The city streets were alive with firelight.
Lanterns swayed above the cobbled roads, each painted in the bright reds and golds of the harvest. Musicians played on every corner, their flutes and drums battling with the calls of food vendors. The air smelled of spiced cider, roasting meat, and freshly baked bread.
To any other student of the Academy, the harvest festival meant dancing, eating too much, and making questionable choices after too much ale.
To Yegr, it was a deadline.
He remembered this night. The second ritual — the Binding of the Second Key — would be performed in the catacombs beneath the city, masked by the noise and chaos of the festival above. And if it succeeded, the cult would take its next step toward awakening Jojk.
---
Darin walked beside him, looking more like a reluctant bodyguard than a friend.
"You're sure it's tonight?"
"Yes."
"And you're sure you don't want to just tell Rolen?"
Yegr glanced at him. "If we go to Rolen without proof, we'll be laughed out of the Academy. If we bring proof, we'll be silenced before we can use it."
Darin muttered something under his breath, but didn't argue further.
---
They found the entrance behind a shuttered bakery — a rusted iron grate over a stairwell that descended into darkness. Yegr knelt, prying the grate open just enough for them to slip through.
The catacombs smelled of damp earth and something older, deeper. Moss coated the walls, and their footsteps echoed off the stone.
"Which way?" Darin whispered.
Yegr closed his eyes, recalling the path from his memory — left at the split column, down three flights, then the archway marked with a cracked skull.
They moved quickly, keeping to the shadows until the sound of voices reached them.
---
They stopped at the edge of a wide chamber.
Black candles burned in a circle, their flames bending inward. Hooded figures knelt around a carved stone altar, and at the center stood a man in a deep crimson robe, holding a silver vessel that glimmered in the candlelight.
Yegr's stomach tightened. The vessel. He had seen it once before, in the hands of Jojk himself. It was said to hold a fragment of his soul.
Among the kneeling figures was Elen. Her hood was back, her face lit by the red glow from the vessel. She was speaking the words of the ritual — but her voice wavered, barely audible beneath the others.
Yegr leaned closer to Darin. "She's not fully committed. I can pull her out."
Darin gave him a look that said you're insane, but didn't stop him.
---
Yegr stepped out from the shadows.
The nearest cultist saw him first. "Intruder!"
The ritual faltered as heads turned. Elen's eyes widened in recognition.
"You can't do this," Yegr said, his voice calm but cutting. "This ritual — it binds you to something that will devour you. You think it's power. It's a chain."
The man in crimson laughed. "You speak as if you've seen it."
"I have," Yegr said. "And I've seen what's left of those who serve it."
The crimson-robed man gestured sharply. Two cloaked figures moved toward Yegr. He stepped back, drawing the dull training blade he had hidden beneath his cloak — not enough to kill, but enough to disarm.
He struck quickly, sweeping one attacker's legs and knocking the other's dagger into the dark. The ritual leader's smile faded.
"Elen," Yegr said, locking eyes with her. "This is your choice. Walk away now, and you're free. Stay, and you're theirs forever."
For a long moment, she didn't move. Then — she stood, stepping back from the altar.
The crimson-robed man's voice turned to a snarl. "Foolish girl!"
Candles guttered violently as if struck by a sudden wind. The chamber darkened, and Yegr felt a pressure in the air — the magic of the ritual lashing out in rage.
"Darin!" Yegr shouted. "Go!"
They ran, Elen stumbling between them as the cultists' shouts echoed through the catacombs.
---
By the time they reached the streets, the festival noise swallowed the sound of pursuit.
Elen was shaking, her hands still stained with the black wax from the candles.
"You've just painted a target on yourself," she said quietly.
Yegr met her gaze. "So have you."
Somewhere below, in the catacombs, the Shadowed Path's second ritual lay broken. But Yegr knew they would not stop — and now, they would come for all three of them.