The docks still smelled of ash. You could taste it in the air even after the rain came, bitter and sharp, clinging to throats. Warehouse 31 had burned down to its bones, and with it, a vein of Red Fang's coin.
The city whispered louder than ever.
"Umbra did it."
"Shadows burned the Fang."
"Someone finally struck back."
Hope spread fast, faster than fear could smother.
And that made Veyra furious.
---
Her retaliation came two nights later.
They dragged ten people into the plaza at dawn. Not fighters. Not vendors with grudges. Just names pulled at random. Mothers, children, old men with weak knees.
Veyra herself stood before them, coat stitched with glowing shards, her braid gleaming in the pale light.
"Umbra thinks fire makes them gods," she said, voice calm. "So let's remind them what happens when shadows touch flames."
She lifted her hand.
A Fang relic flared in her palm—something stolen, crude, but deadly. Red light snapped and screamed as she poured its charge into the air.
One by one, the captives screamed. Their shadows burned away on the ground, leaving bodies limp but alive. Alive for now. Hollowed.
"Every time Umbra strikes," Veyra said coldly, "more shadows vanish."
The plaza shook with silence.
---
From the crowd's edge, I watched under my hood. The Lexicon throbbed in my chest, hot and sick, pages turning sharp enough to cut. Mara stood near me, blade hidden under her sleeve, face pale with rage. Jonas was still as a wall, but I could feel the tremor in his fists.
"She'll bleed the city dry," Mara hissed. "She's not scared—she's insane."
"She's both," I said.
Jonas' voice rumbled low. "We strike her."
I shook my head. "Not yet. Fang is loud, but Helix is listening harder now. We move too soon, we don't get a second chance."
Mara's eyes snapped to mine. "So we let her hollow people out while we sit in a room and play ledger games?"
I met her gaze. "No. We bleed her where it hurts most. Her pride. Her trust. Her people. We don't fight her strength. We make her fear her own shadow."
The Lexicon pulsed warm, agreement humming like a drumbeat.
---
That night, the backroom burned with tension.
Mara paced, blade flashing in candlelight. Jonas sat silent, shadow heavy across the wall. I traced new lines on the map.
"Veyra won't stop unless we corner her," I said. "But we can't fight her head-on. Not yet. So we carve pieces off. Small strikes. Quick. Unseen."
Mara stopped pacing. "Collectors again?"
"Collectors, lieutenants, smugglers. Anyone who feeds her coin. We cut the flow until she bleeds herself dry."
Jonas finally spoke. "A wall falls when you pull out the stones."
"Exactly." I tapped the ledger. "We'll make her wall crumble from the inside."
Mara's blade slowed in her hand. Her smirk returned, faint but sharp. "Fine. But when she's crawling, I get the throat."
The Lexicon thrummed steady, pages settling.
Umbra had drawn blood in fire.
Now, Umbra would bleed the Fang with silence.
---
Author's Note (Relic):
Fang's Hollow Relic (Rare): Emits red energy that burns away shadows from living targets, leaving them drained and weakened. Cruel tool of intimidation, unstable in prolonged use.