Silence never felt this loud.
The altar was a ruin of blackened stone and smoking rose petals. Shards of shattered glass littered the blood-lit floor like fallen stars. The torches had died. The priests had fled. Only Kael remained… and her.
Seraphina.
No—not her, not really.
Not just her.
The flames still licked the hem of her gown, but they no longer burned. Her feet hovered inches above the scorched marble. Her eyes glowed with unnatural light—like furnaces sealed behind glass. And the runes carved into the cathedral floor still pulsed red beneath her.
As if they knew. As if they remembered.
Kael stood across from her, a slow shadow creeping up the altar behind him as the dungeon began to stir. His voice was low, hoarse, shaken—but not surprised.
"You were never supposed to remember."
Her lips curled. "And yet… I do."
**_FLASH_**
A memory cracked through her skull like lightning.
Chains. A circle of gods in gold masks. Kael behind her, whispering into her ear: "Don't scream."
Then a blade.
Then flames.
Then—Vael.
His name rippled inside her like an earthquake.
"My daughter… My fire… You've come back to me."
The cathedral moaned. Not from wind. From underneath. From within. From below.
Kael moved first. Fast—inhumanly so.
He reached her in two steps, grabbing her wrist, pressing his palm against her chest as though trying to stop something from rising out of her.
"You don't know what you're waking—"
**_BOOM._**
The stone beneath their feet cracked, splitting the rune circle in two.
From the chasm below came a hiss—like a serpent dragging iron claws across bone.
Seraphina didn't flinch.
Kael did.
He pulled away, just as a gust of wind screamed up from the crack, ripping through the remains of the cathedral like the exhale of a god newly woken.
**_Below the Altar…_**
Beneath miles of blackened rock and buried sacrificial chambers, Vael stirred in his cage of molten chains.
He was not fully awake.
Not yet.
But he had smelled her.
He had heard her scream.
And even half-asleep, he could reach her… with whispers.
"They lied to you, my child."
"He buried you in ash to wear your crown."
"Come down to me. Let me show you what they fear."
Back above, Seraphina stumbled backward as the voice buzzed through her skull like hornets behind her eyes. Her heart raced. Her breath hitched.
Kael's hand caught her waist before she collapsed.
And for a split-second… she let him hold her.
His eyes searched hers—not with anger. Not even fear. With grief.
"I tried to stop them," he whispered.
"I tried… but in the end, I chose my kingdom over you."
She tore away.
"Then let your kingdom rot."
**_The Door Appears_**
As she turned, her gaze landed on something impossible.
A wall behind the altar had begun to bleed.
Not with blood.
With light.
A soft, pulsing, crimson glow seeped through the cracks of ancient stone—like veins beneath the skin of a corpse. Seraphina stepped closer.
The glow pulsed in sync with her heartbeat.
She pressed her palm against it.
And the stone whispered open.
A hidden passage.
A staircase of bone and blackfire.
The first gate to the Dungeon Below the Altar.
Kael was at her side again, breathless.
"You can't go down there."
She didn't look at him. Her voice was calm, deadened.
"Then why did you build the cathedral on top of it?"
He said nothing.
That was answer enough.
"Come down, flame-born."
"See what they tried to bury with you."
Her feet began to move—first one step, then another, as the red light swallowed her.
Kael reached out again.
"Seraphina—please. That god doesn't love you. It never did."
She paused at the top of the staircase.
Turned her head just enough for him to see the fire crackling beneath her skin.
"Then maybe I'll finally learn who did."
And she descended.
**_ In the Deep_**
The deeper she went, the quieter the world became. The air grew colder, denser. Walls wept red dew. Stone arches twisted into grotesque serpents and screaming angels. Torches flickered to life as she passed—but their flames were blue, not gold.
She could feel it.
The dungeon wasn't just alive.
It was… watching her.
She reached the bottom of the first level, where a massive stone door stood carved with a single phrase:
"To Burn the False Gods, One Must First Remember Their Names."
Her fingers brushed the surface.
The door swung open.
And inside—
She saw them.
Bodies.
Hundreds.
Suspended from the ceiling by hooks of obsidian and sinew. Eyes gouged. Mouths sewn shut. Some still breathing.
All of them… priests.
The very ones who had crowned Kael.
And above them, carved into the ceiling in dragonbone:
"LONG LIVE THE FALSE KING."
Seraphina did not scream.
She stepped inside, eyes burning, heart steady.
And behind her, far above, the altar resealed itself with a soft thrum—trapping Kael in the ruins… and her in the dark.
TO BE CONTINUED...
🔥 Chapter Hook — "The Dungeon Below the Altar"
A forbidden staircase.
A whispering god.
A truth no one dares speak.
As Seraphina descends into the dungeon carved in her name, she begins to uncover the truth behind the kingdom's lies—and the blood price she was once forced to pay.
🗝️ What lies beneath the dragonbone ceiling?
🩸 Who were the true traitors in her past life?
🔥 And why is the dungeon calling her Queen?
📖 Next: Chapter 3 – "Vael's Cage"