The Stormbound Debt
You owe a debt, and the storm is coming to collect.
A life-debt to a ruthless smuggler forces you into a desperate pilot's seat: cross the storm-lashed archipelago and retrieve a lost treasure, or your brother pays with his hands. But the treasure is guarded by a creature from your past, one that remembers the betrayal that binds your blood and knows the terrible truth behind your mission. With the storm closing in and time running out, you must decide how much of your soul you're willing to trade for the ones you love in this gritty aerial adventure.
The story begins
The Skymaw shuddered as you banked hard, thunder cracking so close the rigging sang. Rain hammered the canopy in sheets, and your knuckles were white on the wheel.
"Storm's getting worse!" Sera's voice crackled through the speaking tube, thin and tight. "The starboard engine's coughing again!"
You didn't answer. You were already threading the needle between two spires of black rock, the Warden's aerie a dark wound in the cliff ahead. Rook stood behind you, one hand braced on the bulkhead, smell of salt and gun oil rolling off him.
"You're taking us in too fast," he said. Not a question. An accusation.
"You want the Stormheart before dawn, I fly it my way." Your voice came out flatter than you felt. "Or you can find another pilot who owes you a brother."
Rook smiled. It didn't reach his eyes. "Careful, flyer. I still hold his ledger."
Lightning split the sky, and for one blinding second you saw it—a shape coiled around the aerie's mouth, scales catching the charge like a promise. The Warden, waiting for you.
It knew you were coming.
What happens next is up to you.
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