unmasked – StormborneLore

The campfire had burned low when Solaris approached the general.

Taranis knelt nearby, his wrists loosely bound, the bone collar still tight against his throat. The punishment mask lay beside him, waiting.

“Sir?” Solaris said cautiously. “Are we binding him again?”

Grael didn’t answer immediately. He watched the boy the blood-crusted bruises, the unspoken tension in his shoulders, the way his eyes never stopped scanning the shadows.

“He walks beside the horse now,” Grael said. “Not behind it. That’s earned.”

“But he’s still tethered?” solaris said

Grael nodded. “Until he earns trust with more than fire.”

Solaris stepped closer, lowering his voice. “And the food? He eats with us now?”

“He eats what he earns. No more. No less.” grael said

Taranis stirred then, lifting his head. His voice cracked as he spoke.

“Now I’ve got one foot in both worlds… the world of a chosen, and one of an outcast.” He looked at them both. “One move and I could be executed. The other move, and be honoured.”

Solaris winced as the mask was fitted back over the boy’s face.

“Why the mask again?” he asked.

“To remind him,” Grael said. “And to remind us.”

“Of what?”

“That chains and power aren’t opposites. They’re a balance.”

Taranis tried to move from grael and the other warriors tried to move his head so the mask wouldn’t go on as a dragon flew over head

“Put it on” grael ordered

“No I’m human just like you”

Taranis jerked back, blood still dried in the corners of his mouth. The dragon’s shadow passed again overhead, and something ancient stirred in his chest not rage, not fear, but refusal.

“I said no!” he growled, voice muffled but defiant.

Solaris stepped between him and the other warriors. “Wait. He’s not”

Too late.

One of the guards lunged forward, grabbing the mask. Taranis shoved back, throwing his shoulder into the man’s chest. The warrior stumbled, caught off guard by the boy’s strength.

Another grabbed his arm but Taranis twisted, slammed his elbow into the man’s face.

Blood sprayed.

Chaos erupted.

Three warriors tried to restrain him now. Grael did not move. He watched.

Taranis fought like a cornered wolf. Wild. Desperate. Silent.

The mask hit the ground and cracked in two.

When they finally wrestled him down, he was bleeding from the nose and lip, panting like an animal. His wrists were raw, eyes wild.

But he was smiling.

“You see me now?” he said through gritted teeth. “I’m not yours.”

Solaris stood frozen. The broken mask lay at his feet.

Grael finally stepped forward.

“Enough,” he barked.

The warriors pulled back.

Taranis didn’t rise. He waited.

“Let him up,” Grael ordered. “And don’t touch him again tonight.”

“But sir” a guard started.

“I said don’t.”

Grael looked down at the broken mask, then at the blood on Taranis’s knuckles.

“You broke it,” he said flatly.

“I’d break a hundred more,” Taranis spat.

Grael didn’t respond. Instead, he knelt.

“You want to be seen? Fine. Then let the clans see what you are.”

He picked up the shattered halves of the mask.

“You’ll wear no disguise. No shield. Not until you earn a new one.”

Taranis met his gaze. “Good.”

Grael stood.

“But remember this, boy there’s a cost to being seen. You can’t take it back.”

Taranis said nothing.

The dragon roared again in the sky.

Solaris knelt beside him later, whispering, “You’re going to get yourself killed.”

Taranis looked at the stars.

“Or freed.”

“What will it take for him to be freed?” Solaris asked

“Freedom for him? He crippled your brother, he killed a farmer, used by the gods themselves, stories say he killed a bird as a child and his village was killed before his exile freedom is a long way off. What do you say grael ?” A warrior asked

Grael remained silent for a long while. The fire crackled. Embers danced.
“I say,” he murmured, “we’ve seen men freed for less… and killed for more.”

He tossed the shattered mask into the flames.

“If he was sent by the gods, then they’ll test him again. Until then, he walks. He bleeds. He earns.”

A warrior scoffed. “And when the next village sees that face?”

“Then let them decide,” Grael said. “Fear him. Pity him. Curse him. But they’ll see him without the mask. And so will we.”

Taranis didn’t flinch. He stared into the fire, as if daring it to speak.

Grael remained silent for a long while.

The fire crackled between them. Sparks drifted upward into the night, like fleeing ghosts. Taranis sat still, blood streaking his jaw, the collar tight around his throat. The broken mask lay shattered near the flames.

He stepped forward and tossed the mask into the fire. It hissed as it cracked deeper, flames licking the black bone.

A warrior scoffed. “And when the next village sees that face? He crippled a boy. His own kin say he’s cursed. What do we tell them?”

“Tell them the truth,” Grael replied. “He wears no mask because he broke it. He walks unchained because I said so. And if that offends them, they can challenge it by trial.”

Another man spat. “The Seer warned us he carries the fire without flame. You think a prophecy makes him safe?”

“I think,” Solaris said quietly, “he didn’t run when he could’ve. He fought. He stood. He bled beside us.”

Silence settled again.

Then Grael turned to his men, sweeping his eyes across the ring of warriors.

“Fine,” he said. “Let the clans decide. Those who want him gone, speak now.”

A few murmurs, but none stepped forward.

“Those who would test him, not as a slave, but as a warrior raise your blades.”

One sword lifted. Then another. And another.

Not all.

But enough.

Taranis watched them. His chest rose and fell slowly. The embers reflected in his eyes.

“So be it,” Grael said. “Tomorrow at first light, he joins the line. No chains. No mask. One trial. If he survives the boy becomes flame.”

A hush fell across the camp.

Solaris leaned down beside him. “You’ve got one shot.”

Taranis looked up, a flicker of defiance in his eyes.

“Then I’ll make it burn.”

The company reached the ancient ruins just after dusk.

Twisted trees clawed at the moonlight, their roots entwined with blackened stones. Smoke drifted from old hearth pits, and torches lined the perimeter of what once had been a stronghold now just skeletal walls and broken pillars.

They called it the Bones of Fire, where traitors, exiles, and monsters were judged in the old ways.

Taranis was unshackled but flanked by two guards. His collar still bit into his skin, and dried blood streaked his jaw. He walked unbound, but every step echoed like thunder. Warriors lined the central circle, murmuring. Some remembered his defiance. Others remembered the dragon.

At the heart of the ruins stood a black stone altar scorched by lightning, older than the clans themselves. Grael waited there, sword at his side, expression unreadable.

A Seer stood beside him the same woman from the fire, robed in bone and shadow.

“This place,” Solaris whispered, stepping beside Taranis, “is where they test souls.”

“I thought I already failed,” Taranis said, not looking at him.

“No. This is where they see if you can rise.”

The crowd hushed as Grael raised his hand.

“Taranis of no clan. Slave by judgment. Exile by blood. Chosen by storm or cursed by fire,” the general said. “You stand here not as a man, but as a question. The people demand an answer.”

The Seer stepped forward, her voice like wind through hollow bones.

“You are accused of rebellion, violence, and breaking the old order. But the gods remember your name. So the trial shall be by the elements by Fire, by Bone, and by Storm.”

Murmurs rippled through the crowd.

Grael gestured, and three warriors brought forth the tools: a flame bowl carved of obsidian, a bone blade wrapped in cords of sinew, and a weathered spearhead struck once by lightning.

“You will face each,” the Seer said. “If you fall, your death is justice. If you rise, you walk reborn.”

Solaris stepped forward. “He saved us. He held the line”

“And still the trial stands,” Grael said. “This is not for you, Flamekeeper. This is between him and the gods.”

Taranis stepped into the circle.

“I’m not afraid,” he said.

“You should be,” the Seer whispered.

They began with Fire.

Taranis knelt before the obsidian bowl. Flames danced without smoke. The Seer extended her hand.

“Reach into the fire. Take the coal. Speak no sound.”

He did.

Pain erupted, white and total, but he did not scream. The coal branded his palm. Smoke curled from his clenched fist but his jaw never broke. When he stood, the mark glowed faintly.

Next came Bone.

He was handed the blade and told to carve a single rune into his chest a mark of truth.

“Only the worthy know which symbol to choose,” the Seer said.

Taranis hesitated.

Then slowly, he pressed the blade to his chest and etched a spiral. Not of chaos, but of growth the same symbol the Seer had once placed in his hand. Blood streamed down his ribs. Still, he stood.

Then came Storm.

They placed him at the peak of the ruin, where the wind screamed like a thousand dead warriors. He had to face the sky and remain standing until the gods answered or until the storm broke him.

Lightning gathered. Thunder rolled.

The dragon came.

Not with flame, but with presence a black silhouette circling high above.

Taranis stood. Hands outstretched. Collar glinting.

And then it happened.

Lightning struck the spearhead beside him.

The bolt leapt to his chest to the spiral rune.

He didn’t fall.

He screamed, but he stood.

The Seer’s eyes widened. Warriors dropped to their knees.

Grael stepped forward as silence returned.

“He lives,” he said.

“He is chosen,” the Seer breathed.

The collar cracked. A seam split down its side. It fell away into the ash.

And Taranis, gasping, bleeding, burned looked to the sky.

“I am Stormborne,” he whispered.

Tag: unmasked

The Wilderness Years Part 5