54. Sorin: Silver, Blood, Bone

Sorin steps onto the broken mountain bridge, using Zama’s wind magic and the Elixir’s boost to balance across. She crawls over Arcady’s patched ice section, nearly falls in a sudden gust, then reaches safety with Arcady’s help. The trio confirms one token is already taken and agree Rahela should fly back to Vatra to finish ahead.

Once Rahela departs, the path’s mage lights reveal hidden stairs leading further up to Nalore Monastery. The austere fortress hums with converging leylines, which Sorin keenly senses. At the door, a dazed and injured Edin Vayne appears; Sorin’s instincts spike as Edin’s blank expression betrays possession and a white knife gleams.

Edin speaks as a devoted Eye, praising “His” purpose and targeting Arcady. Sorin swiftly disarms and pins Edin, but Edin channels Magnes’s voice, chilling Sorin. A vast violet-black dragon—Magnes—descends, scarred foreclaw marked, and delicately pierces Sorin’s shoulder to taste her blood before intoning a binding in the dragon tongue.

The spell—“by silver, by blood, by bone”—locks Sorin’s mind in thorned, golden constraints. Sorin drops her knife and, against her will, seizes Arcady and pins their arms as Arcady tries to fight back. Arcady shatters a pendant to summon aid, but Magnes’s ward seals the monastery from rescue. Drawing close, Magnes declares the players assembled and the game begun.