Morning found the Hollows warm.
Not from the lake of iron. From the bonds.
Liam stood with her at the rim of the arena, the old thrones finally quiet. The glow in the floor had softened to a steady ember. The Ironheart watched it with her chin lifted, bronze skin clean now, tattoos a slow pulse instead of a scream.
He touched her wrist. "Thalessa."
She looked at him, a war still cooling in her eyes. "They called me Sera in the pit. Short for the girl I was before I learned to break chains." A small breath. "My name is Thalessa Vahl."
He held that like a promise. The system locked it in.
> [Identity Resolved]
Name: Thalessa Vahl
Title: Ironheart Gladiatrix
Bond Status: Secured
Sync: 92 percent and rising
Passive: Arena Command
Active: Breaker's Call
Territory Alignment: Iron Hollows lower vault
She did not kneel. She did not need to. She turned her palms up and let him lace his fingers through hers. That was enough.
Boots rang on the upper stair.
Varra stepped through the arch with a drift of dusk colored cloth and the calm of a storm that knew its own name. The Seer's eyes slid over the black thrones and stopped on the grate above the heat.
"You woke the Mother," she said. Not accusation. Assessment.
"We cut Markus out of her," Kaelith answered, wiping a last line of soot from a blade. "She is quiet. For now."
Varra's gaze met Liam's. "Seal her or she will not stay quiet."
"Together," he said.
They went below as one. Varra's palm floated over the great chain. Thalessa set hers beside it, tattoos brightening. Liam set his hand above theirs, the Overlord seal lighting the iron like sunrise under ice.
The forge sang once.
Then settled.
> [System Update]
Iron Mother contained
Seal: Warden and Overlord
Zone benefit: The Forge of Vahl opened
Effect: Crafting and reinforcement bonus in owned gear
Foreign signature: purged
Trace: fleeing west along the dead rail
Vexa laughed low. "New toy. I want to hit things in it."
"You will," Kaelith said, amused. "After he makes us earn it."
Varra turned to Thalessa. "Warden's work suits you."
"Bonded work suits me better," Thalessa said, and did not look away from Liam when she said it.
The chain below gave a satisfied creak, like a house after a long storm. Above, the Hollows breathed easier.
Sylvara arrived at a run, lightning still skittering along the tips of her braids. "Scout report. West line is hot. Markus is on the move. He is not alone."
Sarya ghosted in behind her, mud on her knees and a strip of wire between her teeth. "Laid eyes on the rail itself. Whole section dead and humming. Trap signatures layered three deep."
Ice Queen's voice came like cold water. "The wind says burrowers. And something older under them."
The system agreed.
> [Signal Intercepted]
Zone 19 flagged: Blackspire Warrens
Type: Deep warrens and rail nexus
Threat: Unknown apex, burrower swarms, trapfield dominance
Foreign presence: probable
Bond target: obscured
Entry: available
Rotation: reinstated within 6 hours
Liam closed his eyes once. Opened them with purpose.
"Aisha returns to the Spire," he said. "Nysera to Stormclaw. Rena anchors the Mall. Ice Queen holds Skyhold with Varra. Sarya seeds the approach with teeth. Sylvara runs our line. We go below with four."
He touched the map. Lines of pale light rooted to his choices.
"Vexa," he said.
A grin like a challenge. "Finally."
"Elyra."
A soft curve to the mouth that meant trouble for anyone who was not him. "I thought you would forget."
"Kaelith."
A single nod. Hungry.
He looked to Thalessa last. He did not ask. He offered.
She stepped into his space until their shoulders brushed. "Try leaving me behind," she said. "See how long that lasts."
Varra's mouth quirked. "The Warrens are not a place for pride. Take the chain you forged." Then softer, for him alone. "And remember to breathe."
He did. Once. Deep.
The Seer lifted a hand and the air shimmered. A door of light opened on the far wall, ink black at the center, rimmed in iron script that crawled like slow fire.
> [Transit Unlocked]
Path: Iron Hollows to Blackspire approach
Cost: minor core drain
Warning: signal distortion inside warrens
Note: empathic cohesion required
Bond sync must remain above 85 percent in hostile field
They armed up in silence that was not empty. It was full. Of glances and touches and small, ordinary rituals that meant we live here and we plan to again.
Vexa buckled the last strap on Liam's gauntlet. Her knuckles knocked his breastplate like a promise. "You break. I carry."
Elyra smoothed a crease at his collar, then tied it wrong on purpose so she would have a reason to fix it later. "You lead. I pull."
Kaelith slid his sword into his hand and closed his fingers around the grip one by one, slow. "You cut. I finish."
Thalessa fastened the leather at his wrist and did not let go. "You command. I stand."
He looked at all of them at once and felt the system lean in to listen.
"Down," he said.
They went through.
The heat of the Hollows dropped away in a blink. The light thinned. Sound changed. The air in Blackspire did not carry it. It swallowed it, then let the echo out a breath later like a lie told twice.
Walls of black stone pressed close and then opened without warning into vaults carved like cathedrals by something that did not care if the roof fell. Rust lines ran like veins. The dead rail cut the world in a straight line on their right and hummed like a held note.
Elyra lifted her bow a fraction. "We are inside someone's memory."
Kaelith smiled without joy. "Then cut us an edit."
Vexa's shoulders rolled. "Point me where it hurts."
Thalessa's tattoos cooled to a thoughtful glow. "Listen."
They did.
Somewhere ahead, metal clicked three times. A breath after that, sand whispered. A breath after that, something large changed its mind and went still.
The system whispered too.
> [Zone 19 entered]
Blackspire Warrens
Field effect: sound delay and recall
Hazard: burrower brood, rail wights, collapse web
Bond pulse: faint, layered below
Foreign thread: nearer
"Markus," Kaelith said.
"Not yet," Liam answered. "He is laying wire and waiting for fear."
"Then do not give him fear," Thalessa said. "Give him us."
They moved. Slow enough for Sarya's traps to miss them. Fast enough that Markus would not have time to reset.
The first pit opened where there should not have been floor. Elyra did not warn. She sang a note that made Vexa's next step land on a rust beam that should not have been there but was because she asked it. Kaelith tossed a blade that ricocheted off iron twice and made a web line sing. It snapped. A rockfall went off thirty paces behind them where it could hurt no one.
Thalessa stopped at a seam in the stone. Her palm found it the way a fighter finds the rhythm that breaks a guard. She pressed. The wall sighed like a door that had finally heard its name.
The passage beyond smelled like cold and old promises.
Somewhere in that dark, a laugh skittered. Silver armor caught a scrap of light and was gone.
Elyra's eyes narrowed. "He thinks this is his story."
Liam stepped into the narrow way, blade low, shoulders loose, the weight of thirteen bonds at his back and one new one at his side that felt like a forge banked and ready.
"It is," he said.
Then he smiled, small and real.
"Until we take it."