Chapter 3: Shackles of the Tower

Vera’s fingers tightened around the cold iron bars of her intake cell. The damp stone floor seeped through her thin leggings, and every gust of wind rattled the barred window high above. She rose on shaking legs as the cell door clanged open. Two Inquisitor guards stood at attention, their pauldrons glittering with obsidian sigils.

“Subject SM-1,” one guard intoned. “You will follow.”

He jangled her chains; the suppressor cuffs bit into her wrists. Vera swallowed hard but forced herself to meet his gaze. “Where are you taking me?” she rasped.

The second guard snapped his gauntlet-clad hand toward a corridor. “Registration wing. Prepare for imprinting.”

Vera dragged in a breath. “Imprinting?” Her voice came out brittle, as if scooped from wet ash.

“Documenting psychic signature.” The guard’s helm tilted. “Stand still.”

They led her down a narrow hallway lined with iron doors, each marked with gradually increasing designations: SM-2, SM-3, SM-4… A distant chorus of anguished howls and anguished prayers echoed through the corridors, punctuated by the occasional snap of suppressor chains.

At the end of the hall, a low archway opened into a vaulted chamber lit by phosphorescent moss. A gaunt clerk presided over a stone slab, quill in hand and a vat of silver ink at his side. Across from him, two Alpha prisoners—muscular men in thick leather jackets—were being branded with number-stamped collars. Their snarls ricocheted off the walls.

Vera was pushed forward. The clerk glanced up, ink dripping from his quill tip. “Subject SM-1,” he repeated, voice flat as a tombstone. “Step onto the slab.”

Her boots clanged against the raised surface. She looked down at the slate-gray stone, etched with archaic runes that pulsed faintly. She raised her chin. “Will there be witnesses?”

The clerk’s ink-black eyes flicked over her. “Only those required by procedure.” He gestured to a guard. “Remove her cuffs.”

The guards unlocked the suppressor chains. Vera inhaled sharply as the wolfsbane’s sting faded and warmth returned to her wrists. She flexed her fingers, feeling the hum of forbidden power beneath her skin.

A resonant gong sounded. The two Alpha prisoners lunged at the guard holding their collars, thrashing and roaring—wolf howls echoing through their throats. The guard slammed a heavy baton; the men collapsed, convulsing as their collars bit into their necks. Silver filaments fused into their sinew beneath the crystal disks, sealing their psychic output.

Vera’s breath caught. The collars were a cruel merger of magic and machine: each Alpha’s mind throttled to a torturous whisper of its former roar. Her heart thudded against her ribs.

“One at a time,” the clerk murmured, nodding to a pair of acolytes. “SM-1 first.”

Vera swallowed, stepped beneath an array of crystalline nodes suspended from the vaulted ceiling. The acolytes affixed a delicate lattice of wires and sigils around her temples. One pressed a cool silvery mask against her face, forcing her eyelids closed with gentle but unyielding pressure.

“Relax,” a soft voice whispered through a tube. “We only record.”

Vera felt her pulse slow as her vision faded. Beyond her closed lids, dreamlights flickered. A familiar haze coalesced: violet comets, silver plains, and the black wolf’s silhouette. She inhaled the dream world like sweet incense.

A spark of panic flared. This place—this prison—was built to cage even Alpha minds. If she failed to control her gift under these dampeners, she risked shattering her psyche.

The crystalline nodes crackled. A tide of voices whispered at the edge of her mind: tortured Alphas crying for release, guards muttering prayers for deliverance, the distant toll of the high tower bell. The mask constricted, pressing shards of glass against her cheeks.

Beneath the pressure, Vera summoned her anchor—the knot of conscious will she’d forged in the ox-cart. She envisioned a single star turning steadily in an inky sky. She held to that image, breathing in measured counts.

The dream plain shifted. The wolf’s eyes glowed, but he bowed his head, acknowledging her control. A ribbon of starlight wrapped around her heart, grounding her.

A soft click echoed; the acolytes slipped off the mask and withdrew the wires. Vera blinked, vision clearing. A scroll materialized in the clerk’s hand, inscribed with her psychic signature in silvery script.

“Imprint complete,” the clerk announced. He scrawled “Confirmed: Star-Sleep Hybrid” beneath her file.

A guard stepped forward. “Take her to the cell block.”

Before Vera could respond, a booming voice halted the procession: “Stop!”

All heads turned to the heavy oaken doors. A knight in polished white armor strode in, the sun’s reprieve slanting across his triangular helm. His presence stilled the room—an unmistakable aura of command.

“High Inquisitor Armand.” The clerk bowed. “I didn’t expect—”

Armand’s gauntleted hand rose. “I will oversee this personally.” He approached Vera, helmet tucked under his arm. His hair was silver-white, eyes as pale as moon-touched frost.

Vera held her breath. The Inquisitor’s gaze probed her like ice through mist. “So you are the girl who drew power from ash?”

She swallowed. “Yes, Your Grace.”

Armand circled her, lips pursed. “Your gift is a threat, and yet… intriguing.” He tapped the crystalline badge on her collar. “I want to observe you more closely. Transfer her to the apex ward.”

A murmur rippled around the chamber. The clerk looked doubtful. “The apex ward is for high-risk Alphas. She’s never been violent—”

“Yet,” Armand finished. “Subject SM-1 will join the Mad Wolf King himself. Prepare transit.”

Without another word, Armand swept from the chamber. Guards scrambled, unlocking Vera’s cuffed ankles and affixing heavier manacles to her upper arms. The two Alpha prisoners snarled behind their bars as she passed, eyes blazing with silent fury.

Vera’s heart hammered. Apex ward—where Lucien Thornehart was said to languish. The “Mad Wolf King” whose mind was fracturing with each lunar surge. She swallowed fear. “Why me?” she whispered to the guard beside her.

He shrugged, voice low: “The Inquisitor wants proof you can bind the alpha. If you fail… they’ll feed you to him.”

Vera’s breath caught. The idea of facing Lucien—half-mad, razor-clawed—sent a jolt of ice through her veins. But beyond terror lay another sensation: anticipation. Lucien’s mind had called to hers in the dream plain—he recognized her. Now the real test awaited.

They led her through the registration wing, past endless cells of whimpering Alpha prisoners. Guards at each door whispered warnings: “SM-1, Star-Sleep taint.” At the corridor’s end, a massive portcullis loomed, its iron teeth ready to clamp down. Beyond lay a spiraling stairwell carved into the tower’s core.

The guard shoved her through. “Go on,” he said. “Show them what you can do.”

The stairwell wound upward, the walls slick with moisture. Each landing brought a new guard post, symbol-etched torches guttering in the cold draft. Vera’s chains clanked with every step. She fought to steady her breathing.

Finally, the stair opened onto a circular gallery. Sigil-etched mirrors lined the walls, each reflecting fractured images of her bound form. At the gallery’s center, two massive automatons—their eyes glowing sapphire—nudged her forward.

Through an arched doorway she saw him. Lucien Thornehart sat shackled atop a dais, chains thicker than her torso coiling around his waist and ankles. His silver hair tumbled over his shoulders, framing a blood-stained collar. He rocked back and forth, muttering verses in a guttural chant.

“A subject,” Lucien growled, eyes still unfocused. “Another star-child come to scry my madness.”

Vera’s breath caught. He glanced up—his red eyes snapping into clarity. For a heartbeat, the hall froze. He recited, voice cold and precise: “Vera Moonlock.” Recognition lingered on his tongue.

She staggered, gaze locking with his. “You—”

He laughed: a single, deranged note that rattled the mirrors. “You dreamed me, child. You called me.”

Avant-garde guards at the door stiffened. Lucien raised a gauntleted hand; the automatons recoiled as though struck by thunder. Four torches guttered and relit themselves in his presence alone.

The gallery watchmaster barked orders, but the door slammed shut before guards could reach it. Lucien slid from his dais in a fluid motion, chains rattling. He strode toward Vera—every step measured, powerful. She braced herself, hand instinctively reaching for the tether at her belt.

“Do you know what they did to me?” Lucien rasped, voice low, almost tender. “How they caged my rage, burned my soul? And here you are—blood like mine, unbroken.”

Vera’s heart pounded. “I didn’t ask—”

He pressed closer. “You will help me. Or you will break trying.”

Behind them, the watchmaster pounded on the door. Lucien ignored the clamor. He studied her face, eyes searching for doubt.

Vera swallowed. Her throat scar pulsed. “I’ll help,” she whispered. “But on my terms.”

Lucien’s grin was feral, fierce. “Then speak, Star-Sleep. Let us begin.”

In the apex of the Howling Spire, beneath mirror and moon, their fates intertwined. Silence fell as Vera steeled herself. The blood-chilling howl of distant Alphas echoed through the tower’s bones. And in that moment, shackles and chains felt less like prison—and more like the forge where something new would be born.