"Run."
The voice came from the ring.
For a moment, I thought I had imagined it.
Then the eastern courtyard collapsed.
The ground split beneath my feet, sending soldiers and broken stones into the darkness below. Odrik grabbed his sister and dragged her toward the western gate while Kaelen caught Seris by the arm and pulled her away from the widening crack.
I moved in the opposite direction.
The crack raced toward me.
I jumped over it as the ground broke apart behind my heels. A section of the courtyard dropped into the darkness, taking half of the eastern wall with it.
Something struck the stone door beneath us.
The impact lifted the remaining stones.
A second blow followed.
The door bulged upward.
Kaelen landed beside me with his sword raised.
"Move!"
I looked toward the soldiers frozen near the gate.
"Get them out."
Kaelen turned toward me. "What are you doing?"
"Closing the door."
"You just said you didn’t know how."
"I’m aware."
The ground shook again.
I ran toward the center of the courtyard.
A piece of stone flew across the ruins and struck the wall beside me. I kept moving, but the next one hit my shoulder and spun me around.
Pain spread down my arm.
Kaelen reached me before I could stand. He grabbed the back of my coat and pulled me away as another section of the courtyard collapsed.
"You’re running toward the hole."
"That’s where the door is."
"That doesn’t make it better."
A roar rose from beneath us.
It passed through the stones and into my chest.
I pushed myself up.
Kaelen looked at the soldiers still trapped inside the courtyard, then shouted toward the western gate.
"Everyone out! Move!"
This time, they heard him.
Odrik began pushing the wounded forward. Two soldiers carried a third between them while another dragged a broken shield behind him.
The ground broke again.
A black shape pushed through the crack.
At first, it looked like a hand.
Then five long fingers wrapped around the broken stone.
The fingers were covered in gray armor, with red light burning between the plates.
The soldiers near the eastern side finally ran.
I reached the center of the courtyard and stopped.
Abyssal Sense activated.
The cracks in the ground became pale blue lines. They spread beneath the fortress walls and descended into the darkness below.
One line was brighter than the others.
It ended beneath a large stone in the center of the courtyard.
A circle divided by three vertical cuts had been carved into its surface.
The same symbol marked my ring.
I crouched and placed my hand over the stone.
The ring burned.
> Sealed mechanism detected.
>
> Compatibility confirmed.
>
> Unlock sequence available.
A narrow groove opened across the stone.
Inside was a small black slot.
I stared at it.
"The lock has a lock."
Kaelen landed beside me as another blow struck the door below.
"Can you open it?"
"I think so."
"That doesn’t sound reassuring."
"It isn’t."
I pressed the ring into the slot.
Red light filled the groove.
The symbol turned once.
Then twice.
The ground stopped shaking.
For half a second, everything became quiet.
Then the hand beneath the courtyard pulled itself higher.
The stones broke apart.
An armored figure forced its shoulder through the opening. It was not as large as the guardian, but it was still taller than the gatehouse. Dark metal plates covered its body.
It had no face.
Only a narrow red line stretched across its head.
Kaelen raised his sword.
"What is that?"
I watched the creature pull itself out of the darkness.
"A problem."
"It looks like a soldier."
"Then try talking to it."
The creature swung its arm.
Kaelen shoved me aside and blocked the blow with his white sword. The impact drove him into the ground.
The creature turned toward him.
I moved around its side and attacked its knee.
My blade struck the armor and bounced away.
The creature did not even slow down.
Kaelen rolled away before its other hand crushed him.
I searched for another blue line.
Abyssal Sense showed me one running from the lock beneath the stone, up through the creature’s body, and ending at the red mark across its head.
The lock was connected to it.
"Hit the mark on its head!"
Kaelen glanced at me, but the creature attacked again.
He ducked beneath the blow and ran over a broken block of stone. From there, he jumped and drove his sword toward the red line.
The creature turned.
Its arm struck Kaelen in the side before the blade reached its target.
He flew across the courtyard and crashed into a pile of stone.
"Kaelen!"
He did not answer.
The creature lifted its arm again.
Seris raised one hand.
Blood gathered from the wounds on her wrists and wrapped around the creature’s damaged knee. The chains tightened, stopping its movement.
Seris nearly fell.
"I can’t hold it."
I ran toward her.
"Hold it long enough."
The chains began snapping.
I reached the creature’s leg and drove my sword into the gap behind its knee. This time, the blade entered.
Red light burst through the wound.
The creature dropped to one knee.
Kaelen rose from the rubble.
He was bleeding from the mouth, but he still had his sword.
He climbed onto the creature’s back and brought the white blade down on the red mark.
The mark split.
White light exploded across the creature’s head.
It released a sound like tearing metal and reached behind itself.
Kaelen jumped away before its hand caught him.
The creature struck the ground instead.
The impact threw me toward the western gate.
Odrik was still forcing the soldiers through it. His sister was helping one of the wounded walk.
The gate mechanism had been crushed beneath a fallen beam.
"It won’t move!" one of the soldiers shouted.
I reached the beam and placed both hands against it.
"Move away."
Odrik’s sister looked at me.
"Now."
She stepped back.
I pushed.
The beam barely moved.
The soldiers joined me.
Behind us, the creature rose again. Kaelen attacked its leg, but the creature kicked him away.
Seris lifted both hands.
The chains around the creature’s knee tightened once more.
"Again!" Odrik shouted.
We pushed harder.
The beam rolled away from the mechanism.
The western gate opened.
"Take the wounded and go!" Odrik ordered.
The soldiers began leaving.
His sister remained beside him.
Odrik grabbed her arm.
"You too."
"I can help."
"You can help by staying alive."
She looked toward the creature, then followed him through the gate.
I turned back.
The last chains around the creature broke.
Kaelen stood between it and Seris, holding his damaged sword with both hands. One of his legs dragged behind him.
The creature brought its fist down.
Kaelen blocked it.
The white blade bent.
The stones beneath his feet cracked.
I ran toward the lock.
The red line connecting the creature to the door was still visible.
A new message appeared.
> Sealing sequence incomplete.
>
> Hostile entity obstructing the mechanism.
>
> Required action: Break the connection.
The line passed through the creature’s left shoulder.
I picked up my sword and moved.
The creature forced Kaelen backward.
Seris tried to raise another chain, but only a few drops of blood moved around her fingers.
I jumped onto the creature’s arm.
The metal plates shifted beneath my boots as it tried to throw me off.
I climbed toward its shoulder.
The red line pulsed beneath the armor.
I drove my sword into it.
The blade entered.
Red light spread across the creature’s body.
It stopped moving.
Kaelen pushed his white sword forward, cracking the red line across its head.
The creature reached behind itself and grabbed me.
Its fingers closed around my waist.
My ribs tightened.
I could not breathe.
The ring grew colder.
The voice returned.
"Do not use the white fire."
I had not planned to.
The creature lifted me toward its head.
I pressed my hand against its chest.
Abyssal Sense opened fully.
The red line was not a chain.
It was a command.
The door beneath the fortress was ordering the creature to rise.
The ring was not holding it back.
The ring was giving the command.
I pushed the red light into the connection.
The creature’s grip tightened.
Pain filled my chest.
The metal plates around its head opened, revealing the narrow red line beneath them.
There was no face behind it.
No eyes.
Only the door’s command.
I pulled.
The connection resisted.
The creature brought me closer.
I pulled again.
The red line tore.
The creature released me.
I fell.
Kaelen caught my coat before I hit the ground, but the movement pulled him down with me.
The creature stood above us.
Its chest split open.
A black hollow filled with red light appeared inside it.
It stepped toward the lock.
Seris had reached the stone mechanism. She pressed both bleeding hands against the symbol.
"The lock needs two signatures," she said.
"What?"
The symbol beneath her hands changed.
A second line appeared beside mine.
"Now it has them."
The ring grew colder.
Kaelen pushed himself upright and stepped in front of us.
The creature swung.
He blocked the blow.
The force drove him backward, but he remained standing.
I pressed my hand against the stone.
The lock began turning.
One section opened.
Then another.
The stone door beneath the courtyard started closing.
The creature abandoned Kaelen and rushed toward us.
Kaelen tried to intercept it.
The creature struck him across the chest.
He flew past me and landed near the gate.
The creature reached for Seris.
I grabbed my sword and attacked its arm.
The blade cut through the damaged shoulder.
The creature stopped with its hand inches from Seris’s face.
"Keep going," she said.
I pushed harder.
The creature turned toward me.
A pulse of force struck my chest and threw me backward.
I landed beside Kaelen.
My sword slipped from my hand.
The creature moved toward the lock again.
Seris kept both hands on the stone, but the light around her fingers was fading.
The creature raised its foot.
I forced myself up.
Kaelen was still unconscious.
There was no sword within reach.
Abyssal Sense showed me one last line.
It ran from the creature’s chest to the lock.
It was thinner now.
The door was closing.
I reached for it through the ring.
The mark around my neck burned.
The connection snapped.
The creature froze.
Its foot stopped above Seris.
I pulled the line toward the lock.
The creature’s armor began breaking apart.
Seris looked at me.
"What are you doing?"
"Sending it back."
The creature fought against the pull.
Its body cracked open, releasing waves of heat.
The door beneath the courtyard resisted as well.
The ring grew colder.
The voice spoke again.
"Now."
I pushed.
The creature disappeared into the crack.
Its arm went first.
Then its chest.
The red light beneath the courtyard swallowed the rest of its body.
The stone door slammed shut.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Then the eastern ground collapsed completely.
Seris fell forward.
I caught her before she hit the stones.
She pushed against my chest and stood on her own.
"I had it."
"You were falling."
"I was sitting down."
"You were falling while sitting down."
She gave me a tired look and walked toward Kaelen.
He was awake now, though blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
Seris knelt beside him.
"Can you move?"
Kaelen tried to sit up and stopped halfway, one hand pressed against his ribs.
"No."
"Then don’t."
He looked toward the sealed courtyard.
"Did we win?"
I looked at the black mark beneath my palm.
The door was closed.
For now.
"We’re alive."
"That’s not what I asked."
"It’s the answer you get."
Kaelen lowered himself back to the ground.
Seris examined the marks beneath my collar.
"They spread."
I looked down.
Black lines had appeared beneath my skin, running from the mark at my throat toward my chest.
"Are they dangerous?"
She wiped blood from her palm.
"I don’t know."
"That’s becoming a habit."
"So is touching things you shouldn’t."
Before I could answer, one of the soldiers shouted from near the ruined courtyard.
"Something’s moving!"
Everyone turned.
The stones shifted.
Abyssal Sense activated on its own.
A pale blue path appeared beneath the rubble. It did not lead down.
It moved sideways, under the western wall, and continued toward the road beyond the fortress.
Something had escaped before the door closed.
I took a step forward.
Seris caught my sleeve.
"What did you see?"
"A path."
"Where does it lead?"
I looked toward the western gate.
"I don’t know yet."
Kaelen forced himself upright.
"You’re going after it."
He had already understood.
"The thing that came out of the door wasn’t the only problem."
Seris released my sleeve.
"What was it?"
I picked up my sword.
The mark on my neck pulsed once.
Far beneath the fortress, something struck the sealed door.
Not hard enough to open it.
Hard enough to remind us that it was still there.
I looked toward the road.
"Whatever escaped is heading that way."
Odrik approached from the gate.
"The soldiers are exhausted."
"I know."
"The church may still be in the forest."
"I know."
He looked at the wounded men gathering beyond the gate.
"We can’t fight again."
"We may not have to."
Branches broke beyond the wall.
Then came footsteps.
A figure stumbled from the trees and collapsed beside the gate.
The man wore church armor.
His throat had been torn open.
Seris reached him first, but he was already dying.
His hand caught her sleeve.
His eyes moved toward the fortress.
"The door..."
Seris leaned closer.
"What about it?"
The soldier struggled to breathe.
"It opened..."
Blood filled his mouth.
"Something came through."
His grip weakened.
Then he died.
No one spoke.
I looked beyond the gate, toward the dark road leading into the forest.
The blue path continued beneath it.
At the end of the trail, Abyssal Sense showed me a single moving mark.
It was heading away from Draeven March.
Fast.
Kaelen reached for his sword and nearly fell.
I caught his arm.
"You can’t fight."
"I can walk."
"That isn’t the same thing."
"I know."
He looked toward the forest.
"If it reaches the church, we lose the trail."
Seris stood and wiped the dead soldier’s blood from her fingers.
"The church already knows."
I looked at her.
She did not explain.
She did not need to.
A black symbol had been carved into the soldier’s chest.
It was the same mark as the one on my ring.
Someone had been waiting for whatever came through the door.
I tightened my grip on my sword.
"Open the gate."
Odrik stared at me.
"My lord..."
"Open it."
This time, he did not argue.
The western gate began to rise.
Beyond it, the forest waited in the darkness.
The path beneath the ground pulled me forward.
And somewhere ahead, something carrying my family’s mark was running through the night.