Chapter 10 – The Scent That Does Not Lie
Third night in Karathar.
Nyxarion lay on the hard cot in the guards' dormitory, eyes closed, perfectly still.
He was not sleeping.
He was listening.
The entire city breathed, and he listened to every breath.
Suddenly, a presence stopped just outside the barred window.
Footsteps too light for a common guard.
The smell of burnt incense and heated iron.
Lucas felt it first.
Someone's out there.
And it's not a friend.
Nyxarion did not move a muscle.
He simply opened his eyes in the dark.
Through the narrow gap he saw the silhouette: a dark-gray cloak, hood low.
A short staff of black iron tipped with seven silver points.
Mark of the Order of Ash.
Hunter.
Sniffer of profane magic.
She did not enter.
She only stood there, staff touching the stone floor.
The seven silver tips glowed faintly, tasting the air.
Lucas whispered inside his head:
She felt the mind magic.
Is she coming in?
"No," Nyxarion answered, voice utterly calm.
"She's probing.
She wants to see who flinches."
The hunter remained for nearly a full minute.
The staff turned slowly, drawing invisible circles, hunting the exact center of the scent.
Then she spoke, low enough that only the room could hear:
"Same pattern.
Same taste of the abyss.
Whoever you are… I will find you before the auction."
She didn't know it was him.
Not yet.
But she knew the source was somewhere inside the Veyll compound.
Nyxarion stayed perfectly still.
Not even his breathing changed.
She waited another ten heartbeats.
Nothing.
No door creaking.
No shadow shifting.
No panicked guard.
She slid the staff across her back and vanished into the night.
Lucas finally exhaled.
Holy shit… that was close.
"It wasn't close," Nyxarion replied, still motionless.
"It was exactly what I wanted.
She caught the trail, but she didn't find the source.
Now she'll watch the whole compound.
She'll follow every guard.
She'll waste time."
Only then did he sit up on the cot.
"While she chases ghosts, I locate the object at my leisure.
Three days left.
She is a problem… but a distracted one."
Lucas gave a shaky laugh.
So you let her sniff on purpose?
"Not on purpose.
But I didn't stop her either.
Sometimes the best disguise is being the place everyone has already searched."
Nyxarion lay back down, eyes fixed on the cracked ceiling.
"Tomorrow she'll interrogate half the guards.
The day after, she'll tail Gorran.
By auction night she'll be exhausted from hunting shadows.
And I will be one step ahead."
Lucas fell silent for a long time.
You're terrifying when you plan.
"I'm terrifying when I survive," Nyxarion corrected.
"And I survive by planning."
Outside, the hunter was already two streets away, staff glowing again as she followed a trail that looped uselessly around the compound walls.
But the real scent she sought lay quiet, cold, and motionless inside the dormitory.
Three days.
And the true abyss had not made a single wrong move.
(End of Chapter 10)