The bells grew louder, rolling through the streets like iron waves. Adrian shut the book, heart pounding.
"They are here," he said.
The woman did not move. She only tilted her head, listening. "Good. Then you will learn faster than most people."
The door shuddered under a fist of metal. "By order of the Choir!" a voice boomed. "Surrender the Seal-bearer, or burn with him!"
Adrian's hand went to the knife at his belt, though he knew it would do nothing. "You planned this," he hissed at her.
"Planned?" Her lips curved in that knife-like smile. "No. Expected? Yes. The Choir smells their prey the moment the Seal awakens. But tonight, Adrian Vale…" Her gaze hardened like iron. "…tonight you will learn whether you belong to them—or to yourself."
The door splintered. Lantern light spilled into the room, silver-bright, wrong. Figures in pale robes entered, faces hidden behind masks of hammered brass. In their hands burned lanterns filled with something that writhed instead of fire.
Adrian stumbled back, the Seal inside him blazing in answer. His veins lit faintly, throbbing with whispers.
One of the Choir stepped forward, lantern raised. The writhing light inside it screamed without sound. "There," the masked man said. "The Brand glows. Take him."
Adrian felt his knees weaken as the Seal screamed in reply, urging surrender. He could almost hear his brother's voice again—"Join us, Adrian. The hunger ends if you kneel."
"No," he whispered.
The woman's voice cut sharp as steel. "Then silence it. Show it that you own your voice."
The Seal flared. Heat surged through his blood, but it did not burn—it illuminated. The lanterns of the Choir faltered, their glow shuddering as if starved.
The masked figures staggered. One dropped his lantern, which burst into ash as it struck the ground.
Adrian's vision sharpened. Every whisper separated into threads—some coaxing, some threatening, some lying. And beneath them all, a single low tone, steady as a drumbeat. His own.
He seized it.
The Seal roared. The Choir screamed. Their lanterns died, one by one things took a turn.
When the smoke cleared, three robed figures lay unconscious—or dead. The rest had fled into the night.
Adrian collapsed against the table, breath ragged. His veins still glowed faintly.
The woman regarded him in silence, then said, "You have silenced your first voice. That makes you a Lantern-Bearer in truth."
Adrian stared at the fallen lanterns, each one now nothing but gray dust. His chest still throbbed with the Seal's rhythm. "And if I hadn't…?"
"Then you would be theirs." She stepped over a body without hesitation, her smile sharp as ever. "And I would be looking for another student."
He felt cold, despite the glow in his blood. "Why me?"
Her gaze lingered on him, unreadable. "Because the Seal chose you. And because your brother climbed higher than any before he fell."
Adrian froze.
The bells tolled again, echoing across Calvesset. Not warning this time. Summoning.
The Choir would return. Stronger.
And Adrian Vale, whether ready or not, had taken his first step onto the ladder of Brands.