Ash from the furnace valley drifted uphill in thin, sighing wisps, clinging to cloaks and lashes before fading like ghosts. Kael guided his cohort to a shallow balcony carved into the cliff wall, the Nullglaive—an Ashwin heirloom blade passed down from his great-grandfather— slung across his back as they ducked beneath three titanic chain links. Each link was a warped arch of iron as wide as a carriage road, warm under one's palm and humming with tension. Far overhead, the Chain-Crowned Leviathan tugged against those links; every strained pulse rattled dust from the rock and made the plateau feel less like stone and more like trembling drumskin.
Thorn wedged his battered shield between two knee-high boulders, forming a crude hearth. He scooped glowing embers out of a dented brazier plate abandoned by some earlier climber and cupped them bare-handed. Ember-red runes on his gauntlets absorbed the heat without scorching leather or flesh; when he spilled the embers into the hearth and breathed, the runes flared—returning warmth in a steady, smokeless flame.
Rei collapsed cross-legged beside the fire, boots inches from blue-orange tongues. Calves twitched from too many Blinks; each time she flexed a foot, sparks crawled beneath her skin, eager to leap but finding no exit. She hissed between teeth and kneaded the knots loose.
Veyra settled opposite, straight-backed, palms on knees. Two figments appeared behind her—one wearing a fox mask carved from moon-pale porcelain, the other a wolf grin traced in gold leaf. They perched on nothing, tails of shadow fanning out before dissolving into the gloom. Firelight caught their faces, making them glow like living lacquer.
Elias knelt next to the hearth, tightening wires on the raw-crystal braces that reinforced his cracked gauntlet focus. The bracing looked less like a repair and more like a growing exoskeleton, each shard etched with fine kinetic runes. Every turn of the wire made the crystal hum a note too low to hear but easy to feel in the teeth.
Kael stood watch a few paces out, resting the butt of the Nullglaive on his boot. He traced the ridgeline with unease. Instinct—nothing mystical—told him danger liked to follow silence up these mountains. At intervals he counted heartbeats against distant chain-groans. The count never matched twice; the Leviathan's breathing had its own cruel rhythm.
Wind rattled the links overhead, sending trickles of ash down like gray rain. Between gusts, tongues loosened.
Rei flicked a pebble into the flames, watching it pop and ricochet. "Anyone else's muscles screaming treason, or just mine?"
"Mine," Elias murmured without looking up. "And Thorn's, though he's too stubborn to list complaints."
Thorn arranged another rock to block wind into the fire. "Stubborn's cheaper than Essentia."
Rei propped her elbows on knees. "Let's spend cheaper coin, then. Story hour. We never explained why the Academy threw the five of us into one cohort."
Elias's mouth curved wryly. "Containment, officially. I read the review-board minutes. They used that word twice."
Rei barked a laugh. "Containment for this," she declared, flicking a throwing dagger skyward. It spun, flashed blue, and buried itself in a knot in the rock wall behind Kael. "First-year courtyard brawl. They said it looked like a riot."
Kael felt the smile tug at his mouth. "It was a riot. A wooden riot."
Thorn's laugh rolled like gravel down a chute. "One lost wager, half the courtyard in splinters, three benches smashed, five practice glaives busted—including yours across Dorian's helmet."
Rei pointed at Kael. "The sound it made—crack!—and the whole yard froze."
"He called it a valuable lesson," Kael said, shrugging. "Didn't look valuable sprawled on the flagstones."
Elias tightened the last brace wire. "I logged the trajectories. Fifty-two unique projectiles in under three minutes. That record still stands, by the way."
Veyra's fox-mask cocked its head, as though listening. "I arrived a term later," she said. "All I heard were rumors: the red-haired storm-thief, the Ashwin heir who fought like scenery owed him blood, Thorn the unbreakable wall, and a bookworm who financed textbooks by gambling."
"That's slander," Elias objected. "I only wagered tuition once."
Rei rolled her eyes. "He doubled it, then blew half on a kinetic calculator no one but him could read." She beckoned to Veyra's figments. "Masks? I need one that yawns when he lectures."
The fox mask yawned on cue; the wolf only stared, unamused. Veyra joined Rei's grin but said nothing more.
Kael let the memory breathe: dusty air, training blades ringing, instructors shouting futility. He remembered Rei's laughter mid-sprint, Thorn pivoting to block two overswung staves at once, Elias leaning over a banister scrawling equations instead of helping, and Veyra nowhere—her absence now present like a missing puzzle piece finally slid into place. A warm ache of camaraderie rose under his sternum, quickly tempered by the chain's next groan.
Footfalls whispered down-trail—soft, cautious, too rhythmic to be random. Kael lifted the glaive. Thorn mirrored the move, sliding between fire and darkness. Two silhouettes came into view: dusty gray cloaks, insignia a cobalt gear over crossed tongs.
The lead—lean, sharp-eyed—raised empty hands. "Cobalt-Forge cohort. Not here to bleed."
Kael's stance stayed wary. "State the trade."
"Anchor map," she said, unrolling a charcoal sketch. Ridgeline contours, numbered wind-tunnel vents, a circled node three ridges east. "One Essentia vial buys it."
Rei's glance cut to Kael's belt pouch. They carried two vials scavenged from Shade remains; giving one left a margin but no luxury. After a breath Kael tossed the smaller. The Cobalt leader pocketed it quick as a pickpocket. "Pressure vents chant before they blow," she warned. "And something hunts Essentia near that ridge—smells it like blood."
"What kind of something?" Thorn asked.
"Lost three cadets before we saw more than claws." She melted back into darkness, her partner with her. Their footsteps faded quickly—too quickly for tired feet.
Rei watched them vanish. "They looked half-starved."
"Everyone still alive looks half-starved," Elias muttered.
Silence settled. Ash drifted off the chain link overhead, sprinkling the coals with faint silver specks that winked out as they cooled. Thorn rotated the shield, letting the metal drink heat from the fire and bleed it back when embers waned. Elias traced runes into the dirt with a twig—kinetic formulas no one else could read. Veyra's wolf-mask perched on her shoulder, whispering something that made her lips curl like a secret.
Rei rubbed a thumb across the dagger hilt. "You think the outside world cares who gets to the top?"
"Every House wants a champion," Elias answered. "But the Gate keeps its own ledger."
"Ledger's meaningless if the Leviathan snaps loose," Thorn said, eyes on the restless chains.
Kael followed the link's sweep into cloud gloom, feeling the pull of the impossible weight above. "Then we keep it bound. One anchor at a time." He listened to the wind for a beat. "Rotate watches—two hours each. No hero shifts."
Thorn claimed first, shield across his knees. Rei took second. Elias volunteered third; the firelight made his glasses flicker amber. Veyra and her figments would watch dawn.
Kael set his back to the chain support. Sleep came in shallow gulps, edged by the hiss of wind and iron.
Somewhere during Rei's watch, she nudged him awake. "Two shadows near the ridge," she whispered. "Not Malkyre. Not Eastreach."
He glimpsed them—just shoulders and hoods, retreating behind a chain strut without insignia. They carried bows but no banners. Hired blades or Gate-born scavengers. They melted into deeper dark.
Rei sucked a breath in through teeth. "If they're hunting Essentia, we're glowing beacons."
Kael nodded, but the silhouettes didn't return. The night finished without attack, leaving the question unanswered—human or monster makes little difference when both want your heartbeats.
Before dawn flushed the sky violet, Thorn quenched the brazier with gravel. Sparks hissed into nothing. Elias packed his gear; the raw crystal bracing gave a low, contented hum. Veyra dismissed her masks with a snap—fox bowed dramatically, wolf merely faded. Rei stood slowly, calves stiff but eyes sharp.
Wind carried the Leviathan's iron breath across the chain arch. Lights from rival cohorts winked out one by one as other groups broke camp. Kael tightened his gauntlets, slung the glaive across his back, and took the first step upward.
Coin spent. Tomorrow's toll waited, gleaming red in the distance like a warning flare.