Chapter Eight: Crystaline Shard
The hours that followed blurred. The torches dimmed until only the sigils on the walls breathed light, pale as frost. Kai drifted between waking and not, the hum now a low vibration in his ribs. Every time his heartbeat faltered, the sound steadied it again.
When he woke, Malric was watching him.
"You were murmuring," the Lunarborn said.
"What did I say?"
"Not words," Malric replied. "Names, maybe. The kind no one should still remember."
Kai rubbed his face, the skin too warm. "I saw the lake. The same night it took my father. But the water wasn't water anymore, it was light."
Malric studied him, then spoke carefully. "Tell me what you felt."
"Pressure. Weight. Then... release." He looked at his hands, flexing his fingers. The veins there glowed faintly silver-blue, only when he exhaled. "Like something waiting for me to move first."
"The Echorin of Strength," Malric murmured. "It recognizes you. The relics respond to will, not command. What you draw is one of seven, made to anchor what the world lost after the first fracture."
Kai blinked, dazed. "Anchor?"
"To hold things together," Malric said, his voice low, almost reverent. "Land, blood, memory, whatever the Veil tried to swallow, but every anchor drags, and yours is heavy."
Kai laughed, a raw sound. "So now I'm drawing a memory that wants to hold the world together?"
They fell quiet. The hum persisted, soft as breath. When Kai shifted, his cuff brushed the wall, sparks of light crawled through the mortar lines like veins filling with new blood.
Malric stepped closer, eyes wide. "Careful. It's responding."
"I didn't do anything."
"That's what worries me."
The light spread, following the cracks up the wall, over the ceiling. The air grew heavy, thick enough to taste. The Echorin's pulse thrummed louder now, like a second heart waking inside him.
Kai gripped his chest. "It hurts"
"It's supposed to," Malric said, crouching beside him. "Strength always does when it first remembers its purpose."
"What is it drawing from?"
"The warden has the Echorim of Strength, maybe from that, maybe from what bind my collar."
The glow reached its peak, then stopped. The dungeon fell silent again, the light fading back into the stone as if swallowed.
Kai slumped against the wall, panting. "What was that?"
"An echo of power testing its cage," Malric said quietly. "Yours, this place's, maybe both."
Kai looked down at his trembling hands. The faint blue traces still lingered beneath the skin, fading slowly. "If they know…"
"They don't," Malric said firmly. "And we won't tell them. Not yet."
He sat back against the opposite wall, golden eyes dimming. "Rest. Let it settle before you burn yourself hollow. You'll need it when the time comes."
"When the time comes for what?"
Malric's lips curled, a flash of that humorless grin. "For deciding whether to break your cage or mine."
Kai managed a weak smile. The hum faded into something gentler, almost like a heartbeat syncing with his own.
And far above them, somewhere beyond stone and shadow, the lake shivered once—like it remembered a name whispered through blood.
Torash no longer sounded like itself.
Its usual slow pulse had turned uneven, like a heart skipping beats.
The Veil's hum drifted through the walls in confused patterns, notes seeking the melody they'd lost.
In the Warden's private chamber, even the candles strained against their wicks, flames stretching thin and colorless.
The Warden stood at the center of a circle etched into the floor.
All around her, the Bloodborn council knelt in staggered half-arcs, each wrapped in gauze-dark robes that drank the light. The air shimmered faintly, still vibrating from the failed resonance trial.
"Explain," she said.
The ledger-man swallowed, bowing his head lower. "The Theryn resisted harmonization. The Echo refused to bind. The energy signature fragmented at 0.4 cycles and…"
"Speak plainly."
"It moved, Warden. The relic left him."
That word, left, hung heavy. The kneeling Bloodborn hissed among themselves.
"Relics do not leave," one said. "They are not spirits."
"They are memory," the Warden corrected softly. "And memory travels faster than light through blood."
Her gaze swept over them. "He spoke a denial before it failed. One word. No."
The syllable echoed in her mind still, thrumming like an aftertaste.
Another elder hissed, voice like parchment tearing. "We can unmake that defiance."
"Enough."
The single word froze the air. Even the torches paused their flutter.
The Warden turned away, hand brushing the edge of the black onyx table that served as her altar. A ripple of pale light spilled across its surface, sigils rearranging themselves into new forms. "He refused because something else answered," she murmured. "The resonance didn't die. It diverted."
The ledger-man dared a glance upward. "To where?"
She looked to the Veil fissure in the wall, an oval slit of living darkness that seeped faint mist. "The brother. Another Theryn pulse just lit across the lake's boundary."
The murmuring intensified. "Impossible. The other was unmarked…"
"Nothing about that blood is unmarked." Her voice carried the weight of certainty. "They were born to the same current. The relic simply followed the stronger pull."
"What of the Lunarborn?" one asked. "Kaelthar was bound to the boy's frequency. He might have…"
The Warden's head snapped toward the speaker. "He is irrelevant."
The floor shuddered slightly, as if disagreeing. Dust drifted from the ceiling beams.
In the silence that followed, faint new sounds crept in. She felt it then, a tremor through the Veil itself, running under the stone, down toward the lower cells. A heartbeat not her own.
"Bring them both," she said finally. "The Theryn and the half-breed. If the relic abandoned one, perhaps it left a shadow behind in the other."
The guards found the cell quiet, too quiet. The torches outside had dimmed to near ash, the usual hum replaced by a dull, continuous vibration that made the iron tremble.
Malric sat cross-legged near the wall, head bowed, chains slack. Kai lay beside him, asleep or unconscious, it was hard to tell which. The faint silver traces along his veins had faded to ordinary blue.
The first guard stepped inside and froze. "It smells… wrong."
The second sniffed the air. "Lightning," he muttered. "And blood."
Malric didn't move. "You should leave it alone," he said, voice low.
"Silence," the first hissed.
He didn't. "The Echorim doesn't like interruptions."
A crack rang through the cell as the guard struck him across the jaw. Malric's head snapped sideways, but the gold in his eyes flared rather than dimmed. "You feel that hum?" he asked quietly. "That's not me."
The second guard hesitated, suddenly aware of the faint rhythm underfoot. It beat like a slow drum, growing louder the longer one listened.
From the corner, Kai stirred. His eyes fluttered open, colorless for an instant, then bright with that same cold silver light. The air thickened.
Malric shot the guards a glance sharp enough to cut. "Out. Now."
They didn't move fast enough.
The pulse erupted once, silent but forceful, throwing dust from the ceiling, knocking one guard to his knees. The runes in Malric's collar flared crimson, resisting the surge. Kai gasped, clutching his chest.
Then it was gone. The silence that followed was worse.
The door slammed open again; the Warden swept in, robes whispering like smoke. "Report."
The guards stammered through fragments. She ignored them, stepping close enough for the violet light to sketch her face into something less human.
Her gaze fell on Kai. "So," she said softly, "you did not lose it after all. You hid it."
Kai met her eyes. "Maybe it hid from you."
The Warden tilted her head, intrigued rather than angered. "Defiance again. You really are your bloodline."
She studied him, eyes narrowing. Then, abruptly, her calm returned. "We shall see."
She gestured to the guards. "Leave them. Double the wards. No further contact until I say."
When the door shut and the locks reset, the cell was left in near-darkness again. The hum returned, slower, steadier now, like a heartbeat finding its rhythm.
Kai exhaled shakily. "What did she mean, 'tether'?"
Malric rubbed the back of his neck where the collar glowed faintly. "My collar is infused with Strength from the Crystaline Shard infused in her guantlets, It recognizes you and your drawing from it. It knows I can bear it."
"You mean it's using me?"
He met Kai's gaze. "Or You are using it. Depends who wakes first."
Kai leaned back against the wall, exhaustion pressing him down. "They're going after Jaka."
"Yes," Malric said. "And if your brother's anything like you, the lake's about to get loud."
The dungeon rumbled faintly, a deep vibration like thunder beneath miles of stone.
Dust drifted from the ceiling. The torches shivered out one by one.
The Warden stood at the center of her command chamber, a tall vault of black basalt ribbed with ribs of dull metal. Heat drifted up from vents in the floor; every inhalation tasted of iron and ash. Behind her, banners of flayed silk stirred in the furnace draft, each embroidered with the sigil of a different Bloodborn house.
On the table before her lay a gauntlet. Not ornamented, weaponized. Its plates were ridged like dragon scales, crystal running through them, the color of frozen lightning. Tiny cracks webbed the surface, leaking faint blue radiance.
She stripped off her remaining glove and set it beside the first. Her bare hands glowed faintly, the shard's residue pulsing just beneath her skin.
Two elders waited across the table. One was lean and narrow-faced, his black robes trimmed with rust-colored thread, a strategist from the old lines of Velacar. The other, a scholar-priest, hid behind a cowl so deep that only his lips showed, cracked and gray from centuries of whispering to the shadows.
The strategist spoke first. "The surge reached every chamber, Warden. Even the outer sentries felt it. The boy's resonance isn't resistance. It's retaliation. He's drawing from the shard."
The Warden tilted her head, eyes half-lidded. "From my shard."
"Impossible," hissed the scholar. "The crystalline matrix recognizes your imprint alone. The Echorim wouldn't respond to another unless…"
"Unless it is recognizing a new owner." The strategist finished the thought, watching her carefully.
The Warden's fingers tightened against the table. "It felt like a tug-of-war. He may not even know it."
Silence followed, filled only by the faint ticking of cooling metal.
The scholar exhaled, slow and shaky. "Then we should isolate him from the shard. Seal the chamber, re-etch the bindings, cut the feedback at its source."
"Cut it?" The Warden slid the gauntlet halfway onto her arm. "And surrender our only chance to understand what he's become?"
The strategist folded his hands. "If you can't control it, you'll lose him, and maybe the Temple."
She smiled thinly, fastening the gauntlet with a sound like grinding ice. "Control isn't the lesson here. Endurance is."
A faint tremor ran through the floor as the shard inside the armor synchronized with her pulse. Lines of cold blue light raced up her forearm, crawling beneath the flesh toward her shoulder.
The scholar took a step back. "You intend to test him yourself."
"You sound as though you doubt the value of firsthand study."
"Warden. If you push too far…"
"Then the Echorim will wont tether." She flexed her hand; the light inside the gauntlet responded with a low hum. "Strength respects the survivor."
The strategist's gaze flicked to the cracked plates. "You risk resonance collapse. If he channels the shard through you again…"
"She walked to the center of the chamber, boots striking the scorched rings that marked the floor. Each circle represented a test fought and survived within these walls. Some rings were etched so deeply they glowed when she passed over them, faint ghosts of old heat.
"Prepare the chamber," she ordered without turning. "No chains this time. I want to see what keeps him standing."
The scholar hesitated. "No restraints? He could…"
"Fall," she interrupted. "He always does. But the Echorim inside him doesn't. We'll see how long it carries him when I strip away everything else."
She reached for the second gauntlet. As it sealed, the twin shards thrummed in harmony. The torches along the walls flared, casting hard white light across her face. For an instant the veins beneath her skin shone blue, tracing the map of the relic buried in her bones.
The strategist bowed low. "Shall I summon the guards?"
She nodded once. "Bring the Theryn boy from the lower cells. I want him on his feet when I arrive. If he refuses, break his knees and lift him."
Both elders inclined their heads. She paused at the threshold, glancing back at them.
"If he draws from Strength," she said, "then I will answer him in its language."
The door swung shut behind her with a sound like a tomb sealing.
For a long moment the elders remained still, listening to the echoes fade down the corridor, the measured rhythm of her boots, the deeper pulse of the shard syncing with each step.
The cell doors opened before the guards even touched them.
The guards came first. Their boots struck the stone in rhythm, the sound cutting through the dungeon's stale air. Malric looked up from his corner as the torches along the wall flared brighter.
"On your feet," one barked.
Kai didn't move fast enough, so they made him. Chains scraped, wrists twisted, pain blooming where metal met skin.
"The Warden's called for you," the second guard said.
Malric's collar sparked as he leaned forward. "Don't go," he muttered.
Kai half-laughed, half-coughed. "Not much of a choice."
They dragged him through the lower hall and up the winding stairs, each landing heavier than the last.
When the doors to the arena opened, heat hit him first, iron, sweat, and the faint static scent of crystal burning.
The Warden waited inside the ring. No attendants. No elders. Just her.
The same calm face, but the armor different, sealed and black, faint light tracing under each plate like veins.
She didn't look at the guards. "Leave him."
They obeyed and backed toward the wall. The doors closed with a sound like a lock turning on fate itself.
The Warden's eyes found Kai's. "You draw from what's mine," she said. "Let's see how much of it you can carry."
Kai didn't answer. His attention was fixed on the woman before him.
The first strike came from nowhere, a blur of black and blue. Her fist caught his jaw and spun him sideways. The second buried itself in his ribs before he could breathe. He hit the floor, coughed blood, tried to rise.
"Up," she said.
He pushed to one knee. She swept his leg and sent him down again. Stone bit into his palms.
"Up."
Each command came with another hit. Forearm to cheekbone, knee to stomach, gauntlet to shoulder. The blows were efficient, never wasteful. She wasn't fighting to kill; she was measuring him.
Kai staggered back, raising his arms out of instinct more than training. He caught her next punch on his forearm, the impact jolted all the way to his spine. Sparks burst across his vision.
She saw it and smiled. Her gauntlet hummed; blue cracks ignited along the seams.
The next punch hit harder. He felt something pop in his chest. Breath came shallow, metallic. The world narrowed to her footsteps and the sound of his own heartbeat. He swung once, clumsy, desperate. She slipped aside, slammed an elbow into his back, sent him crashing to his knees.
"Up," she said.
He spat blood, grinned through it. "You really like that word."
A flash of movement, she grabbed his hair, yanked him upright, and drove her knee into his gut. "I like results."
He doubled over but didn't fall. Something inside him, anger, memory, he refused. He swung blind, connecting with her shoulder. The blow cracked the plate there; light leaked from the break.
The Warden stepped back, glancing down at the damage. A slow smile crossed her mouth. "So there it is."
She lunged again, faster. The next exchange was pure brutality, fists and bone and the sharp ring of metal. Each time she hit, the shard in her gauntlets flared brighter, pouring strength into her limbs. Each time he endured, that same light flickered beneath his skin, answering her in kind.
The air thickened with heat. The guards at the edge began to shift uneasily; one muttered a prayer.
The Warden struck low, boot to knee, then high, a hook that sent him spinning. He hit the floor and stayed there, gasping.
She waited. "Get up, Theryn."
He pushed against the stone, trembling. "You'll… have to do better."
She obliged.
The next blow sent him skidding across the floor. He rolled, came up on one foot, and charged. When they collided, the impact cracked the arena floor.
Light exploded between them, white-blue and searing. The shockwave hurled both back.
When the haze cleared, she was already rising, gauntlets smoking. Kai lay on his side, half conscious. His veins glowed silver, fading to dull blue with each slow breath.
She approached, wiping a smear of blood from her lip. "The shard recognizes you," she said quietly. "It answers your defiance."
She crouched beside him, voice almost gentle. "But you don't command it. That's your curse."
Her hand clamped around his throat, lifting him until his feet barely touched the ground. The pressure built until his vision blurred at the edges.
"Endure this."
The gauntlet flared. Pain shot through him, raw, electric. His body arched, every muscle locking.
Kai's fingers clawed weakly at her wrist. The light under his skin surged, bright, wild, uncontrolled. A desperate strike to the wrist broke her grasp.
She lunged at him again.
He met her halfway.
No grace now, just impact. Her punch broke his guard; his counter sent her reeling. They traded blows like hammer strikes, each one lighting the chamber brighter.
Then her gauntlet connected with his chest. The sound was like thunder in a tunnel.
Kai flew backward, hit a pillar hard enough to split it. The mark under his collarbone blazed, a broken ring closing, silver-white.
The Warden stood over him, chest heaving. The glow in her gauntlets dimmed. She looked almost… exhilarated.
Malric strained against his collar as they dragged Kai past. The boy's eyes met his once, unfocused but alive.
The Warden wiped her mouth, a smear of blood glinting black in the torchlight.
The Warden brushed dust from her gauntlet. She turned to the guards. "Take him below. Let him remember every ache."
They hauled him up, limp but still breathing. As they passed, Kai lifted his head just enough to meet her eyes. A mess of blood and defiance.
She didn't smile, but she stopped pretending she'd won.