"Veyr?"
The voice came from behind the black door.
It was soft.
Tired.
Familiar in a way no voice should have been.
Lyra stepped back until her shoulders touched the tunnel wall.
"No," she whispered.
I stared at the door.
The black mark beneath my collar burned against my skin.
The voice came again.
"Is that you?"
I knew it.
Not from the memories I had inherited.
From something deeper.
A warmth in the chest. A hand brushing through dark hair. A woman singing quietly while rain struck the windows.
My mother.
But she had been dead for eight years.
Kaelen lifted his sword.
"Who is that?"
Lyra shook her head.
"Don’t open it."
I looked at her.
"You know what’s behind it?"
"I know what it sounds like."
The hidden passage behind us filled with distant footsteps.
The royal soldiers had found the entrance.
Their voices echoed through the tunnel.
"Search every room!"
"They went below!"
"Find the Draven heir!"
Kaelen looked toward the passage.
"They’re close."
Seris pressed one hand against the wall. Her face was pale, but she was still standing.
"If we stay here, they’ll trap us between the soldiers and the door."
Lyra moved toward the black stone.
"Then we take the other route."
"There is no other route," I said.
Her eyes remained on the door.
"There is always another route in this house."
She reached for the wall beside it.
Before she touched the stone, the door opened.
Only a finger’s width.
Black light spilled through the gap.
The voice spoke again.
"Veyr, don’t let them take you."
Lyra’s hand froze.
Kaelen stepped in front of her.
The gap widened.
A pale woman appeared behind the door.
Her figure was made of thin red light, her face blurred by shadows. She wore the same dark dress I had seen in the fragments of the old memories.
My mother.
She looked exactly as the body remembered her.
Not older.
Not changed.
Just as she had been before death.
Lyra’s breathing broke.
"Mother?"
The woman turned toward her.
For a moment, the red light around her face flickered.
"Lyra."
Lyra covered her mouth.
The royal soldiers were getting closer.
Kaelen looked from the woman to me.
"Is that really her?"
"No."
The answer came from Seris.
She stepped closer, studying the red light.
"It’s a blood echo."
The woman looked at Seris.
"You always were impatient."
Seris stopped.
Her expression changed for the first time since we had entered the tunnel.
"You’re not an echo."
"I am what remains."
The voice was calm, but the red light around her body trembled.
I stepped closer to the door.
"What happened to you?"
My mother looked at me.
The memory inside my body reacted before I did.
Pain crossed my chest.
The woman lifted one hand toward me, but it passed through the door.
"Your father hid the seal in this house. The king found out. The church came before he could move it."
"Where is he?"
She lowered her hand.
"Dead."
I already knew.
Hearing it from her still felt different.
Behind us, metal struck stone.
The soldiers had reached the lower passage.
Lyra wiped her face and picked up her bow.
"Mother, how do we get out?"
The red figure turned toward her.
"The river passage is sealed. The soldiers will reach you before you reach the water."
Lyra’s expression tightened.
"Then tell us something useful."
The woman smiled faintly.
"Still angry."
"I’m still alive."
"That is enough."
The black door opened another inch.
A narrow staircase appeared behind it, descending into red darkness.
My mother looked at me.
"Blackmere is not your destination."
The fragment in my hand pulsed.
I looked down at it.
The red line across its surface pointed toward the staircase.
"Then where are we going?"
"The old royal road."
Kaelen frowned.
"That road leads to Blackmere."
"It leads beneath Blackmere."
The footsteps behind us grew louder.
A soldier shouted, "They’re in the lower passage!"
Kaelen turned toward the sound.
"We have seconds."
My mother’s image began to fade.
"Veyr, listen to me."
I looked at her.
"The church will tell the king that you opened the door. The king will tell the nobles that you murdered his soldiers. Neither will be true."
"That changes nothing."
"It changes who will stand beside you."
She turned toward Lyra.
"Take him to House Ordan."
Lyra stiffened.
"No."
"They owe the Dravens a blood debt."
"They won’t help us."
"They will help him."
"Why?"
My mother looked at me.
"Because your father saved their heir."
The royal soldiers entered the passage.
A crossbow bolt struck the stone beside my head.
Kaelen raised his sword.
"Move!"
Lyra grabbed my sleeve and pulled me through the black door.
Seris followed.
Kaelen entered last, blocking the passage with his body as another group of soldiers rushed toward us.
The door began closing.
A royal knight reached it and thrust his sword through the gap.
Kaelen caught the blade with his own.
The knight pushed harder.
"Veyr Draven! By order of the crown, surrender!"
Kaelen’s arm shook.
I grabbed the edge of the black door and pulled.
The ring burned.
The door slammed shut.
The knight’s sword snapped between the stones.
Kaelen stumbled backward.
For a moment, we stood in complete darkness.
Then the red light beneath the stairs came alive.
It showed a long tunnel carved through black stone. The walls were covered in old Draven symbols, most of them scratched out or damaged.
Lyra moved ahead.
"Don’t touch the walls."
Kaelen looked at her.
"Why?"
"The house dislikes strangers."
"That is not a reason."
A spear of black stone shot from the wall and struck the ground where he had been standing.
Kaelen looked at it.
Lyra continued walking.
"It doesn’t need a reason."
He followed without another question.
The tunnel sloped downward.
The red light became brighter as we went.
Behind us, something struck the sealed door.
The royal soldiers had not left.
They were trying to break through.
Seris walked beside me.
"You trusted the blood echo."
"I didn’t."
"You followed it."
"The soldiers were behind us."
"That is not the same thing."
"It was enough."
She glanced at the fragment.
"Your mother said the king will blame you for opening the door."
"He already blamed House Draven."
"He needs a living culprit now."
"That would be me."
"You’re becoming important."
"I was hoping to avoid that."
Seris looked ahead.
"You’re doing a poor job."
A rumble passed through the tunnel.
The floor tilted.
Lyra grabbed the wall.
"Run."
The tunnel behind us cracked.
Stone blocks fell from the ceiling.
We sprinted down the passage as dust filled the air. Kaelen stayed behind us, cutting apart the smaller pieces before they reached Seris.
A massive block fell between us.
Lyra disappeared behind it.
I jumped over the stone and landed beside her.
She had been pinned against the wall by a second piece.
Her leg was trapped.
"Leave me," she said.
I looked at the stone.
It was too heavy to lift.
The tunnel shook again.
Another crack appeared above us.
Kaelen reached us and drove his sword into the gap.
"Help me."
"You have a broken rib."
"I know."
Seris moved closer.
"I can cut it."
"No blood," I said.
"I wasn’t planning to use blood."
She placed both hands against the stone.
Red light gathered around her fingers, but it did not come from her wounds. It came from the markings on the wall.
The Draven symbol beneath her hands began to glow.
The stone weakened.
Kaelen pushed.
I pushed with him.
The block moved enough for Lyra to pull her leg free.
We stumbled away as the ceiling collapsed behind us.
The passage disappeared beneath a wall of stone.
The soldiers were cut off.
For the first time since leaving the estate, we had distance between us and the crown.
Lyra leaned against the wall.
Her breathing was uneven.
"Thank you."
I looked at her trapped leg.
"Can you walk?"
"Yes."
She tried.
Her knee buckled.
Kaelen caught her before she fell.
Lyra stared at him.
"I said I could walk."
"You were practicing."
He helped her stand without commenting further.
I looked at Seris.
She was staring at the glowing symbols.
"What did you do?"
"I asked the house to move the stone."
"And it listened?"
"It recognized the blood."
She wiped dust from her sleeve.
"Your family built more than one lock."
"Are you saying there are more doors?"
"No."
She looked toward the collapsed tunnel.
"I’m saying your family had a way to survive if one door failed."
That was more useful.
We continued.
The staircase ended at an underground chamber.
A circular platform stood in the middle, surrounded by four stone pillars. Each pillar carried a different crest.
Draven.
Ordan.
The royal crown.
And the church’s three-winged raven.
The black fragment in my hand pulled toward the platform.
Lyra stopped at the edge.
"This is the old royal road."
Kaelen looked around.
"It’s underground."
"The royal family used it before Blackmere was built. It connected the old fortress to the capital."
I stepped onto the platform.
The red line beneath my feet formed a circle.
A symbol appeared in the air.
> Blood route detected.
>
> Destination available: Blackmere.
>
> Cost: one sealed memory.
I stared at the message.
"Cost?"
Seris moved beside me.
"What does it say?"
I told her.
Lyra’s expression hardened.
"Don’t use it."
The tunnel behind us shook again.
The soldiers had found another way through.
Kaelen looked toward the stairway.
"How long?"
"Not long," Lyra said.
I looked at the platform.
The system waited.
One sealed memory.
I had spent days trying to recover the original Veyr’s memories. Most of them came broken, useless, or filled with pain.
Now the system wanted to take one.
There was no guarantee it would choose an unimportant one.
It could take the memory of my father.
My mother.
Lyra.
Or the moment Veyr had watched his father being taken.
I hesitated.
Kaelen noticed.
"You don’t have to use it."
"If we stay, we fight royal soldiers in a tunnel."
"We can fight."
"You’re injured."
"So are you."
Seris looked toward the stairs.
"They’re coming."
The first soldier appeared between the pillars.
Kaelen raised his sword.
I stepped onto the center of the platform.
The royal knight saw me.
"There!"
He charged.
Kaelen intercepted him.
Steel struck steel.
The knight pushed him back.
Two more soldiers entered the chamber.
Lyra fired.
Her arrow struck one in the throat.
Seris raised her hands, but the blood on her wrists barely moved.
I pressed the fragment against the center of the platform.
The red symbol opened beneath it.
> Confirm route?
>
> Memory will be sealed permanently.
I looked at Lyra.
She was drawing another arrow.
At Kaelen.
He was fighting with one arm pressed against his ribs.
At Seris.
She was standing because falling would waste time.
The royal soldiers kept coming.
I pressed my hand down.
"Yes."
The platform activated.
The memory was taken from me.
I felt it leave.
A courtyard covered in snow.
My father on his knees.
Royal soldiers surrounding him.
The original Veyr standing beside the gate.
A hand on his shoulder.
A promise from the king.
A choice.
Then nothing.
The pain vanished.
So did the memory.
The red circle beneath my feet exploded with light.
The chamber disappeared.
For one terrifying moment, I felt my body falling through empty space.
Then I hit stone.
I rolled across a tiled floor and struck a wall.
Kaelen landed beside me.
Seris fell near the center of the room.
Lyra arrived last, crashing into a table.
The platform was gone.
The chamber was gone.
We were inside a dark underground hall.
Water dripped from the ceiling.
A large staircase led upward toward a sealed iron door.
Above it, a faded inscription read:
BLACKMERE.
Kaelen pushed himself upright.
"Did it work?"
I looked at my hands.
The black fragment had fused with the ring.
A thin red line now circled my finger.
"We’re under the city."
Lyra limped toward the staircase.
"Then we have to move."
Seris did not stand.
She was staring at me.
"What did it take?"
I knew what she meant.
"A memory."
"Which one?"
"I don’t know."
She went quiet.
I did not know if that was because she understood or because she had nothing to say.
Kaelen studied my face.
"You don’t remember?"
"No."
"Was it important?"
I looked toward the iron door.
"I think it was."
The door above us shook.
Something stood on the other side.
A voice came through the metal.
"Open the door."
Kaelen drew his sword.
Lyra reached for an arrow.
Seris forced herself to stand.
I walked up the first step.
The voice spoke again.
"Veyr Draven, by order of the crown, you are under arrest."
Kaelen looked at me.
"The king’s soldiers?"
"No."
The voice was different.
Calm.
Confident.
Young.
The same voice that had spoken through the masked woman in the forest.
A heavy lock turned on the other side.
The iron door began opening.
A man stood beyond it wearing a royal black coat embroidered with silver.
He had pale blond hair and a narrow sword at his side.
Two knights stood behind him.
He looked directly at me.
Then he smiled.
"Welcome to Blackmere, Veyr."
I knew that face.
Not from the original story.
From the memories I had just lost.
He had been standing beside my father on the day the king took him.
The man raised his hand.
"Your brother has been waiting for you."
The door opened completely.
And the person standing behind him was the original hero.