The gate of House Ordan closed behind us.
Its iron bars struck the ground with a heavy clang, cutting off the street, the royal banners, and the growing noise of Blackmere.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Lady Maera Ordan stood in the middle of the courtyard, watching us as if she had just allowed four armed wolves into her home.
She had not changed much since the last time I saw her.
I had never seen her before.
That made the difference important.
Her dark blue coat was clean, her silver buttons polished, and her hair tied tightly behind her head. Nothing about her suggested panic, even though the royal army had just declared my family traitors and the church was preparing to open an ancient vault beneath the city.
She looked at the blood on Kaelen’s coat.
Then at Seris’s injured hands.
Then at Lyra.
Finally, her eyes stopped on me.
"You look like your father," she said.
I had heard that before.
Usually from people who wanted something.
"Is that a problem?"
"It depends on which part of him you inherited."
She turned and walked toward the estate.
"Come inside. We have less than an hour before someone notices that my guards allowed the most wanted man in the kingdom through the front gate."
Kaelen followed her first.
He was still holding his ribs, but he walked without help now.
Seris came next, silent and pale.
Lyra stayed beside me.
"You should be careful with her," she whispered.
"Lady Ordan?"
"She doesn’t help people without a reason."
"Neither do I."
Lyra looked at me.
"You used to."
I did not know what to say to that.
The estate was larger than I had expected.
The main building stood three stories high, with tall windows and stone columns at the entrance. Servants hurried through the halls carrying books, blankets, and trays of food. Guards stood at every corner, but none of them looked relaxed.
House Ordan was preparing for a siege.
The woman led us through a long corridor decorated with paintings of dead ancestors. Every portrait showed the same silver stag crest.
Some of the faces had been scratched.
Others had black lines painted across their eyes.
Kaelen noticed them too.
"Was your family attacked recently?" he asked.
Lady Maera did not slow down.
"The crown has been removing the faces of families that refuse to support it."
"Why?"
"Because people fear a noble house more when they cannot remember what its members looked like."
Kaelen frowned.
"That makes no sense."
"It worked."
She opened the door at the end of the hall.
A large study waited beyond it. Maps covered one wall, while another held shelves filled with law books, military reports, and old family records.
A fire burned in the hearth.
On the table lay a sealed document marked with the royal crown.
Lady Maera took her place behind the desk.
"You have until the second bell."
Lyra shut the door behind us.
"Then the church opens the vault?"
Lady Maera nodded.
"The ceremony begins at midnight. The lower doors open at the second bell."
"What happens when they open?" Kaelen asked.
"No one knows."
He stared at her.
She removed a pair of gloves and placed them on the desk.
"That is not an answer meant to satisfy you. It is the truth."
Seris moved toward the maps.
"Your family has records."
"We have fragments. The church confiscated the rest."
"Where are they?"
"Some were taken to the royal archive. Some were burned. The oldest records were hidden beneath this house."
Seris looked toward the floor.
"Your house was built over a passage."
Lady Maera’s expression did not change.
"Most important houses in Blackmere were."
That was the first thing she had said that made the city feel larger.
Blackmere was not simply a capital with a cathedral in its center. The nobles had built their homes above old routes, sealed chambers, and hidden roads.
The entire city had been constructed over something it did not understand.
I looked at the map on the wall.
The cathedral sat at the center of Blackmere, surrounded by four noble districts. Thin red lines spread beneath each district and met under the old cathedral.
One line continued toward the river.
Another led north.
A third ended beneath House Ordan.
I pointed at it.
"That line connects to the cathedral."
Lady Maera looked at the map.
"Yes."
"Does it lead to the lower vault?"
"It leads near it."
"Can we use it?"
"Not anymore."
"Why?"
"The church sealed it after your father came through."
The room became quieter.
Kaelen looked at me.
"Your father came here?"
Lady Maera did not answer immediately.
She opened a drawer and removed a small metal box.
Inside was a black ring.
It looked like mine, but the center had been scratched away.
"Your father came to House Ordan nine years ago," she said. "He carried a wound through his chest and two dead church knights behind him."
Lyra stared at the ring.
"Why didn’t you tell me?"
"You were twelve."
"I was old enough to know."
"You were old enough to repeat things when frightened."
Lyra’s face hardened.
Lady Maera looked at me.
"Your father told me that the church had found a way to open the vault without a Draven."
"And you believed him?"
"I saw what they had done to the knights."
Seris examined the damaged ring from across the room.
"What happened next?"
"He asked me to hide his children."
Lyra stepped closer.
"What did you do?"
"I hid you."
Her eyes narrowed.
"You hid Veyr too?"
"I tried."
"Then why was he in the fortress?"
Lady Maera looked at me.
"Because your brother did not want to leave."
The words landed strangely.
The old memories stirred again.
A room filled with smoke.
Lyra crying near a window.
A younger Veyr standing by the door.
His father kneeling in front of him.
"Come with us."
The boy shaking his head.
"I’m not afraid."
Then the memory disappeared.
My head began to ache.
Seris noticed.
"Sit down."
"I’m fine."
"That has become an irritating sentence."
I ignored her and remained standing.
Lady Maera watched me carefully.
"You don’t remember."
"Not everything."
"Your father said that might happen."
My fingers tightened.
"What did he know?"
"That the bloodline could break under pressure."
"Stop speaking around the point."
The words came out colder than I intended.
The room went still.
Lady Maera did not react.
"Your father believed that if the church ever reached you, they would use your memories against you."
"That still doesn’t explain anything."
"It explains why he made you forget."
I looked at her.
"He made me forget?"
"He asked Seris to do it."
Every eye in the room turned toward Seris.
She did not deny it.
Kaelen’s hand moved toward his sword, not because he wanted to attack her, but because he had not known what else to do with it.
Lyra stared at Seris.
"You erased his memories?"
"I sealed them."
"That is not different."
"It is."
"How?"
Seris looked at me.
"Erasing destroys the memory. Sealing keeps it away from the person carrying it."
"Why would my father ask that?"
"Because you were being watched."
Seris moved to the map.
"The church had already marked your blood. They could enter your dreams and pull out pieces of your memory. Your father believed a sealed mind would be harder to use."
I touched my forehead.
The missing memories had always felt damaged.
Not locked.
Not protected.
Damaged.
Seris continued.
"The seal weakened when Veyr’s body died."
I looked at her.
"Then why can’t I access everything?"
"Because someone else is using the same body."
No one spoke.
The words were too close to the truth.
I could not let them continue.
Lady Maera watched me, but she did not ask what Seris meant.
That was probably the first thing I liked about her.
A bell rang somewhere in the city.
One deep note.
The first bell.
Outside, the guards on the walls moved into position.
Lady Maera closed the metal box.
"The church will open the vault in less than an hour."
"What are they trying to retrieve?" I asked.
"The heart."
"The one from the Red Monastery?"
"That was a fragment. The real heart is beneath Blackmere."
Seris turned sharply.
"Your records said it was destroyed."
"Your records were written by the church."
That ended the argument.
Kaelen moved closer to the table.
"How many soldiers are in the cathedral?"
"Enough to defend it."
"That is not a number."
"It changes every hour. Royal soldiers guard the streets, while church knights control the cathedral. The lower vault is beneath both."
"Then we need to enter before the ceremony."
Lady Maera looked at me.
"No."
Kaelen frowned.
"No?"
"You cannot enter the cathedral openly. The king has issued a death order. The church is waiting for Veyr to come."
"They know we’re here?"
"They know you reached Blackmere. They do not know where."
"Then we have an advantage."
"You have an hour."
"That is enough."
"It is not enough to fight through the cathedral, reach the vault, stop the ritual, and escape."
I looked at the map.
"We don’t fight through the front."
Lady Maera’s eyes sharpened.
"You saw the old routes."
"There is a passage under this estate."
"It was sealed."
"Everything is sealed."
"And you think that makes opening it easy?"
"No."
I looked at the ring on my hand.
"It makes it familiar."
The black ring in the metal box pulsed.
My ring answered.
A red line appeared between them.
The old map moved.
The ink beneath House Ordan spread across the paper, revealing a hidden staircase that curved below the estate and ended beneath the cathedral.
Lady Maera stepped back.
The room shook.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Seris moved toward the map.
"The route is opening."
"No," Lady Maera said.
She looked at the floor.
"Something below is opening it."
A second bell rang.
This one was louder.
Every candle in the study went out.
For a moment, the only light came from the red line between the two rings.
Then something struck the stone beneath us.
The servants screamed in the hall.
Guards shouted.
The floor split beside the table.
A black hand pushed through the stone.
Kaelen drew his sword.
Lady Maera reached beneath the desk and pulled out a short blade.
Lyra raised her bow.
Seris lifted her bleeding hands.
The hand pulled itself higher.
A head emerged behind it.
It was not the large guardian from Draeven March.
This creature was smaller, shaped like a man covered in black armor. Its face was hidden behind a smooth mask, and a red symbol burned across its chest.
It looked at me.
The mark on my neck answered.
The creature moved.
Kaelen reached it first.
His sword cut across its chest, but the blade slid away from the armor. The creature struck him in the shoulder and sent him crashing into the shelves.
Lyra fired.
Her arrow hit the red mark.
The creature turned toward her.
I grabbed the edge of the desk and pushed it across the floor.
The heavy wood struck the creature’s knees.
It staggered.
Seris’s blood threads wrapped around its legs.
"Now!"
I moved.
The creature tore through the desk and reached for me.
I slipped beneath its arm and struck the red mark with my palm.
Abyssal Sense opened.
I saw the connection immediately.
The creature was not coming from below.
It was being pulled through the hidden route.
The cathedral was calling it.
The lower vault had already begun opening.
I forced the ring’s power into the mark.
The creature froze.
A red message flashed before my eyes.
> Abyssal entity detected.
>
> Source: Lower Vault.
>
> Connection: Active.
>
> Authority required.
I pushed harder.
Pain burned up my arm.
The creature’s fingers closed around my wrist.
Its armor cut into my skin.
"Veyr!" Lyra shouted.
I tried to pull away.
The creature leaned closer.
Its mask split open.
There was no mouth beneath it.
Only a hollow filled with red fire.
Seris sent a blood spear through its shoulder.
The creature’s grip loosened.
I tore my hand free and drove my sword through the mark on its chest.
The blade entered.
Red light exploded across the study.
The creature collapsed into black smoke.
The smoke did not disappear.
It flowed through the cracks in the floor toward the cathedral.
The red line on the map went dark.
Kaelen rose from the broken shelves.
He looked at the hole in the floor.
"How many more of those are coming?"
Lady Maera tightened her grip on the blade.
"That was not supposed to happen before the second bell."
"Is that bad?" Lyra asked.
Lady Maera looked at me.
"It means the vault has recognized Veyr."
The city bells began ringing together.
A third bell.
Then a fourth.
The sound rolled through Blackmere.
Outside, people began shouting.
A red glow appeared beneath the streets.
The cathedral doors opened by themselves.
Lady Maera walked to the window.
In the distance, a pillar of red light rose above the city.
The crowd below fled from the streets.
The church had started the ceremony early.
Or something inside the vault had.
Lady Maera turned away from the window.
"The church knows where you are now."
Kaelen picked up his sword.
"Then we move."
She looked at him.
"You still want to go below?"
"We came here to stop the vault from opening."
"It is already opening."
"Then we stop what comes out."
Lady Maera looked at me.
"Before I open the passage, understand this. Once we enter the lower route, House Ordan will be declared an enemy of the crown."
"You’re already helping me."
"Helping you quietly is one thing. Opening the old road is another."
She glanced toward the hall, where her servants and guards were preparing for the attack.
"If I open it, there is no returning to neutrality."
I looked at the red light above the cathedral.
Then at the wounded people in the street.
Then at the map.
"You helped my father."
"I owed him a debt."
"You’re paying it now?"
"I am deciding whether you are worth the debt."
"That depends on what you expect."
Lady Maera stepped close enough that only I could hear her.
"Do not become your father."
I looked at the blood on my hand.
"What did he become?"
"A man who believed protecting his family meant deciding everything for them."
She handed me the damaged black ring.
"Don’t make the same mistake."
I took it.
The two rings reacted.
A hidden door opened beneath the study.
Stone stairs descended into darkness.
Cold air rose from below.
Somewhere far beneath us, something struck a sealed door.
The sound moved through the walls.
Once.
Twice.
Then a voice echoed up the stairwell.
"Veyr Draven."
Every guard in the hall froze.
The voice was not the guardian’s.
It was a man’s voice.
Calm.
Clear.
And close enough to hear the smile in it.
"Come below."
Kaelen stepped toward the stairs.
Lyra nocked an arrow.
Seris wiped blood from her wrist.
I looked at Lady Maera.
She had gone pale.
"You know that voice."
She nodded.
"Who is it?"
She looked toward the red glow over the city.
"The Red Abbot."
I tightened my grip around both rings.
He had come back from the monastery.
And he was waiting beneath Blackmere.