The Binding

In the depth of death, his soul was not pulled back to the Boneyard.
It was held. Touched.
 
An esobok, a psychopomp with eyes like black stars and fangs carved from light-stone, spoke to him:
 
"You are not finished with dying. Pharasma still has work for you."
 
Their essences fused — ritual, instinctive, inevitable. He awoke, no longer Lioren, but Zarveth el’Surna: “the Flame that Remains.” His spirit intertwined with that of the esobok; his body reshaped, unstable — as if something primal, something beastlike, guarded his soul.
 
Later he would understand: it was a kind of lycanthropy, not passed by bite, but imposed through rebirth. A bloodline of hunt, struggle, and sacrifice had been awakened within him.