Chapter 10 — The Hunt Begins
Rain slicked the ruins like oil, every shattered stone whispering of battles long forgotten.
Uzo and Ronnie moved through the broken corridors of the old outpost, their breath steaming in the cold air.
The Lexicon hung dimly at Uzo's side, its glow flickering like a candle starved of air.
"Another dead end?" Ronnie asked, her voice echoing faintly.
Uzo didn't answer, he crouched by a wall where glyphs had been carved deep into the black stone old marks, etched with precision that human hands shouldn't have.
"These aren't from any House," he murmured. "They're… warnings."
The sound came then a soft hum, too deliberate to be the wind.
Ronnie froze, her hand went to the chain-wrapped dagger at her belt.
"Uzo," she whispered, "we're not alone."
A shadow stepped from the rain.
She was tall, armored in dark leather lined with faint inscriptions. Her eyes burned silver under the hood. Two blades hung at her sides, runes crawling lazily across the metal like veins of light.
"Uzo Melbourne," she said his full name, clean and sharp.
The air rippled,
Even the rain paused mid-fall for a heartbeat.
Uzo straightened. "Who are you?"
She tilted her head.
"Veyra Solane. Word Hunter of the House of Iron."
She drew her blades in a slow, fluid motion, and the runes on them flared.
"My orders are simple: the Lexicon doesn't belong to you."
Ronnie scoffed. "You talk too much."
She threw a flash bomb white light burst across the ruins.
Veyra didn't flinch. Her left blade slashed through the glare and the light shattered, like glass.
Then everything moved at once.
Uzo rushed forward, ducking under the first swing. Steel scraped against the rain. Veyra's other blade came around fast he blocked with his forearm, pain lancing through him as the rune carved a shallow line in his skin.
"Bind," she whispered.
The rune on her blade pulsed, and his body locked. His muscles trembled, frozen by invisible threads.
Ronnie screamed his name and dove in, swinging her chain dagger. The blade coiled around Veyra's wrist Ronnie yanked, sparks flying but Veyra twisted, slammed a boot into Ronnie's chest, and flung her back into a crumbled wall.
"Two of you," Veyra said, almost disappointed. "You'll die quicker together."
Uzo gritted his teeth. The bindings strained. He drew breath, forced sound through his throat.
A single word sharp, forbidden left his mouth.
"Unmake."
The air exploded.
The ground tore apart, dust and rain rising in a storm of silence. The runic hold shattered. Veyra stumbled, landing hard on her knees, her armor cracked.
When the dust settled, Uzo was panting, blood running down his wrist. The Lexicon pulsed violently, as if warning him.
Veyra rose slowly, one side of her face streaked with mud. She smiled small, cruel.
"You bleed like anyone else. Thought you were some badass human"
She charged again.
Blades met. Sparks lit the dark.
They fought in close no time for incantations.
Every strike was raw instinct, every dodge half a breath from death. Ronnie rejoined the fray, kicking a fallen beam toward Veyra.
It struck her leg she stumbled and Uzo caught her with a brutal elbow to the jaw. She spat blood, smiled wider.
"You think Names make you strong?" she hissed. "You don't even understand what you carry."
Her right blade flared. Runes turned red.
"Fall!"
The ground beneath Uzo buckled, swallowing him waist-deep into the shattered floor. Veyra raised her blade for the final strike.
Ronnie leapt between them, shouting, "Don't touch him!"
Her dagger sang through the air, embedding deep in Veyra's shoulder. She screamed not from pain, but fury. Her blades dimmed.
Uzo forced himself free, voice trembling with exhaustion. He pressed his palm to the Lexicon.
The words that came next weren't his own they came from the Lexicon's pulse, from something older.
"Be still."
The storm stopped.
Even Veyra froze her body locked mid-motion, eyes wide, like a statue of breath.
The silence that followed was unbearable. The world held its breath.
Then the Lexicon dimmed again, releasing her.
Veyra fell to one knee, gasping, her blades flickering out.
She met Uzo's eyes and smiled through the blood.
"The hunt just began, Nameless. You can't silence what was born from sound."
Then she vanished her form dissolving into shards of wordlight that scattered with the rain.
Ronnie limped to Uzo's side, trying to stop the bleeding in his arm.
"Next time", she said, voice trembling, "warn me before you piss off another psycho with glowing swords."
He managed a tired smile.
"Next time," he muttered, "I'll make sure she doesn't walk away."
The rain started again heavier now, washing their blood into the cracks.
Above them, the Lexicon flickered one last time, humming faintly as if whispering a name neither of them yet knew.