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Columns of basalt curved into arched buttresses, carved eons ago by something with tools or claws. It looked far stronger than chisels. Sigils etched into the stone pulsed faintly, shards of an ancient script eerily similar to the runes on the rookery scroll. The air carried a metallic tang, half iron, half ozone, like breath after lightning.
The System flared.
[Bloodline Ruin Detected. Triggering Memory Echo]
Golden threads snaked from the sigils, weaving images in mid-air. Like the shadows of draconic shapes soaring, spirals of flame, a circle of robed tamers chanting over a single gleaming egg. Zephyr's skin prickled as recognition coursed through blood that wasn't entirely his.
When the echo faded he noticed a dais at the rear of the chamber: a hexagonal pedestal fused from obsidian and star-flecked quartz.
Atop it rested a stone casket no larger than a helmet, sealed by three concentric bands of copper rune wire. One band was cracked, the next corroded, the last flickering like a dying charm. Hairline fractures spread across the casket's lid, and between them, something faintly pulsed, an ember behind obsidian glass.
Zephyr stepped forward, pulse pounding.
[System Advisory: Unknown egg signature. Mana class: ??? (Draconic variant). Compatibility scan: Suitable.]
Hands shaking, he brushed frost from the lid. The outermost rune wire crumbled. A second later, the middle band snapped with a hiss of dying magic. Only the innermost loop etched with the ouroboros skeleton remained. As he touched it, the symbol glowed gold, then dissolved into motes. The lid slid aside in silence.
Inside lay an egg scarcely larger than his clenched fists. It was jet-black scales overlaid with matte gray patterns like inhaled smoke, each scale edged with iridescence that shimmered violet when lantern light kissed it. The shell felt warm and alive.
"Small black-scale egg," Zephyr whispered. "Are you the bond I'm meant to find?"
[Ding! Quest Update: First True Beast Bond located.
Sub-task: Secure, incubate, and initiate imprint protocol.]
He cradled the egg gently, weight surprising for its size, dense, as though worlds coiled inside. Heat seeped into his palms, chasing cave damp chill. An answering warmth surged in his chest, centering over his heart, where invisible golden chains tightened then harmonized, vibrating with a chord only his system sharpened soul could hear.
A new window materialized.
[Unidentified Draconic Egg-
Subtype: Star-Scale Lineage Variant (Dormant)
Integrity: 72 % (stable)
Incubation Need: Continuous warmth bound to compatible mana signature.
Imprint Status: Pending.
Hatch Probability (without host): 4 %
Hatch Probability (with host Zephyr Valorian): 91 %
Warning: Egg contains sealed god tier grade potential. Premature exposure to hostile mana may trigger defensive backlash.]
Zephyr exhaled shakily. "God tier? Even unhatched, this creature outranked every beast at Lowmoor academy." He slid the egg into the padded inner pocket of his cloak, wrapping it with Fenna's shawl scrap for insulation. Warmth pulsed once, approving.
"Now it's time to leave."
He scanned for other exits, but the only path was the jagged chute he'd fallen through. A climb doable, but treacherous with one arm hauling precious cargo. Instead he traced the cavern perimeter and found a narrow basalt fissure sloping upward. Cold air sighed from it; perhaps a side tunnel to the surface.
He squeezed through, lantern in outstretched hand. The passage twisted, rose, narrowed until shoulders scraped stone, then widened abruptly into a root-laced burrow that opened behind an abandoned tool shed on academy grounds. Snow whirled in evening light beyond the half-collapsed door.
Zephyr emerged, heart hammering, cloak concealing the egg. He crept between sheds and supply stacks, reaching the dorm block unseen. In his room he lit only a small bedside glowstone, set the egg atop folded blankets, then closed his eyes to still shaking hands.
[Quest Complete: First True Beast Bond Secured.
Reward Granted: Bloodline Purity +1 % (Total 4 %)
New Title Unlocked: Provisional Dragonkeeper
Passive Skill Acquired: Incubation Aura. (Emits gentle heat and stabilizes mana waves, accelerating egg hatch rate by 30 %.)
Warmth radiated outward, curling around the egg and Zephyr alike. Moments later came a gentle knock.
"Zeph, are you back? It's me."
He cracked the door open. Fenna stood in the hall, cheeks flushed from cold worry. "I felt you might be injured," she explained, lifting the empty string at her waist. " Are you okay?"
He stepped aside. She entered the room and froze when her gaze fell on the egg, black scales glistening like a fragment of night tipped with starlight.
"Oh," she breathed. "You found an egg? For the last five hundred years there have been no egg laying beasts found in the wild. All beasts give birth to babies."
Zephyr met her eyes, awe and terror mingling in his chest. "I don't know how… I was looking for a small beast to tame. But instead I found a fossil… it was cracked on the side. I saw the tip of this egg. So I cracked it open and found this egg." He made up a fake story for Fenna.
Outside, the frost-laden wind howled across Lowmoor academy's roofs, rattling shutters like distant drums. Within the quiet room, the egg pulsed once, steady, expectant, matching the rhythm of Zephyr's newly awakened heart.
He had found his first bond. Soon, the world would know it too. So he created a false story, in case someone had any bad intentions.
A cold gust rattled the shutters of Zephyr's little caretaker dorm. Faint moonlight shone through the single cracked pane, stretching silver fingers over the black-scale egg on his bed.
The shell glimmered like a night sky caught in glass matte jet streaked with thread-thin lines that shimmered violet whenever lantern light brushed them.
Fenna's breath misted as she stood beside the bed, one hand pressed to her chest. "It is beautiful," she whispered. "But… We have to hide it. No one can know we have an egg."