Chapter 10 #2
Forced himself to chew.
To swallow.
To remain composed.
He would finish dinner.
Leave calmly.
Return to his quarters.
Wait until the Citadel slept—
Footsteps.
Urgent.
Echoing against the stone floor.
A servant approached.
Too quickly.
Ulric’s eyes lifted, just slightly.
The man moved straight to the Magistrate.
Bent low.
He whispered into Severin’s ear.
Ulric watched.
Carefully.
The Magistrate’s expression didn’t change.
Not a flicker.
Not a pause.
As if whatever he had just heard had been expected.
He simply extended his hand.
The servant placed something into it.
A brass tube.
Ulric’s stomach tightened.
Cold.
Immediate.
He recognized it.
It was the same brass tube that had been in his satchel on his horse.
? ? ?
They threw him into the cell.
The rag was removed, but his wrists and ankles remained bound.
Aldric lay still for a moment.
Breathing.
Listening.
His eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness.
Stone walls.
Cold.
But dry.
He was alone.
He let his head rest back against the floor and exhaled.
“Well… that’s one way to get here.”
His gaze drifted to the ceiling.
Strange.
The anger was gone.
For weeks now, it hadn’t come back.
No burning.
No consuming rage.
In its place—
At times of peace—
A smile.
Golden eyes.
Brows furrowed in that soft, almost annoyed way.
Aldric swallowed.
“Shit…”
No matter what I do… I lose something.
He exhaled slowly.
But at least the rage is gone now.
That had to mean something.
Even now.
Bound like an animal in a dark cell.
“Hellfire…” he muttered under his breath. “I hope you’re happy with this…”
As if some enigmatic blacksmith might actually hear him.
A loud bang answered him.
Aldric’s eyes snapped to the door.
Another.
Then another.
Metal against stone.
Shouting.
Above.
Closer than it should have been.
“…shit.”
He immediately rolled onto his side and started working at the bindings.
His shoulders strained as he forced his arms downward.
Then under his legs—
and forward.
A sharp breath escaped him.
There.
His hands were in front now.
He twisted his wrists.
Tested the rope.
And then he saw it.
Ulric had tied it tight.
But not perfectly.
Aldric smiled.
He began working the knot, slowly loosening it.
The noise above grew louder.
Closer.
Boots.
Shouts.
Something heavy hitting stone.
He moved faster.
The rope began to give in.
Almost—
The door exploded inward.
It slammed against the wall with a crack.
Two guards stumbled in.
Then collapsed face-first onto the floor.
Unmoving.
Behind them stood a figure.
Dust-covered.
Streaked with blood.
Not his own.
Green eyes locked onto Aldric.
Ulric.
He took one look at the half-loosened bindings and frowned.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he snapped. “Stop messing around. We need to move. Now!”
He stepped forward, blade already in hand.
One clean motion.
The ropes around Aldric’s ankles fell away.
Aldric pushed himself up.
Ulric turned and pointed down the corridor.
“All paths lead to the central chamber. From there, we descend.”
More noise.
He glanced back.
“They’ll be on us soon.” A beat. “I blocked one of the upper passages. Bought us little time.”
His jaw tightened.
He met Aldric’s eyes.
Focused.
Certain.
A short nod.
As they rushed through the corridor and into the central chamber, Ulric veered toward the stairs leading deeper below the Citadel.
They didn’t make it halfway through the chamber.
A dozen men met them.
Steel.
Black cloaks.
Shields.
Disciplined formation.
And at their center—
Tiberius.
Ulric was already moving.
A war hammer in his hands, smaller than the ones forged for Inquisitors, likely taken from one of the guards.
His mace and shield were gone.
Left behind.
The first clash was brutal.
Ulric swung.
The hammer crushed into a man’s chest, sending him flying into another.
Aldric moved with him, unarmed, slipping past blades, dodging strikes meant to slow them.
But more men poured in.
From the side passages..
From the upper walkways.
Boots thundered against stone.
They were being surrounded.
Ulric stepped forward again—
Hammer.
Swing.
Impact.
Another man fell.
But they kept coming.
Too many.
Aldric saw it.
The shift.
The pressure tightening around them.
They were being pushed back, away from the stairs.
Slowly.
Inevitably.
Then as he drove the hammer sideways dropping two men in a single blow—
“I’ll create an opening.”
Aldric’s head snapped toward him.
“What? Hold on—what are you—”
Ulric didn’t answer.
He raised the hammer.
And something changed.
Aldric felt it before he saw it.
A pressure.
A weight in the air.
Then—
A surge.
Energy burst outward from Ulric in a violent shockwave.
The men were thrown back.
Armor clanged against stone as bodies hit the ground.
For a single heartbeat—
Silence.
Then the hammer fell.
A deafening crack split the chamber.
The floor.
The stone beneath them fractured.
The ground shuddered.
For a split second—
Everything froze.
Then—
Chaos.
The floor gave way.
Stone collapsed.
Men screaming.
Dust exploded into the air.
Impact.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Ringing.
Aldric blinked.
His ears rang.
Dust hung thick in the air.
He tried to move.
Pain flared.
He was pinned.
A massive slab of stone had collapsed over him.
Held back only by a cluster of smaller rocks, just enough to keep it from crushing him.
Barely.
He couldn’t move.
His right hand and both legs began to tingle.
Numbness creeping in.
He couldn’t breathe properly.
Each breath was shallow.
Strained.
He tried to speak.
But dust coated his throat, dry and choking.
He coughed instead.
Then—
Hands.
Two hands gripping the edge of the slab.
Straining.
Lifting.
Stone shifted.
Just enough.
He forced himself forward and rolled free.
He coughed.
Pulled in air.
Ulric stood over him.
Breathing hard.
Dust and blood streaked across his face.
His green eyes burned.
Aldric looked around.
The chamber was ruined.
Collapsed.
Bodies buried beneath stone.
No movement.
No sign of Tiberius.
Ulric didn’t linger.
He jerked his head toward a broken passage leading downward.
They squeezed through an opening.
Barely.
Then they descended down.
Quickly.
Their steps echoed through the ever-tightening spiral of stone.
The walls grew rougher.
Older.
As if the structure they knew had been built atop something far more ancient.
Aldric barely registered it.
There were screams behind them.
Distant.
The sound of stone cracking.
Cursing.
Time was running out.
The stairs ended abruptly.
A gust of cold air struck his face.
Aldric stepped forward—
And stopped.
A cavern.
Massive.
The ceiling vanished into darkness, as if swallowed by something unnatural.
Dim light bled from nowhere and everywhere at once, just enough to reveal the vast emptiness around them.
Ulric exhaled.
Aldric turned, instinctively looking back.
There was no staircase.
No doorway.
No opening.
Just solid stone.
Sealed.
“Good news,” Ulric said quietly. “We’re cut off.”
Aldric walked back to where they had entered.
Ran his hand across the wall.
Nothing.
No seam.
No mark.
As if the entrance had never existed.
Ulric’s voice came again.
“We can only move forward.”
Aldric glanced around the cavern.
“So where is it, the Light?”
“Look.”
“I am doing that.”
Ulric gave a small shake of his head.
“Not with your eyes.”
Aldric frowned.
“…what?”
Ulric let out a quiet, frustrated breath.
“For someone so eager to question everything… you’re as subtle as a hammer.”
Aldric ignored the jab.
He stilled himself.
Took a slow breath in.
And out.
Ulric’s voice came again.
“Look with your soul.”
Aldric closed his eyes.
Slowly he began to let go.
To empty his mind.
And then—
Something stirred.
A presence.
Not foreign.
But deeper.
Familiar in a way he couldn’t explain.
His brand pulsed.
Heat spread through his chest.
Then clarity.
He opened his eyes.
And saw it.
Just a thread.
At first.
A thin strand of light bleeding upward from the stone floor at the center of the cavern.
Faint.
Like a spider’s web caught in a distant beam of sunlight.
Aldric stepped forward.
The light brightened.
He took another step.
Stronger.
Clearer.
Calling.
By the time he reached it, the light was no longer faint.
It blazed.
Illuminating his entire body.
Ulric stepped beside him.
Aldric turned his head.
Met his gaze.
“Together?”
Ulric gave a single nod.
They both reached out.
And closed their hands around the Light.