> "The oldest stones hold the longest breaths. Listen closely, and you might hear the silence scream."
> — Whispers from the Walls of Veilstone
>
"This way! Quick!" Lyra's whisper was sharp, urgent, cutting through the growing sounds of the approaching guards. She didn't wait for them. With the speed of a mountain goat, she turned sharply off the main path, disappearing into a narrow, twisting crack in the rock face that Ash hadn't even noticed.
Kael hesitated for only a moment, his hand still on his sword. He glanced at the rapidly approaching torchlights, then at Selene, who simply nodded with a grim understanding. "Move!" Kael barked at Ash, giving him a firm push.
Ash stumbled, his heart hammering against the pulsing shard in his chest, its glow feeling like a spotlight on his back. He scrambled after Lyra, squeezing into the tight space. The rock walls pressed in on him, cold and damp, smelling of ancient earth and something vaguely metallic. It was barely wide enough for one person, forcing them to move in single file, Lyra leading, then Ash, followed by Selene, and Kael bringing up the rear, his armor scraping against the stone.
Behind them, Valerius's voice roared, closer now. "They went into the cleft! Fan out! Search every inch! They cannot have gone far!" The clatter of armor grew louder, mixed with the frantic shouts of the soldiers.
Lyra moved with practiced ease, her slight frame weaving through the impossibly tight turns and downward slopes. Ash, larger and less nimble, scraped his shoulders and knees repeatedly, the raw pain a sharp reminder of the danger. He could feel the vibrations of Kael's heavy steps and armor behind him, a constant presence that was both reassuring and terrifyingly loud.
"Quiet, big man!" Lyra hissed back at Kael, not even turning around. "Every scrape echoes down these veins!"
They descended deeper into the mountain's belly. The air grew heavy, damp, and still. The last faint streaks of dawn vanished as the twisting passage swallowed them whole, plunging them into utter darkness. Ash couldn't see his hand in front of his face. The only light was the faint, unsettling pulse from the shard in his chest, which seemed to grow brighter in the absolute blackness. It cast weird, shifting shadows on the claustrophobic walls, making them seem to writhe.
The whispers from the shard also grew louder, more insistent. The fragmented visions came faster, a dizzying rush of ancient battles, crumbling cities, and a powerful, unknown despair. Ash felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cold rock; it was the raw, primal fear of what the Crown was trying to show him, or perhaps, what it was trying to do to him.
"This passage... it leads to the lower levels of the Keep," Lyra murmured, her voice now a hushed echo in the darkness. "It's an old smuggler's route, forgotten by most. Even Valerius wouldn't risk his men in here without knowing it better."
Suddenly, Lyra stopped. Ash, caught off guard, bumped into her. He heard Kael's armor clang softly behind him as the knight halted too.
"What is it?" Selene's voice was a low hum, calm despite the tense situation.
Lyra's breathing was shallow, quick. "Something's not right," she whispered. "This passage… it changes here. Not like the old maps."
Then they heard it. Not the clatter of Valerius's men, but something else. A soft, wet drip, drip, drip from further ahead. And with it, a low, guttural hissing sound that seemed to slither through the darkness, raising the hairs on Ash's neck. It wasn't human. It wasn't the shadow beast from the village either. This sound was cold, ancient, and deeply predatory.
The shard in Ash's chest flared, burning with an almost painful intensity. The visions exploded in his mind: not of the past, but of eyes. Many eyes, glowing with cold, emerald light in the darkness, staring directly at him, hungry.
"We have company," Kael growled, his sword already drawn, the faint scrape of metal the only sound as he prepared himself for an unseen enemy. His pale eyes searched the absolute blackness ahead, but there was nothing to see. Only the hiss, growing louder, and the chilling drip, drip, drip.
Lyra let out a short, sharp breath. "Not the king's men," she whispered, her voice tight with a fear Ash hadn't heard from her before. "Something older. Something that calls this darkness home."
A faint, sickly green light began to bloom ahead, casting strange, dancing shadows on the uneven rock walls. It wasn't coming from a torch. It came from… something moving towards them, slowly, deliberately, its shape still hidden by the tight space. The dripping sound intensified, a rhythmic, sickening thud.
Ash felt his breath catch in his throat. They had escaped Valerius, but they had walked directly into something far more ancient, far more dangerous, lurking in the hidden veins of Veilstone Keep. The green light grew, revealing not eyes, but a single, massive, scaled form slithering into the narrow tunnel. It wasn't looking for them. It was waiting. And it was hungry.