The building was three levels deep. Above lay a vast stone warehouse with wooden beams and high windows, used for trade and storage. Below that was the operational level—chambers where business was conducted, where the silk man gave his orders. And beneath that was the cellar.
The three levels were connected through narrow staircases and stone passages. Then the floor shook.
Dust fell from the ceiling as the rumbling echoed from below. The silk man's head snapped up, but before he could react, the center of the chamber exploded with stones erupted upward with a devastating force. The jagged man's body shot through the opening like a missile, skidding across the polished floor.
The Silk Man took a weary step back at the explosion, watching with a curious interest as the jagged man skidded across the polished floor and stopped inches away from the metallic box.
Then he slowly traced the disturbance back to the smoking hole in the center of the hall where kael was standing.
The Silk Man's brow furrowed and he turned slowly toward the three men nearby.
"Which of you let the rat out of the cellar?"
Killers who had survived the Sinks suddenly studied their boots. One gripped his knife; the other choked on a half-formed excuse, but not one of them met his gaze.
The Silk Man sighed and turned his back to leave the room.
"Re-educate him," he murmured with a casual wave of his hand toward the boy. "Then put him in the deep-drain. I want him to feel the exact cost of my floor in his marrow."
Behind him, the three men closed in. The shame of their silence curdled into something sharper. They didn't look at each other; they only looked at Kael, their faces hardening into the cruel masks of men with a debt to settle.
"Hahaha!"
The silk man stopped mid-stride and turned slowly, a vein becoming visible on his cheek as he tried to understand why the child was laughing.
His gaze met Kael's violet eyes, and they stared at him with an intensity that made his breath catch. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
"You bloated swine. Who exactly did you just call a rat?"
The silk man's face flushed red and his anger erupted.
"Kill him!" he roared, his voice echoing through the chamber. "Kill the boy right now! I don't care what—"
But Ten didn't let him finish. She launched forward with a speed none of their eyes could follow, sending his palm crashing into the silk man's face with devastating force.
The silk man's head snapped downward. His body was driven straight into the floor with brutal impact.
He muffled some words, but they were all blocked by Kael's palm pressing against his mouth and face, keeping him pinned.
Slowly, his eyes went white as he lost consciousness. Then Kael's eyes glowed with rage and purple energy slowly gathered around Kael's small frame, swirling with an intensity that made the air itself vibrate. The three men instinctively stepped back with their hands raised to shield themselves.
They braced for what was coming, then Ten released the energy.
It erupted outward in all directions, wild and uncontrolled. A massive wave of violet force that tore through everything in its path.
The three men were thrown backward, their bodies crashing into the walls hard enough to crack it. The metallic box skidded backward, slamming into the far wall. The wooden beams that held the ceiling began to splinter and crack.
The entire building shook violently and the roof collapsed. The massive wooden beams crashed down, sending stone blocks tumbling down from above.
Dust erupted everywhere, swallowing the chamber in choking clouds of debris. The sound was deafening—the crack of breaking wood, the crash of falling stone, the terrible grinding of a structure giving way.
Everything was buried under the ruins.
When the dust began to settle, Kael's small figure emerged from the wreckage.
He stood there, his clothes torn and dusty, the black marks still visible on his skin. But in his small hand, he held the pendant.
Ten breathed heavily through his mouth.
"Got back your pendant kid. I held my own part of the deal. I'll wait for yours."
Then she scrambled through the broken wood and fallen beams, moving towards the far wall where the metallic box lay partially buried.
The minutes were running out.
She reached the box and pressed her small hand against the lock. Violet energy gathered at her fingertip, condensing into a thin beam.
Then she released it. The laser-like burst of purple energy shot from her hand, striking the lock at close range, exploding the metal and breaking the lock.
Inside the box, the chained girl trembled at the sound of the lid opening slowly.
Her eyes adjusted to the sudden light and chaos. Dust still hung in the air, debris was scattered everywhere. And standing before her was Kael.
"Take care of this kid for me will ya," Ten said, her voice already fading. "My time's up."
Shortly after, the black marks on Kael's body began to retract. They slid back beneath his skin like living things returning to their source. The violet glow in his eyes faded, reverting back to their dark color.
Then his body went limp and he slumped forward into the arms of the confused girl who had just been freed from the box. She caught him instinctively with trembling hands as she held his unconscious form.
She stared blankly at his face. The purple mist and the marks were gone.
Only the silence remained. The girl held Kael's unconscious body, her trembling arms wrapped around his small frame.
Dust still hung in the air. Debris was scattered everywhere around them in the ruins of the silk man's crumbled building.
She looked up slowly toward the fading night sky. The darkness was retreating. Stars were disappearing one by one as dawn approached.
While the morning sun filtered through the ruins of the collapsed building, the city watch was already on scene, moving through the wreckage, gathering the bodies of the unconscious men and documenting the destruction.
In the center of the ruins, beneath a fallen beam, Kael groaned awake. For a moment, he couldn't remember where he was or how he got there.
But he realized he was lying on something soft.
He looked up and saw the girl. Her silver hair swaying gently from the morning breeze. She was smiling down at him, her hands were supporting his head.
"Hi," she said softly.
Kael's first instinct was to move. He pushed himself up immediately, reacting to the unfamiliar closeness.
The moment he shifted his weight, pain shot through him like lightning.
"Agh—!" he gasped, his body going rigid.
He gritted his teeth and slowly forced himself into a sitting position, moving away from the girl. Every inch of movement sent fresh waves of agony through his muscles.
He looked down at his arms. His clothes were torn and his body was covered in bruises and cuts. But they were all minor wounds.
"What the hell…" he muttered, with a hoarse voice.
He flexed his fingers, then tested his shoulders, and winced at the response.
"What did she do to me?"
He looked at the girl, confusion and pain written across his face.
"How long was I out?" he asked, not waiting for an answer before cursing under his breath.
"This body is completely wrecked. Did she forget I'm only ten? She pushed it way too hard."
The girl just kept watching him rant his frustration before waving to get his attention.
"Is this yours?" she asked, holding out the pendant.
Kael's vision went blurry for a second before he immediately reached out to grab it, but the girl pulled it back out of his reach.
"Where'd you get this?"
Kael didn't respond immediately. Instead, he kept his intent gaze on the girl as if he was trying to check if she's trustworthy. That's when he remembered the pendant glowed each time they were together. He looked at it now in her hand, but there was no reaction from the pendant even though they were close.
He inhaled slowly, but groaned since he was still in pain, before settling back down to a sitting position.
"It was a gift from my mother," he finally said.
Her eyes went wide. She looked from the pendant to his face with confusion and recognition mixing in her expression.
"What's your mother's name?" she demanded.
Before Kael could respond, a city watch guard called out to his squad. He was gesturing toward the hole that had been torn through the building—the one Ten had used the jagged man to create.
"Found some missing kids down here!" the guard shouted.
In that moment of distraction, Kael snatched the pendant back from the girl, closing his fingers around it tightly. The girl's attention snapped back to him immediately, but he was already pulling the pendant close to his chest, and studying it.
After looking at it for a moment, his eyes lifted to meet hers.
"Do you know Veylin?" he asked quietly, watching her expression closely.
From the moment her eyes narrowed, he could tell she knew something.
"How—"
"Senna!"
Both of them turned their heads toward the voice.
Three figures in white were approaching the ruins on horseback. Their leader was a woman with blonde hair and blue sharp eyes. She had a white cloak thrown around her silver armor, and she carried herself with the bearing of nobility.
Upon reaching the wreckage, the woman looked down at Senna.
"Are you alright?"
Senna nodded. Then she slowly got to her feet, dusted off her clothes, and walked toward the woman on the horse.
The woman's sharp gaze shifted and it fell on Kael as he sat alone in the ruins, still struggling to move from his sitting position.
Her eyes narrowed the moment she saw his silver hair.