost to the walls.
"I don't know, it just felt wrong making someone as powerful as that die. At least not disgraced even if you deserved it." Silence fell again, only the maddening constant drops of water from a crevice in the roof.
Kaia scanned Rhyssas' face, trying to notice if she stirred anything as the light flickered. Her sharp cheekbones, the bruises fading along her arms, the unyielding stare that felt like it stripped Kaia down to bone. The hideous horns that made her look scary seemed to change colors with her emotions. Her tall, lean frame. She could not tell what it was, but something shifted in her with every interaction. Maybe it was the bond, maybe it was something more human.
She had a lot of questions to ask, but she paused and asked the question that had haunted her since the moment the bond sparked: "Did it hurt? When it happened?"
Rhyssa's eyes flickered. She paused and lingered, keeping her gaze firm on Kaia.
"Yes. Like drowning in someone else's heartbeat."
Kaia nodded slowly. "It felt the same."
"I am not used to pain, I feel yours, however, do you feel mine?" She looked a lot more concerned now, her eyes softer than Kaia had ever seen.
"I just feel warm, a feeling, not pain, just a pull, like a thread moving in me."
"That's good, I have a feeling you would lose your mind if you felt what I have been through.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
The torch crackled behind them. Somewhere far above, a bell rang, probably a call to prayer or curfew. But here, beneath stone and enchantment, the world was smaller. Reduced to two people and one mistake that felt more like destiny.
Rhyssa crossed the room and sat in the opposite corner, back to the wall, arms loose across her bent knees. She watched the door like a predator waiting for the next fool to walk in.
For a while, Kaia paused and wondered if this was the same person she was taught to fear, her soft but firm voice, the kind words, the light sense of humor.
"Get some sleep," she said. "You'll need it."
Kaia didn't argue. Her body was too tired to resist. She lay down on the cot, the mattress thin and unforgiving, but softer than the cold stone floor. Her limbs were heavy. Her thoughts were heavier.
She didn't sleep at first.
She shut her eyes and lucidly dreamed of her life before; she tried to imagine where she had seen those words that now bound her. Her small apprenticeship, with the mages, her friends who hadn't shown since she was bound, neither Elrien nor Thaleia. People she had been through rebel attacks with, fought and survived with. They bound scrolls and kissed when no one looked. They were not made to bind demons.
Her small, peaceful life before the flame and chains. Of warmth that hurt now. Of a voice that said her name like it meant something dangerous. Of what might be going through the Demon Queen's head.
And then of freedom, like she was awake and everything was a dream. When she woke, Rhyssa was still there. Still watching her. Still bound. Just like her.