Chapter 1: The Price of a Chance

Ten years ago...

The crimson moon hung low over the burning village, its light painting everything in shades of blood and shadow. Eight-year-old Alexi pressed herself against the cold stone wall of the cellar, her small hands clamped over her mouth to stifle the sobs that threatened to escape. Through the crack in the floorboards above, she could see her mother's lifeless eyes staring at nothing, her father's sword arm severed and lying feet away from his body.

The Daemon stood over her sister's small form, its elongated claws dripping with fresh blood. The creature's skin was like molten obsidian, pulsing with veins of sickly green light. When it spoke, its voice was like grinding stone.

"The girl... where is the girl?"

Alexi bit down on her knuckles until she tasted copper, watching as the monster's head swiveled toward her hiding place. Those burning yellow eyes seemed to pierce straight through the wooden planks—

"Alexi!"

The sharp bark of Joshua's voice jolted her back to the present. She blinked, her silver eyes refocusing on the crude wooden table where she'd been sharpening her daggers. The familiar weight of the twin blades in her hands was comforting, their edges gleaming with that faint crimson glow that had appeared three years ago—the day her Blood Bond had finally awakened.

"You're doing it again," Joshua said, his weathered face creased with concern. The leather patch over his missing eye caught the firelight from their small hearth. "The nightmares are getting worse."

Alexi set down her daggers with practiced precision, each blade finding its place in the twin sheaths at her thighs. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not." Joshua's remaining eye fixed on her with the intensity that had made him legendary among the outer territories. "And that's exactly why you can't go on this hunt."

The words hit her like a physical blow. Alexi shot to her feet, her chair scraping against the rough stone floor of their mountain hideout. "The missing students from Lostvail Academy—"

"Are not your concern." Joshua's voice was final, absolute. "The Guild has assigned a full squad to investigate. You're not ready."

"Not ready?" Alexi's voice cracked like a whip. "I've killed more Daemons than half the Guild combined! I've tracked them through terrain that would break their precious academy graduates!"

"Killing monsters in the wilderness is different from navigating the politics of the nobility." Joshua stood, his massive frame casting long shadows across their sparse living space. "The missing students aren't just random victims, Alexi. They're the children of the most powerful Hunter families in the kingdom. One wrong move, one poorly chosen word, and you'll have targets on your back that even I can't protect you from."

Alexi's hands unconsciously moved to her daggers. The crimson glow pulsed brighter, responding to her emotional state. "Then teach me about politics later. Right now, people are dying."

"People are always dying." Joshua's voice carried the weight of his forty-eight years, of battles fought and comrades lost. "That's the nature of our world. But rushing blindly into danger won't bring back your family."

The words struck home, and Alexi felt her carefully constructed walls beginning to crack. "You don't understand—"

"I understand perfectly." Joshua moved to the window, gazing out at the treacherous mountain path that led to civilization. "You think if you kill enough monsters, if you save enough people, somehow it'll balance the scales. But vengeance isn't justice, girl. And justice isn't always found at the point of a blade."

Before Alexi could respond, a horn sounded in the distance—long, desperate, and all too familiar. The emergency signal of a Hunter squad in distress.

Both warriors were moving before the sound faded, grabbing weapons and gear with practiced efficiency. Joshua slung his massive greatsword across his back while Alexi checked her daggers and the various throwing knives hidden throughout her leather armor.

"Stay close," Joshua commanded as they stepped into the cold mountain air. "And follow my lead."

The sounds of battle grew louder as they approached the valley below. Alexi's enhanced senses, sharpened by her Blood Bond, picked up the acrid scent of Daemon flesh and the metallic tang of human blood. Through the trees, she could see the telltale flash of Guild-issued weapons and the unnatural darkness that surrounded their enemy.

"By the ancestors," Joshua breathed as they reached the edge of the clearing.

The Daemon was massive—easily twelve feet tall, with four arms ending in razor-sharp claws and a mouth that split its head nearly in half. Its hide was covered in chitinous plates that deflected the desperate attacks of the three surviving Guild members. One Hunter lay motionless twenty feet away, his armor rent and bloodied.

"Formation Seven!" shouted the squad leader, a woman with captain's stripes on her sleeve. "Contain and—"

Her words were cut off as the Daemon's massive tail swept her legs out from under her. She hit the ground hard, her sword spinning away into the undergrowth.

"We have to help them," Alexi said, but Joshua's hand clamped down on her shoulder.

"Wait for an opening. That's a Class-Three Ravager. Even I wouldn't take it head-on."

But waiting had never been in Alexi's nature. As the Daemon raised one massive claw to deliver a killing blow to the downed captain, she moved.

The world slowed as her Blood Bond surged to life. The crimson glow of her daggers blazed like twin stars, and she felt the familiar rush of enhanced speed and strength flooding her system. She burst from the treeline like a shadow given form, her first blade finding the gap between two chitinous plates on the creature's back leg.

The Daemon shrieked and spun toward her, but Alexi was already moving. Years of survival training had taught her to fight not with technique, but with pure, ruthless instinct. She rolled between the creature's legs, her second dagger opening a long gash across its abdomen before she came up on its other side.

"Impossible," one of the Guild members whispered. "She's just a girl."

The Daemon's four arms moved in perfect coordination, trying to pin down the elusive figure that danced around its massive form. But Alexi had learned to hunt creatures that could kill her with a single mistake. Every movement was calculated, every strike precise and economical.

She feinted left, then dove right, her daggers finding the soft tissue at the joint where the creature's second arm met its torso. The limb fell away with a spray of black ichor, and the Daemon's roar of pain and rage echoed through the valley.

"The eyes!" Joshua shouted from the treeline. "Go for the eyes!"

Alexi didn't need the instruction. She was already moving, using the creature's own massive frame as a ladder. Her daggers found purchase between the chitinous plates, and she hauled herself up toward the Daemon's head with the fluid grace of a predator.

The creature bucked and writhed, trying to dislodge her, but Alexi held on with the desperate strength of someone who had nothing left to lose. When she reached the Daemon's skull, she didn't hesitate. Both daggers plunged into the creature's eye sockets simultaneously, the crimson glow of her Blood Bond boring straight into its brain.

The Daemon's death throes were violent and brief. It crashed to the ground with earth-shaking force, its massive form already beginning to dissolve into the gray ash that all Daemons became upon death.

Alexi stood atop the rapidly decomposing corpse, her chest heaving and her daggers still glowing with residual power. The three surviving Guild members stared at her with expressions of awe and terror.

"Who... who are you?" the captain asked, struggling to her feet.

"Nobody important," Alexi replied, wiping the black ichor from her blades. But as she turned to leave, the captain's next words stopped her cold.

"Wait." The woman's voice carried new respect. "That was... extraordinary. The Guild could use someone with your skills. Especially with the situation at Lostvail Academy."

Joshua emerged from the trees, his single eye fixed on Alexi with an unreadable expression. "The girl isn't interested in Guild politics."

"Perhaps not," the captain said, "but she's exactly what we need. Someone who can get close to the students, investigate from within. Someone who won't be bound by the usual... constraints."

Alexi felt something shift in the air, a sense of doors opening and closing, of fate reshaping itself around her. "What are you talking about?"

The captain exchanged a meaningful look with Joshua. "The missing students from Lostvail Academy. The Guild's official investigation has hit dead ends. But if someone were to enroll as a student, someone with your... unique qualifications..."

"Absolutely not," Joshua said flatly. "She's not ready for that kind of assignment."

"She just killed a Class-Three Ravager single-handedly," the captain pointed out. "I'd say she's ready for anything."

Alexi looked between them, her mind racing. Lostvail Academy—the most prestigious Hunter training facility in the kingdom. Where the children of the noble houses learned to fight Daemons in climate-controlled environments and formal dueling circles. Where she could investigate the disappearances that had claimed dozens of students over the past month.

Where she could finally do something that mattered.

"I'll do it," she said quietly.

"Alexi, no." Joshua's voice carried a warning that made her blood run cold. "You don't understand what you're walking into. The Academy isn't just a school—it's a nest of vipers. The noble houses, the political maneuvering, the secrets buried in those hallowed halls... there are monsters within those walls that make Daemons look like children's toys."

But Alexi had already made her decision. She'd spent ten years preparing for this moment, ten years honing herself into a weapon against the darkness that had taken everything from her.

"Then I'll kill those monsters too," she said, her silver eyes blazing with determination.

As they walked back toward their mountain hideout, Joshua's cryptic words echoed in her mind: monsters within the walls. She wondered what he meant, what knowledge he was keeping from her. But it didn't matter. Whatever waited for her at Lostvail Academy, she would face it with steel in her hands and vengeance in her heart.

The crimson glow of her daggers pulsed softly in their sheaths, as if responding to her resolve. Soon, she would step into a world of silk and silver, of ancient bloodlines and darker secrets.

And she would make them all pay.