Zora and Micah crept forward as their boots crunched over dust-coated metal. The silence was heavier there, like it had no signs of life. Zora reached the base of a hatch that hadn't been sealed completely.
"We're here," she whispered, running her fingers across the edges. " This tunnel leads directly beneath the throne.
Micah pressed his palm to the hatch's rusted surface."It shouldn't still be open… not after all these years."
" I guess Horam did not think anyone would make it this far," she replied.
Micah grunted as he twisted an old mechanical lock. " Won't budge," he said, straining his arm muscles in a second attempt.
" Let me try." Zora stepped back, flexing her fingers as her cybernetic arm hissed softly. A bright pulse gathered between her palms, and with a surge, a thin laser beam sliced through the lock with a hiss. Sparks fizzled and the hatch opened.
Micah blinked and teased her." Show off."
Zora smirked faintly." You're welcome."
They climbed up the narrow shaft and emerged into a shadowed chamber beneath the old throne room. The air was unnaturally cold and they could feel the vibrations through the walls, and then they saw it.
Rows of translucent pods lined the walls like grotesque display cases. Inside each pod, a figure floated in suspension, with its body drained of colour. The figures looked like they were in a limbo between life and death, and tubes were connected to their veins, draining into a tank that contained blood.
Micah staggered forward.
" No…", he said, sounding like he was holding in the urge to cry.
Two of the pods were lit brighter than the others. Inside them were the unmistakable features of the king and Queen of Gorthmic, Micah's parents. They were now reduced to hollow shells of who they used to be.
Zora went numb where she stood, still trying to understand what she was looking at. Every pod held someone of noble lineage: former rulers, heirs and leaders thought dead.
" This…this is how he sustains himself", she murmured, eyes wide with horror. " He's extracting royal blood and transplanting it. That's how he's stayed alive and so powerful."
Micah didn't speak. He knelt before his parents' pods, hands trembling as he reached out. " He kept them barely alive all this time, just to feed on them."
Zora touched his shoulder gently with her voice low. "Micah…"
"I thought they were dead and I made peace with that. But this…" He said, with tears rolling down his cheeks. "This is much worse."
She stayed by him in silence, letting him grieve… but then she turned her eyes to the rest of the room. She couldn't find her mother in any of the pods.
Zora exhaled deeply and a fragile hope flickered to life in her chest. " She's not here. He has not done it to her yet."
Micah looked up, his face streaked with rage. "Then we are not too late."
"No", Zora stood with her eyes burning with hope," we are not."
And for the first time since the broadcast, she let herself believe that she could win. What she hadn't realised yet was that this was the beginning of the unfolding of something far more dreadful, enough to alter her life forever.
Zora moved like a shadow, gliding past each glowing pod, with random thoughts that exacerbated the feeling of urgency. Something tugged at her. It was not a thought or a memory, it was a magnetic, familiar feeling, like she was being drawn to something.
" Do you feel that?" She whispered.
Micah glanced at her." Feel what?"
"She's close… I don't know how, but I feel it… like something inside me is tethered to her." The feeling spread through her core, and then her chest, where she could feel her heart beat.
They walked deeper into the metallic halls, winding past half-lit corridors. Horam's chambers were a labyrinth, but Zora's movement felt like it was almost… predestined.
They moved behind walls with caution, ducking behind and listening for guards. Every turn was another dead end and every chamber, another haunted hall of prisoners and failed experiments. Still no sign of Horam.
Then… the air changed.
A pressure settled over them, like hot air flowing over their skin. The tunnel opened into a grand cathedral-like space lined with black crystals. They were inside the northern chamber.
"This is it," Zora said.
Horam stood at the far end of the chamber, his back to them, revealing his tall and monstrous silhouette. A long robe of wires and synthetic flesh trailed behind him like a living cloak. He seemed like he was too busy working on something to notice any movement in the chamber.
Micah leaned closer to Zora and whispered," We can't take him head-on, we would probably be dead in seconds."
"I know," Zora said, examining Horam's frame.
Micah quickly pulled a small map from his chest pocket and scribbled a route around the walls.
" We'll split. I'll go through the back of that wall over there and cause a distraction. You'll get in, find the Queen and get her out."
Zora nodded in agreement." Let's end this."
They broke apart, moving unnoticed like shadows. Zora slowly but carefully scanned the chamber, checking every panel and sealed door, hoping for a sign.
Then, a voice split the silence, one she knew better than her own heartbeat.
"We have waited long for you, my daughter."
Zora froze, and a blinding beam of white light landed on her and Micah's hiding spot. They squinted like prey caught in a trap.
"No," Zora whispered, stepping forward.
Out of the darkness stepped Queen Moira, not frail, battered or broken, but regal, eyes glowing with clarity and her gown shimmering like it was polished with oil. She looked younger than Zora remembered and more terrifying.
"Mother," Zora said in disbelief.