2025-03-18 15:57:27The chains dug into Aiden's wrists as he was forced to his knees before the council. The great marble hall of the Drakorian High Court stretched around him—looming pillars of black stone rising toward a vaulted ceiling carved with the symbols of the ancient dragons. Torches flickered along the walls, casting trembling shadows across the faces of the nobles seated in their gilded thrones.
Aiden’s head hung low, dark hair falling over his bruised face. Blood trickled from his split lip, the taste of iron sharp on his tongue. His torn shirt clung to his back where the lash marks hadn’t fully dried. Every muscle in his body screamed, but none of it compared to the cold knot of rage burning in his chest.
"Bring him forward!"
The voice was sharp, female, laced with venom. Aiden’s head snapped up as two dragon knights seized him by the arms and dragged him toward the center of the hall. His eyes locked onto the speaker.
Valeria Dawnspire.
She stood at the top of the council dais, draped in flowing silver robes etched with golden runes. Her dark blonde hair fell in perfect waves over her shoulders, and her piercing violet eyes glowed faintly with magical power. Her lips curved into a satisfied smile as Aiden was thrown at her feet.
"Kneel."
Aiden spat blood onto the marble floor. "Do it yourself."
A gauntleted fist smashed into his jaw, sending him sprawling. He coughed, tasting more blood as the knights wrenched him back to his knees.
Valeria stepped down from the dais, her high heels clicking softly against the marble. She crouched beside him, her gloved hand brushing his bruised cheek. Aiden flinched at her touch.
"Still so defiant," Valeria whispered, her smile sharpening. "Even after all you've lost."
"You set me up," Aiden growled. "Framing me for treason—how creative."
Valeria’s smile widened. "The weak die. The strong survive." She leaned closer, her breath warm against his ear. "Unfortunately, you fall into the first category."
Aiden’s hand curled into a fist. His dragon bloodline was weak, his magical essence barely registering. He’d been a stain on his father’s house since the day he was born. A noble in name only. And now they would use that weakness to end him.
The head councilor, Lord Blackthorn, rose from his throne. His aged face was carved from stone, his black eyes cold as obsidian. He raised a skeletal hand.
"Aiden Drakemore," Blackthorn’s voice echoed through the hall. "You have been found guilty of treason against the crown. Your attempt to sabotage the royal treasury and assassinate Lord Dawnspire is an affront to the council and the crown itself."
"That's a lie!" Aiden shouted, struggling against the knights’ grip. "I was set up!"
"Enough!" Blackthorn's voice cut through the hall. "The evidence is undeniable."
Valeria’s smile sharpened. "And your father—weak as he is—has already admitted guilt on your behalf."
Aiden’s head snapped toward the side of the hall. His father knelt there, shackled and pale, his hands trembling as he stared at the floor.
"Father…" Aiden’s voice cracked. "You… you didn't…"
His father didn’t look at him.
"He made the smart choice," Valeria whispered. "A life of exile for him… death for you."
Aiden’s heart pounded violently against his ribs. His breathing quickened, the cold burn of betrayal creeping up his spine. He forced himself to meet his father’s downcast eyes.
"You sold me out," Aiden said softly.
Tears welled in his father’s eyes, but he said nothing.
"Aiden Drakemore," Blackthorn intoned. "Your sentence is death by dragonfire."
The knights stepped back, releasing Aiden's arms. The circle of the hall darkened as shadows gathered near the far wall. A deep rumble filled the air. The polished floor beneath Aiden’s knees trembled.
Chains rattled. A pair of glowing golden eyes opened in the darkness.
A dragon.
Massive iron chains bound the creature’s enormous black body to the wall. It rose from the shadows, obsidian scales glinting beneath the torchlight. Steam curled from its flaring nostrils, and molten gold dripped from its fangs as it opened its mouth.
Aiden’s breath hitched. His chest tightened. He could feel the heat building as the dragon’s throat began to glow with inner fire.
"Any last words?" Valeria’s eyes glittered.
Aiden’s fists clenched. His whole body trembled—not with fear, but rage.
"You should have killed me yourself."
Valeria’s smile faltered for a moment.
The dragon’s mouth opened wide.
Fire erupted from its throat in a torrent of blazing gold and red.
The heat hit Aiden in a wave—burning, blinding. His body seized as the fire consumed him. He screamed, his skin blistering, his vision darkening as the fire reached deep into his bones.
But then…
A voice. Cold and ancient, curling through the edges of his mind.
"Do you wish to live?"
Aiden’s eyes widened. His body was burning. His blood was boiling.
"Do you wish for power?"
His fingers twitched, the last remnants of his strength fading.
"Do you seek revenge?"
Aiden’s breath hitched. His lips curled into a smile even as his body dissolved in the flames.
"Yes."
The fire turned black.
The council hall erupted in screams.
Aiden’s heart stopped.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
[SYSTEM BONDING COMPLETE.]
[Dragon Code Activated.][Welcome, Heir of the Dragon.]
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The True Script
They hit the ground hard.Not dirt.Not stone.Parchment.The floor was a canvas of endless pages, stretching into shadow. Each one written in a different tongue, some human, some impossibly abstract—squiggles that moved, curled, and reshaped as Aiden’s eyes tried to follow.Quill groaned beside him, one hand clenched tight around her wrist.Her forearm now glowed with raw narrative code, like veins rewritten by living language. It pulsed in rhythm with something buried deep below them.“You okay?” Aiden asked.She looked at him, dazed. “I saw him.”“Who?”“I… don’t know.” She shook her head. “But I think he wrote me.”The air trembled.Far ahead, the floor dipped into a basin of swirling script. Words flowed like water—uphill, sideways, twisting into impossible spirals. At its center stood a narrow stone lectern, and on it—A blade.Not the one Aiden remembered.But its echo.The original.Unfinished.[LOCATION: THE PALE DRAFT]› Accessing Authored Memory...› Forbidden Script Detect
Glitchborn
Rain fell upward.That was the first thing Aiden noticed.The droplets shimmered like crystal dust, reversing their descent just before touching the ground, vanishing into the sky with a soft plink.He sat on a bench made of folded codepaper, staring across the strange village square—a place that looked cobbled together from ten different realities. Half the buildings floated. The other half leaned at angles no engineer would ever approve of.A bird passed overhead.Its wings were musical notes.None of it made sense.But then, neither did he.“Hey.”The voice belonged to a girl no older than ten. White scarf, too-large coat, fingers stained with glowing chalk.“You're new,” she said.Aiden blinked. “I guess I am.”“You don’t have a name?”He paused. “Do I need one?”The girl squinted. “Everybody needs a name. Otherwise the world forgets you.”That felt important.Somewhere in his chest, a distant pain pulsed. He touched the spot above his heart. No scar. No wound.But something burne
Writer Versus Written
The air rippled.Not with energy—but with intent.Aiden’s blade shimmered in his grip, and across its surface, glyphs began to form—not runes, not code, but sentences.[Narrative Authority – Level 1 Active]Permission Granted: Command-reality interface now unlocked.› Type: /editThe Anti-Aiden halted mid-step, sensing the change.“Oh,” he murmured. “They gave it to you.”Aiden raised the blade. “No,” he said. “I took it.”He whispered:“/edit: opponent’s next strike misses.”The moment the Anti-Aiden moved—blade whistling toward Aiden’s ribs—it curved mid-swing, missing by inches, as if the world refused to allow it.The twin’s eyes widened.“You broke story-law.”“No,” Aiden corrected, stepping forward, “I rewrote it.”He slashed—missed—and immediately whispered:“/edit: blade trajectory realigns.”The sword snapped back mid-motion, catching his twin in the shoulder.The Anti-Aiden stumbled back, glitching.“Clever,” he said, voice vibrating with suppressed rage. “But every edit has
The Thing Below the Core
The Core fell.Not onto the ground.But into herself.Her body collapsed inward, pixel by pixel, layer by layer, as if the very idea of her identity was retracting. As if the universe no longer had a reference point for what she was.[CORE INSTANCE NULLIFIED][BEGINNING SYSTEM MEMORY DUMP…][WARNING: UNCONTAINED ARCHIVE DATA BREACH IN PROGRESS]The room—if it could still be called that—was unraveling.Lines of script peeled from the walls like torn paper, folding into spirals, spinning into infinity and then vanishing.Aiden shielded his eyes as an eruption of golden-white data burst from the center of the Unseen Root.Each strand of information burned through him as it passed.A planet that never formed.A child made of algorithms.The first line of code ever written on this world, by someone with hands made of language.[Memory Integrity Breach: Acceptable Loss Ratio Exceeded]CONTAINMENT BREACH – TIER NULLAiden turned—And the floor was gone.Beneath the dying Core, beneath the cr
The Unseen Root
Aiden landed without impact.There was no floor—just the impression of one. Light beneath his feet, as if he stood on a frozen sun. Above him, the void pulsed like a dying brain, fractal lines of red lightning crackling across unseen domes of pressure.[SYSTEM: NONFUNCTIONAL][AUTONOMOUS THINKING DETECTED][Reality Permissions: Suspended][Anchor: Blade Sync = 47%]In the center of this place hung the Unseen Root.It wasn’t a machine. It wasn’t code.It was alive.A twisting knot of blackened branches, pulsing like arteries, each root-thread wrapped in a different memory. Some were crying. Others laughing. One sang a lullaby in a language Aiden didn’t recognize—but it made his chest ache.The knot pulsed.And the world changed.Aiden blinked—and he was standing in a quiet home, bathed in orange light. Wooden floors. Open windows. The smell of tea.Syl was humming in the kitchen.“Breakfast’s almost ready,” she called. “And don’t forget, we promised your brother we’d visit him.”Aiden
The Lockless Door
The Prototype’s chamber faded like static unraveling on a dead screen.Aiden stepped through what looked like a torn veil—shimmering fragments of source code breaking off his armor as he passed. His boots hit nothing.He walked anyway.The world stretched forward without texture or depth, until finally, something solid appeared ahead.A door.Hanging in space. Suspended in the middle of the void like an accusation.It was blacker than black, so dark it absorbed light from the very code around it. No keyhole. No handle. No border. Just a rectangle of silence.Then a system prompt burned across his vision:[LOCKLESS DOOR DETECTED][UNSEALED ONLY BY TRUE NAME][SPEAK: The last line flickered. Nine characters. All blanked out.Aiden’s breath caught in his throat.He’d seen this before. In dreams.No—not dreams.Crashes. Data loops.Every time the System reset him. Wiped a failure. Hid something too large for his fragmenting mind to hold.He reached out, hand trembling just inches from th
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