"The Red Abbot?"
The name changed the mood in the room.
Kaelen stopped at the top of the stairs. Lyra raised her bow, while Seris looked at Lady Maera with a hard expression.
Maera took a lantern from the wall and handed it to Lyra.
"He survived the monastery," she said. "He left before the royal army arrived."
"What is he doing beneath your house?" Kaelen asked.
"The old passage leads to the cathedral."
Another impact shook the sealed door below.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Kaelen drew his sword and started down the stairs. The rest of us followed.
The passage beneath House Ordan was narrow and damp. Old lamps hung from the walls, though most had burned out long ago. The stone beneath our feet trembled every few seconds.
Lyra walked behind Kaelen, watching the darkness between the pillars.
"How many people know about this passage?" she asked.
"Only my family, a few guards, and the church," Maera replied.
"That is too many."
"It was fewer before your family brought the church’s attention here."
Lyra glanced at me.
I pretended not to notice.
The passage opened into a storage chamber.
Six church soldiers were carrying wooden crates toward a large iron door. Three miners sat tied to poles against the wall. Their faces were bruised, and blood covered the sleeves of their work clothes.
Red light leaked from the cracks around the door.
Kaelen pointed toward a narrow ledge above the chamber.
"I’ll take the officer. Lyra, cover the left side."
"I’ll handle the right," she said.
Seris looked at me.
"What about you?"
I watched the prisoners.
"I’ll free them."
Kaelen reached the ledge first. Lyra slipped behind a stone pillar, and Seris moved along the opposite wall.
I waited until a crate blocked the soldiers’ view, then crossed the chamber.
One of the miners noticed me. His eyes widened.
I raised a finger to my lips.
He nodded.
I cut the rope around his wrists and moved to the next prisoner. He immediately began freeing the others.
Above us, Kaelen dropped from the ledge.
His sword struck the officer’s wrist before the man could reach his crossbow. The weapon clattered across the floor.
Lyra released her first arrow.
It hit a soldier in the shoulder.
The second arrow struck another in the thigh.
The chamber erupted.
The prisoners crawled behind the crates while the church soldiers drew their weapons. One of the knights rushed toward me, his heavy armor glowing with red lines.
His sword came down.
I blocked it, but the force drove me backward into the wall.
He attacked again.
I struck his knee, but the armor barely moved. His elbow hit my jaw, and my head snapped to the side.
The knight lifted his sword for the killing blow.
I caught the red line across his chest.
Abyssal Sense opened.
The power was not coming from his body.
It was being drawn from the crates behind him.
I pulled the energy away.
The knight froze.
For five seconds, he could not move.
I drove my sword beneath his helmet.
He fell at my feet.
Across the room, Kaelen slammed the officer against a pillar.
"Where is the Red Abbot?"
The officer spat blood.
Kaelen pressed his blade beneath the man’s chin.
"Answer."
"The crypt."
"How many soldiers?"
The officer smiled.
"Enough."
Kaelen struck him with the pommel and let him drop.
"That still wasn’t a number," Lyra said.
"He seemed unwilling to cooperate."
She looked toward the crates.
Seris opened one of them.
Inside were glass tubes filled with dark red liquid.
The nearest miner turned pale.
"They took it from us," he said.
Seris closed the crate.
"Then you should leave before they take more."
The prisoners hurried toward the passage.
The iron door groaned.
Red light brightened around its edges.
A bell rang above us.
The sound passed through the stone.
"The second bell is coming," Maera said.
Kaelen looked at the door.
"We move now."
The door opened.
A corridor descended beneath the cathedral. Red light covered the walls, and metal chains hung from the ceiling. At the far end, a group of church knights waited in formation.
The Red Abbot walked between them.
He wore a white coat stained with old blood. A red mask covered the left side of his face, while a scar crossed the uncovered side.
His eyes settled on me.
"So the dead heir came back."
"You sent the creature into House Ordan."
"I sent it to open the passage."
"It attacked everyone inside."
"The passage does not choose its victims."
"That sounds like a poor excuse."
His eyes moved to the ring on my hand.
"You have part of the Red Heart."
"What does the church want with it?"
"To make soldiers capable of surviving the outer gates."
He pointed toward the corridor.
"The kingdom loses thousands of men every year. The Heart can protect them."
Kaelen stepped beside me.
"By draining prisoners?"
"By using people who would die in the next war."
"That is still murder."
The Abbot did not answer him.
He raised one hand.
The knights charged.
Kaelen met the first one in the center of the corridor. Their swords collided, filling the passage with sharp metallic strikes.
Lyra fired from behind a pillar, forcing two knights to raise their shields.
Seris sent blood threads across the floor. They wrapped around a knight’s ankle and dragged him down.
I pushed forward.
The corridor was too narrow for the knights to surround us. That worked in our favor.
One knight swung at my head.
I ducked and cut beneath his arm.
A second attacked from the side.
I blocked, but his shield smashed into my ribs and forced me against the wall.
Red lines flared beneath the stone.
The ring burned.
A pale message appeared before my eyes.
> Blood Authority available.
> Range: three meters.
> Duration: five seconds.
The knight raised his sword.
I pressed my palm against his armor.
"Stop."
The command was not loud.
The red lines beneath his feet twisted around his legs.
His body froze.
I drove my sword through his chest.
The power vanished immediately.
My arm went numb.
The Red Abbot watched me.
"So that is what you inherited."
He crossed the corridor.
Kaelen tried to stop him.
The Abbot struck once and knocked Kaelen’s sword from his hand. A second blow sent him crashing into the wall.
I rushed forward.
The Abbot’s short blade cut across my ribs.
Blood spread beneath my coat.
He aimed for my throat.
I blocked with my sword, but his wrist twisted around the blade. He pushed it aside and stepped closer.
"You have Veyr’s body," he said, "but not his instincts."
I drove my forehead into his face.
The Abbot stumbled.
I kicked his knee and struck his chest.
He hit the wall, but he remained standing.
Seris shouted from behind us.
"The Heart is in the chamber!"
I looked past the Abbot.
The corridor ended at a circular room. A glass vessel stood in the center, filled with red light. Inside it floated a fist-sized crystal covered in veins.
The Red Heart.
Metal tubes connected the vessel to the walls and carried its energy deeper beneath the cathedral.
The Abbot turned toward it.
I used the moment to move.
He grabbed the back of my coat, but the fabric tore, and I fell into the chamber.
The Heart pulsed above me.
Abyssal Sense revealed the truth.
The church was forcing the Heart to power the armor, the passage, and the ritual below. The tubes were draining it slowly.
If I broke the frame, the ritual would stop.
The Heart might also break free.
I raised my sword and struck the nearest support.
The metal cracked.
The Abbot entered the room.
"Do not touch it."
His voice had lost its calmness.
I struck the support again.
It split.
Red energy exploded across the chamber.
The knights fell to their knees.
The glass vessel cracked from top to bottom.
The Heart shattered.
A wave of red light slammed into my chest and threw me across the floor.
One fragment flew toward my hand.
The ring swallowed it.
The rest of the Heart shot upward through the ceiling.
The cathedral bells began ringing at once.
The Abbot crashed against the wall.
The chamber shook violently.
"You have no idea what you’ve done," he said.
"I broke your machine."
"You broke the seal holding the lower chamber together."
The floor split beneath us.
A deep roar rose from somewhere below the cathedral.
The Abbot pulled a small red crystal from one of the broken tubes and pushed it into the mask covering his face.
The left side of his body lit up.
Seris stared at him.
"He’s taking the remaining energy."
The Abbot kicked a broken metal support toward us.
It hit the doorway.
The ceiling collapsed between us.
By the time the dust cleared, he was gone.
Kaelen entered the chamber, one hand pressed against his ribs.
"We need to leave."
For once, nobody argued.
We ran back through the corridor.
The walls shook with every step. Red light poured through the cracks, burning the old lamps and setting the wooden supports on fire.
The rescued miners reached the stairs first.
One of them slipped.
Kaelen stopped to help him.
A block of stone crashed down where Kaelen had been standing.
I grabbed his coat and pulled him forward.
"Keep moving."
"I was moving."
"You stopped."
"He was on the floor."
"That is usually where injured people are found."
He glanced at me.
"Was that meant to be funny?"
"No."
"Good."
We reached the study as the hidden passage collapsed behind us.
Lady Maera stood with several guards near the door.
"What happened?" she asked.
"The church lost control of the vault," Seris replied.
Maera looked at the red glow coming through the cracks in the floor.
"That was not supposed to happen yet."
"No," I said. "It was caused by me."
Outside the window, the cathedral’s central tower split down the middle.
A red beam shot into the sky and broke apart above the rooftops.
The bells stopped.
Black smoke spread across the city.
Church knights began pouring from the cathedral.
Some of them were dead. Others were stumbling through the streets with red light shining beneath their armor.
Lady Maera turned to me.
"What did you take?"
I raised my hand.
A small red fragment floated beneath the black ring.
"The core."
Seris shook her head.
"Only a piece."
"Enough to stop the ritual?"
"For now."
A royal horn sounded from the eastern district.
Another answered from the north.
The army was mobilizing.
Maera looked toward the streets.
"They’ll reach this estate before sunset."
"How many guards do you have?" Kaelen asked.
"Forty-two."
"Not enough."
"No."
I looked at the map on the wall.
Three red routes ran beneath Blackmere.
The first led toward the river.
The second ended beneath the noble district.
The third continued beneath the city walls.
The Red Abbot had escaped through the third route.
"We follow him," I said.
Kaelen looked at me.
"With the royal army coming?"
"We won’t fight the army. We’ll leave through the old road and reach the lower vault from below."
Seris picked up a fallen church sword.
"If the Abbot reaches the rest of the Heart, he can restore the ritual."
"And turn the church’s soldiers into weapons," Lyra added.
Lady Maera took the damaged ring from her pocket and placed it against the map.
A hidden staircase opened beneath the study.
Cold air rose from below.
This time, the passage was lit by red lines.
Far beneath us, metal scraped against stone.
Someone was already moving through the tunnel.
The Red Abbot had not gone far.
Maera handed me the damaged ring.
"Bring back the Heart."
"I’ll try."
"Don’t try."
She looked toward the burning cathedral.
"Bring it back."
I tightened my grip around both rings.
Kaelen picked up his sword.
Lyra checked her arrows.
Seris stepped onto the stairs.
Above us, the city prepared for war.
Below us, the Red Abbot carried enough power to destroy it.
I entered the passage.
"We’re going below."
The others followed.
Behind us, House Ordan’s guards began locking the doors.
The first battle for Blackmere had already started.