The Ashroot tunnels were colder than Lucian expected.
He'd wrapped Kia in the last of their dry blankets. Jace sat across the fire, still favoring his bruised leg, but alert. Every echo in the tunnel made them glance over their shoulders.
"You think she was telling the truth?" Jace asked, voice low.
Lucian stared into the flames. "About the Vault?"
Jace nodded.
"I don't know," Lucian murmured. "But I saw something in her face. She wasn't lying."
Silence. Then Kia, groggy but awake, mumbled, "So… they want to use you to open some ancient Vault and unleash a forgotten power? Nice. No pressure."
Lucian gave a dry laugh.
Jace tossed another bit of wood into the fire. "If they're right… we can't just keep running. We need to get ahead of this."
Lucian nodded. "We need answers."
They found them two days later.
After slipping past an abandoned checkstation and descending deeper into the hollow lands, they reached a sealed metal door , one marked with the Solvahr crest.
Kia's breath caught. "That's your family symbol."
Lucian didn't answer. His hand hovered above the lock.
When he touched it, the symbol lit up.
The door opened with a groan.
The space beyond wasn't a vault, but an underground archive dimly lit by golden tubes and humming tech.
Shelves of old data-cubes, scrolls, and bloodline logs stretched into the dark.
And someone was already there.
A tall woman, cloaked in dark green, stood by the far wall.
She didn't move when they entered.
Lucian stepped forward warily. "Who are you?"
The woman turned.
Her face was scarred a diagonal burn from temple to jaw , but her eyes were familiar. Too familiar.
"My name is Rhen" Lucian stopped cold. "I knew your mother," she said.
And she wasn't a Shocher. She used to be a Solvahr guardian a protector of Lucian's bloodline before the fall.
"Then she whispered: "A god."
A long time ago, she explained, the Solvahr line was created to seal away a being called Vel'Kar 'the god of flame and ruin. He wasn't a deity in the worship sense, more like a living weapon, made during the Old Wars, before the city even existed.
"But the Vault wasn't just a prison," she continued. "It was a bond. Solvahr blood is the key to both lock and release."
Jace frowned. "So why would the Shochers want to unleash it?"
"Power," Rhen said simply. "Whoever controls Vel'Kar… controls everything."
Lucian ran a hand through his hair. "And what happens if the Vault is opened?"
"Best case?" she said. "The city burns."
"Worst case?"
"There is no worst case. The world ends."
Meanwhile, back in the Shocher's base, Marinette woke up strapped to a medical frame.
Her body ached. Her mind was fogged.
A figure stood in the shadows, watching her.
She tried to sit up. "Let me go."
The figure stepped forward it was Director Veyne. He stood tall,cold and impossibly still. He smiled faintly and said "You failed."
"I let them live," she said. "Because killing him would've wasted his use."
"You let a traitor interfere," Veyne said coolly. "The younger boy, Kia used stolen Shocher tech. We lost a valuable batch of field disruptors because of your hesitation."
"I can still find them." Veyne turned away. "You've grown attached, you are now so obsessed with the chase that you have forgotten your purpose of the mission."
"I haven't." He stopped. "Then prove it."
Marinette's jaw tightened. "Find the Vault before they do," Veyne said. "And bring me Lucian. Alive. Or next time, you'll be the one in the cell."
Back in the archive, Rhen showed Lucian a hidden room.
It contained old training equipment, scorched armor, and a small pedestal with a strange blade hovering above it pulsing faintly with gold and red light.
Lucian stepped closer. "What is that?"
"The Emberfang," Rhen said. "Your family's blade. It chooses only blood of the Solvahr line."
Lucian reached toward it. The blade hummed then flew into his hand, flames dancing briefly along its edge. Rhen smiled. "It knows you." Kia grinned. "Okay, that was cool."
Lucian felt the weapon's heat, not burning, just… alive. Like it knew him.
"It will help you resist the Vault's call," Rhen said. "If it comes to that."
Later that night, Lucian stood at the edge of the archive, staring into the dark.
Jace approached. "You okay?"
Lucian nodded slowly. "Yeah. Just… thinking."
Jace was silent for a moment.
"You're different," he said finally. "Since you touched that blade. Since the last fight."
Lucian looked at him. "You think I'm dangerous."
"I think you're powerful. That's not the same."
Lucian didn't reply.
Jace added softly, "But yeah… you scare me a little."
Lucian gave a small, tired smile. "Good. Means you'll watch my back."
In a distant forest of iron trees and broken signals, Marinette walked alone.
She held a cracked compass in her hand . one keyed to Lucian's energy signature.
She stared at it. Then slowly, for the first time in her life.
She turned it off.