"Kaelen."
The voice came again.
This time, the red crystals along the walls responded. Their surfaces brightened one after another, sending a thin line of crimson light toward the passage covered in blood.
Kaelen didn’t move.
I glanced at him. "You know, most people answer when someone calls their name."
"Not this one."
"Good. We agree on something."
Mara gave me an irritated look. "Can you two stop talking for a moment?"
I closed my mouth.
The voice came from deeper inside the mountain, but the crystals made it difficult to tell how far away it was. There was no echo. No distortion. Whoever spoke sounded as if they were standing directly behind us.
"Kaelen Ren."
His sword rose a fraction.
That was the first time the voice had used his full name.
Seris slowly lowered Tomas onto a flat section of stone. His breathing had become shallow, and sweat covered his forehead despite the cold air.
"Whatever that thing is," she said, "it’s affecting him."
She was looking at Kaelen’s chest.
The scar beneath his clothes glowed through the fabric.
Kaelen noticed her expression and pulled his coat tighter. "I’m fine."
"You’re sweating through your shirt."
"It’s warm down here."
"It’s freezing."
"Then I’m unusually talented."
Seris stared at him.
I almost laughed. Almost.
The situation wasn’t good enough for that.
I turned toward the two passages. The blue lamps along the left road burned steadily. The other path had no visible light except for the red crystals, and the blood leading into it looked fresh enough to have been spilled within the last hour.
Mara stepped beside me.
"We take the blue road."
"Why?"
"Because I’ve used it before."
That caught my attention.
"You’ve been here?"
"Once. Years ago. There was a mining settlement on the western side of the mountain. We used this passage to move supplies when the upper roads became impassable."
"And the other road?"
"I’ve never entered it."
"Then how do you know the blue road is safe?"
"I don’t. I know where it leads, and I know how to get out."
Fair enough.
I examined the writing above the two passages again.
To Helford.
To the Heart Below.
Someone had carved the words long before the village existed. The lettering was worn, but the deeper grooves remained strangely clean.
I touched the raven ring.
The metal felt warm.
A faint notification appeared before my eyes.
[Hidden Route Detected.]
[Two destinations available.]
[Western Passage: Survival probability unknown.]
[Heart Passage: Restricted.]
I waited for more information.
Nothing came.
"Wonderful," I muttered.
Kaelen looked at me. "What?"
"The system has decided to become mysterious."
"Your system?"
"Unfortunately."
He seemed ready to ask another question, but the crystals behind him suddenly flashed.
The voice spoke again.
"The key has returned."
Kaelen’s knees nearly buckled.
I caught his arm before he hit the ground.
His skin was burning.
"Kaelen?"
He grabbed my wrist. His fingers tightened hard enough to hurt.
"Don’t let it open the door."
"What door?"
"The one beneath the throne."
His eyes had lost focus.
For a moment, I thought he was looking at something behind me. Then his grip loosened, and he took a sharp breath.
Seris rushed over.
"Move."
She pressed two fingers against his neck, then examined the scar. The red light had spread beyond its original boundaries, forming thin branches across his chest.
"This isn’t ordinary corruption," she said.
"I gathered that."
"Something is responding to the mark inside him."
"Can you stop it?"
She hesitated.
That was enough of an answer.
Mara looked toward the blue passage. "We need to leave. If the army finds another entrance, we’ll be trapped between them and whatever lives here."
I agreed with her.
Unfortunately, the mountain had other plans.
A low vibration passed through the floor.
The blood on the right-hand path began moving.
Not flowing downhill. Not spreading through cracks.
It gathered into thin lines and crawled against the stone, drawing itself toward the darkness.
Lyra raised her crossbow.
"Tell me that’s normal."
"No," Mara said.
The lines joined together.
A handprint appeared on the floor, followed by another several feet ahead. Then another.
Something was walking toward us.
Without a body.
I drew my sword.
"Everyone to the blue passage. Now."
Nobody argued.
Mara helped Tomas to his feet while Seris supported his other side. Lyra backed away with her weapon aimed at the darkness.
Kaelen remained beside me.
"You should go," he said.
"That’s an interesting suggestion."
"I can hold it back."
"You’re barely holding yourself upright."
"I can still fight."
"I believe you. I just don’t believe your judgment."
He gave me a tired look.
For a second, the expression on his face reminded me of someone who had spent too long carrying responsibilities that should never have belonged to him.
Then the blood moved again.
A shape emerged from the darkness.
It was a man, or something that had once resembled one. His body was thin and covered in strips of dark cloth. A rusted chain hung around his neck, disappearing beneath his ribs. Where his face should have been, there was only a smooth surface marked by a single vertical crack.
He stopped at the edge of the red light.
"Return the key."
Kaelen raised his sword.
"Who are you?"
The creature tilted its head.
"I was the one who kept the door closed."
"Which door?" I asked.
The smooth face turned toward me.
The pressure in my chest returned.
It was stronger than before, pushing against my ribs as if something inside me wanted to answer the creature.
The system appeared.
[Foreign trace detected.]
[Source: Heart Below.]
[Warning: Predatory interaction may result in permanent contamination.]
I dismissed the notification.
The creature took another step.
"You carry the blood of the first vessel," it said to me. "Yet you walk beside the heir."
"People keep telling me what I carry. Nobody ever offers to pay for the luggage."
It didn’t react.
"Two bodies. One unfinished design."
Kaelen moved in front of me.
"Leave him out of this."
The creature’s head turned back toward him.
"The key speaks for the vessel."
"I said leave him out of this."
The scar on Kaelen’s chest flared.
The creature raised one hand.
The red crystals burst with light.
Kaelen was thrown against the wall.
"Kaelen!"
I lunged forward, but the creature moved faster. Its arm stretched across the passage, blocking my path. The chain around its neck rattled, and the blood on the floor rose into sharp points.
I cut through the nearest strand.
My blade passed through it like ordinary liquid.
Then the severed blood reformed around my wrist.
Cold spread up my arm.
[Stonehide activated.]
The newly claimed ability responded before I understood how to use it. A layer of gray hardness covered my skin, stopping the blood from digging deeper.
I pulled free and struck the creature’s arm.
This time, my sword connected.
The impact sent a vibration through my shoulder, but the creature barely moved.
It looked down at the damaged cloth.
"You have taken something that does not belong to you."
"Get in line."
I drove Cinder Vein into the wound.
The first burst burned through the creature’s outer layer. The second tore a hole through its shoulder.
There was no flesh underneath.
Only a dark cavity filled with moving red threads.
The creature staggered.
I took the opportunity to strike again, aiming for the crack in its face.
It caught my sword.
Its fingers closed around the blade.
The metal began turning black.
I released the hilt and jumped backward.
The creature threw the sword aside.
It struck the floor and shattered.
I stared at the broken weapon.
"That was expensive."
The creature lifted its free hand.
The chains around its neck snapped outward.
I barely avoided the first one. The second caught my shoulder and hurled me against the wall.
Pain shot through my ribs.
The creature approached without hurrying.
Behind it, Kaelen struggled to stand. Seris had reached him, pressing her bloodied palm against the scar on his chest. Red strands wrapped around his torso, fighting the light beneath his skin.
"Don’t touch the mark!" he shouted.
Seris ignored him.
The blood strands tightened.
Kaelen screamed.
The creature stopped.
For the first time, it seemed genuinely interested.
"The vessel remembers."
I pushed myself upright.
"Hey!"
Its head turned.
I held up my empty hand.
"Your conversation skills need work."
Then I activated Cinder Vein.
The energy gathered in my palm, but instead of aiming at the creature, I struck the floor beneath its feet.
Stone exploded.
The creature dropped into the shallow crater, its chains tangling around the broken rock.
"Now!" I shouted.
Lyra fired.
Her bolt struck the vertical crack in its face.
The creature jerked backward, releasing a sound like metal dragged across stone.
Seris tore her hand away from Kaelen.
The blood around him snapped forward, forming a narrow blade.
She drove it through the creature’s chest.
The red threads inside its body writhed.
For a moment, everything went still.
Then the creature spoke.
Not in its own voice.
In Kaelen’s.
"Open the door."
Kaelen froze.
The blood blade dissolved.
The creature’s body collapsed into a heap of black cloth and rusted chain.
The pressure vanished.
I remained against the wall, breathing through the pain in my ribs.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Lyra lowered her crossbow.
"Was that supposed to happen?"
"No," Mara answered.
"Good. I was worried I’d missed something."
Seris hurried toward the remains.
"Don’t touch it," I warned.
She stopped.
I pointed toward the chain.
Every link had turned white, and thin cracks were spreading across the metal.
A moment later, the entire chain disintegrated into dust.
Something small remained where the creature had fallen.
A black key.
It was no longer than my finger, with a raven carved into its head.
The ring on my hand grew hot.
I approached carefully.
The system appeared again.
[Item detected: Keeper’s Key.]
[Compatibility: Confirmed.]
[Current restriction: Unknown.]
I picked it up.
The instant my fingers closed around the metal, a sharp image flashed through my mind.
A vast chamber.
A black throne.
A figure chained beneath it.
And behind the throne, a door covered in red veins.
Someone stood before that door, holding a sword.
I couldn’t see his face.
But I recognized the scar across his chest.
Kaelen.
The image vanished.
I staggered, catching myself against the wall.
Seris grabbed my shoulder.
"What did you see?"
I looked down at the key.
"Something I don’t want to see again."
Kaelen approached slowly. His breathing had steadied, but the scar still glowed faintly.
When he saw the key, all the color drained from his face.
"Where did you get that?"
"It fell out of our very friendly visitor."
"Throw it away."
"You’re going to have to give me a better reason than that."
"That key opens the chamber beneath the royal palace."
Mara turned sharply.
"That’s impossible. The old records say the chamber was sealed before the kingdom was founded."
"Then the old records were wrong."
Kaelen reached for the key.
I closed my fist.
He stopped.
"Listen to me," he said. "If the Crown discovers you have that, they’ll never let you leave Helford."
"That sounds like a problem for future me."
"I’m serious."
"So am I."
We stared at each other.
Finally, he lowered his hand.
"The key doesn’t just open the chamber," he said. "It can call whatever is locked inside."
I glanced at the dark passage.
"And the thing that just attacked us?"
"A keeper."
"Of course it was."
Mara looked toward the blue lamps.
"We’re leaving. Whatever this key does, we can discuss it somewhere that doesn’t have monsters growing out of the walls."
Nobody disagreed.
We gathered our belongings and moved into the western passage. The blue lamps brightened as we approached, revealing old stonework and rusted rails half buried beneath the dust.
The road was narrow, but it remained intact.
After several minutes, the heat beneath my ribs began to fade.
I checked the system one last time.
[Predator’s Claim: Stonehide.]
[Ability status: Stable.]
[Foreign trace: Active.]
[Warning: The Heart Below has recognized the claimant.]
I dismissed the message.
That was the problem with mysterious powers. They always came with mysterious consequences, and the consequences usually arrived when you were busy dealing with something else.
We continued through the mountain.
Tomas had stopped shaking, although he remained too weak to walk without help. Seris stayed beside him, occasionally checking his pulse.
Mara led the group.
Lyra walked behind her, watching the darkness.
Kaelen remained beside me.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
Then he said, "You saw something when you touched the key."
I glanced at him.
"How do you know?"
"Because I saw something too."
I slowed.
"What did you see?"
He stared ahead.
"A throne. A door. And someone who looked like me."
My fingers tightened around the key inside my pocket.
"Was he alive?"
Kaelen shook his head.
"I don’t know."
We walked several more steps.
Then he added, "But he was wearing the royal crown."
Before I could respond, the blue lamps went out.
All of them.
The darkness swallowed the passage.
Ahead of us, something struck the stone floor.
Once.
Twice.
Then a familiar voice spoke from the darkness.
"Kaelen."
He drew his sword.
I reached for the broken hilt at my side before remembering I no longer had a usable weapon.
The voice continued.
"This time, bring the vessel."
The key in my pocket began to turn by itself.
And somewhere far beneath our feet, a door unlocked.