The city of Aethelgard did not sleep, but it did blink. Between the changing of the guard at midnight and the first bakers lighting their ovens at three in the morning, there was a brief, fragile window where the streets belonged to the shadows.
At the edge of the Ironclad Estate, the party split.
Ignis, Silas, Caspian, and Lucian vanished into the dark, dressed in matte-black gear Valeria had pulled from the Library's Subterfuge collection. They moved toward the Noble District, toward the Vespera Estate and the Red Tear necklace.
Valeria and Kael went the other way. Down.
They stood before a rusted iron grate in a back alley of the Temple District. The air rising from the grate smelled of damp stone and decay.
"The sewers," Kael noted, wrinkling his nose. "Fitting. We are rats tonight."
"We are infiltrators," Valeria corrected, adjusting her gloves. She wore a tight-fitting tunic of dark grey wool and soft-soled boots. "The main entrance to the Temple of the Silent Saint is guarded by Paladins. The catacombs, however, connect to the city's old drainage system. It's disgusting, but unguarded."
Kael gripped the grate. With a flex of his massive shoulder muscles, he tore the iron bars from the masonry. There was a groan of metal, but he muffled it with his body.
"Ladies first," Kael rumbled, gesturing to the dark hole.
Valeria dropped down.
The catacombs were older than the Empire. The walls were lined with skulls, stacked neatly like bricks, their empty sockets watching the intruders. The floor was slick with moisture.
Valeria tapped her temple. [Merchant's Monocle: Active.]
[Mode: Acoustic Visualization.]
The world shifted. The darkness became a landscape of blue wireframes. But more importantly, she could see sound. Every footstep sent out a red ripple. Every drip of water was a pulse of crimson light.
"Stop," Valeria whispered, holding up a hand.
They stood at the entrance to a massive circular chamber. The ceiling disappeared into gloom. The floor was not stone. It was covered in millions of tiny, fragile bones - finger bones, bird skulls, vertebrae.
Hanging from the ceiling were hundreds of bronze bells, suspended on invisible spider-silk threads.
[Zone: The Hall of Atonement.]
[Ward Active: Vow of Silence.]
[Trigger Threshold: 10 Decibels (A whisper).]
[Consequence: Summon Guardian Gargoyles.]
"The floor is an alarm," Valeria breathed, barely moving her lips. "If we crush a single bone, the sound will trigger the bells. If the bells ring, the statues wake up."
She pointed to the alcoves lining the walls. In each one stood a Stone Gargoyle, frozen in a scream, holding a jagged stone sword.
Kael looked at the field of bones. It stretched for fifty yards.
"I am three hundred pounds of muscle and metal," Kael whispered. "I cannot walk on twigs without breaking them."
"I know," Valeria said. "But I can."
She looked at the ceiling. There were stone arches spanning the room, high above the bells.
"You can jump," Valeria said. "You have the legs of a Tiger. Can you make it to the arches?"
Kael looked up. He calculated the distance. "Easy. But you cannot."
"You carry me," Valeria said.
Kael looked at her. He didn't argue. He knelt, presenting his back.
"Hold tight," Kael murmured. "And do not scream."
Valeria climbed onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. He felt solid, like warm rock.
Kael stood up. He crouched low, his thigh muscles bunching.
He didn't make a sound. He didn't grunt. He simply exploded upward.
They soared through the air, passing silently between the hanging bells. Valeria held her breath, watching the bronze clappers inches from her face.
Kael landed on the narrow stone archway twenty feet above the floor. His landing was miraculous - a soft thump that barely registered on Valeria's monocle. His Metal Manipulation allowed him to soften the impact of his own density.
He ran along the arch, balancing on a beam no wider than a book. Below them, the sea of bones remained undisturbed.
They reached the other side. Kael dropped down to the balcony overlooking the inner sanctum.
"You are heavy," Kael teased softly as he set her down.
"I am carrying the weight of the plot," Valeria retorted, checking her map. "Sector 4 is this way."
They moved deeper into the crypts. The air grew colder. The skulls on the walls changed from human to beast displayed as trophies of the Guild's ancestors.
They reached a heavy iron door marked SECTOR 4: RESTRICTED.
Ignis wasn't here to pick the lock. But Valeria didn't need a lockpick. She had chemistry.
She pulled a vial of Aqua Regia (Royal Water) from her inventory, which was a potent acid she had mixed in the Library. She used a glass dropper to apply it to the hinges.
Hiss.
The sound was sharp, like a snake. Valeria flinched, watching the red sound-wave ripple out on her monocle. It hit a nearby Gargoyle.
The statue's eyes glowed faint red. Stone scraped against stone as its head turned.
"Freeze," Valeria mouthed.
They stood perfectly still. Kael held his breath.
The acid ate through the metal. The hinges dissolved. The door leaned forward, threatening to crash onto the floor.
Kael moved faster than thought. He caught the heavy iron door inches before it hit the ground. He held the thousand-pound slab with one hand, his biceps straining, sweat popping on his forehead.
He lowered it gently to the floor.
Silence.
The Gargoyle's eyes faded back to grey.
They slipped inside.
Sector 4 was not a tomb. It was a library of sins.
Rows of metal cabinets lined the walls, each labeled with a year. Year of the Red Comet.Year of the famine.Year of the Uprising.
"Vault 9," Valeria whispered, scanning the rows.
They found it at the end of the aisle. It wasn't a cabinet. It was a standalone vault door, circular and massive, made of a dark metal that seemed to absorb the light.
In the center of the door, there was no keyhole. There was a depression in the shape of a hand.
[Lock Mechanism: Blood Seal (Type A).]
[Requirement: Guild Highmaster Bloodline.]
"Damn it," Valeria cursed internally. "Varg lied. Or he didn't know. It's DNA encoded."
"We don't have Garius," Kael whispered, looking at the hand scanner. "Can we break it?"
"If we break it, the room explodes," Valeria said, reading the runes etched around the frame. "It's rigged with Fire-Glyphs. It destroys the contents if forced."
She paced in front of the door. She needed a way to trick the sensor.
She opened the System Library.
Topic: Magical Forensics. Subtopic: Blood Spoofing.
Theory: Blood locks detect mana signatures inherent in the blood, not the biological cells themselves.
"Mana signature," Valeria muttered. "Highmaster Garius has a specific mana signature. Dark. Controlling. Dominant."
She looked at Kael.
"Kael, give me your hand."
"My blood won't work," Kael said. "I am the opposite of Garius."
"I don't need your blood," Valeria said. "I need your Metal Manipulation. The lock mechanism behind the plate... it uses mercury switches to detect the viscosity and charge of the blood. If you can feel the mercury inside... maybe you can trip the switches manually."
Kael frowned. He placed his hand on the cold metal door, next to the scanner. He closed his eyes.
"I feel it," Kael whispered. "Liquid metal. Tiny tubes. It is... complex."
"Imagine you are the blood," Valeria coached. "Flow through the tubes. Trigger the sensors. Be the key."
Kael furrowed his brow. The bronze tattoos on his arms began to glow faintly. He focused his will.
Click.
Inside the door, a tumbler moved.
Click. Click.
"It is resisting," Kael grunted. "It knows I am not blood. It is fighting me."
"Push harder," Valeria whispered.
Suddenly, a low growl echoed from behind them.
Valeria whipped around.
Standing at the end of the aisle, blocking their exit, was a creature.
It was the size of a horse. It had the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and the head of a man, but the face was sewn shut. No eyes. No mouth. Just giant, bat-like ears.
[Target: Temple Guardian (Chimera Class).]
[Traits: Blind. Echolocation. Silent Step.]
It hadn't been summoned by noise. It had smelled them.
The creature tilted its head. It let out a high-pitched chirp - sonar.
The sound wave hit Valeria. The creature's muscles bunched.
"Kael," Valeria whispered, her voice trembling. "We have company."
Kael opened his eyes. He saw the beast.
"Open the door," Kael said, removing his hand from the lock. "I will handle the puppy."
"The door isn't open yet!"
"It is now," Kael growled.
He didn't use finesse. He used brute magical force. He shoved a spike of his own mana into the lock mechanism, overloading the mercury switches.
CLANG.
The vault door groaned and spun open.
The noise was deafening in the silent crypt.
Instantly, the entire temple woke up.
In the outer hall, hundreds of Gargoyles cracked their stone shells.
The Chimera roared - a soundless, psychic scream that hit them like a physical punch.
"Go!" Kael shouted, shoving Valeria into the open vault. "Get the book!"
He turned to face the Chimera. The beast leaped.
Kael caught it in mid-air. He grabbed its lion paws and slammed it into the ground.
CRACK.
The floor tiles shattered.
Valeria scrambled into the vault. It was a small room, empty except for a single pedestal. On it lay a book bound in black leather.
[Item: The Black Ledger of the Beast Taming Guild.]
She grabbed it.
"Got it!" Valeria yelled.
She turned to run back out, but the doorway was blocked.
Kael was wrestling the Chimera. The scorpion tail whipped forward, aiming for Kael's neck. Kael caught the stinger in his metal-hardened hand, the poison dripping onto his skin and sizzling.
"We are trapped!" Kael roared, throwing the Chimera back. "The Gargoyles are coming!"
Valeria looked past Kael. The corridor was filling with stone warriors. They were slow, but there were dozens of them.
"We can't fight them all," Valeria realized. "And we can't go back the way we came."
She looked at the vault itself. It was reinforced. Fire-proof. Magic-proof.
"Kael! Get in!"
"What?"
"Get in the vault!"
Kael didn't question her. He kicked the Chimera in the chest, sending it tumbling into the oncoming Gargoyles, and dove backward into the small room.
Valeria slammed the heavy door shut.
BOOM.
Darkness swallowed them.
Outside, the scratching of stone claws against the metal door began instantly.
"We are sealed in," Kael panted in the dark. "With limited air. And an army outside."
"We aren't staying," Valeria said. She activated the Merchant's Monocle for light. The blue glow illuminated the small space.
She pointed to the floor of the vault.
"This is a Guild vault," Valeria said. "The Guild are cowards. They always have an escape route for their treasures in case of a siege."
She knelt and tapped the floorstones.
Hollow.
"Here," she said.
Kael knelt beside her. He punched the stone. It crumbled, revealing a dark chute sliding downward.
"A laundry chute?" Kael asked, raising an eyebrow.
"A pneumatic tube for emergency extraction," Valeria corrected. "It leads directly to the river."
She clutched the Black Ledger to her chest.
"Ready to go for a swim, Husband?"
Kael grinned in the blue light.
"After you, Wife."
They jumped.
Meanwhile, at the Vespera Estate.
Ignis, Silas, Caspian, and Lucian stood on the roof of the greenhouse overlooking the Vespera mansion.
It was a fortress of luxury. Guards patrolled the gardens. Runes glowed on the windows.
"The water is cold," Caspian whispered, looking at the canal that flowed under the wall.
"The water is your friend," Ignis said, checking his pocket watch. "You have ten minutes to lower the drawbridge. If you fail, Silas will have to jump the wall, and he is terrified of heights."
"I am not terrified," Silas growled softly. "I just prefer the ground."
"Go," Ignis ordered.
Caspian slipped into the dark water without a splash. He was a shadow beneath the surface, moving toward the iron grate that barred the underwater entrance.
Ignis adjusted his monocle. He looked at Lucian.
"Eyes up, bird. Watch the Lady's window. If a candle is lit, we abort."
"Aye aye, Captain," Lucian saluted and took flight, silent as an owl.
Ignis looked at the sleeping mansion. Somewhere inside was the Red Tear. The key to the war chest.
"Let us see if the Duke guards his gold as well as he guards his daughter," Ignis whispered.
He pulled a set of lockpicks from his sleeve.
"Time to rob the rich."