Chapter 8: The Border Crossing
The mining tunnel felt like the throat of a giant. It was a jagged, lightless fissure in the mountainside, smelling of wet iron and deep, ancient earth. We moved in single file, the sound of our breathing amplified by the narrow stone walls. My ankle throbbed with every step, the magical salve Cassian had applied humming with a dull, cooling heat, but I refused to slow down.
Behind us, the Whispering Woods were silent. Ahead, a sliver of grey morning light marked the exit the border of the North.
"Almost there," Cassian whispered. He was walking ahead, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade. Even in the dim light, he looked like a statue of war. "Once we step through that archway, we are on my soil. The Emperor's laws become secondary to the Duke's command."
But as we approached the exit, the light was suddenly eclipsed.
A line of silhouettes stood at the mouth of the tunnel. The sun caught the glint of polished silver armor and the white capes of the Holy Knights. At the center stood a man with hair the color of wheat and an expression of cold, religious fervor.
Sir Marcus von Rose. The Saintess's brother.
"Step no further, Grand Duke," Marcus's voice echoed through the tunnel, sharp and commanding. He held a scroll aloft, the seal of the Great Temple glowing with a faint, holy light. "By the authority of the High Priest and the grace of the Saintess, we are here to reclaim the lost lamb, Emily Thorne. She is a vital witness in a case of High Treason, and her safety is a matter of Divine Decree."
I felt Emily shrink behind me, her fingers digging into the fabric of my dress. She was trembling so violently I could hear her teeth chattering.
"Divine Decree?" I stepped forward, hobbling slightly but keeping my chin high. "Sir Marcus, you're a knight, not a priest. Since when does the Temple handle the transport of witnesses in a secular murder trial?"
Marcus's eyes snapped to mine. The disgust in his gaze was palpable. "Seraphina. The fact that you are standing here, unchained and whispering poison into the Duke's ear, is proof enough of your depravity. Move aside. The girl belongs to the Temple."
"I... I should go," Emily whispered, her voice breaking. She looked at the line of knights, her eyes glazed with a paralyzing fear. "They'll kill me if I don't. They'll kill my brother. My Lady, please... I can't do this."
She began to step toward Marcus, her legs moving like a sleepwalker's.
"Emily, stop!" I grabbed her arm.
"Let her go, Seraphina," Marcus demanded, his knights drawing their swords with a synchronized shink. "She knows where her salvation lies."
I ignored him. I turned Emily around, forcing her to look at me. This was it the closing argument. The moment where the law had to be stronger than fear.
"Emily, look at me," I said, my voice low but vibrating with an intensity that made her blink. "If you walk over there, you aren't going to 'salvation.' You are going to a silent room where no one will ever hear your voice again. You'll be a 'tragic accident' before the sun sets tomorrow."
"But they have the Temple's seal!" she sobbed.
"That seal is a piece of wax, Emily! It doesn't protect you; it hides them!" I took a breath, projecting my voice so the knights could hear me too. "Sir Marcus, you claim authority here? Let's talk about geography. Cassian, where exactly does the Northern Border begin?"
Cassian stepped up beside me, a dark, predatory smile crossing his face. He pointed to a jagged line of white quartz embedded in the floor of the tunnel, just three feet in front of the knights.
"The Quartz Line," Cassian said. "Laid down by the First Emperor. Everything north of that stone belongs to the House of Hel. It is a sovereign territory under the Winter Treaty."
"Did you hear that, Marcus?" I asked, stepping right up to that white line. "You are currently standing on the very edge of an international incident. Under the Winter Treaty, Section 1, Article 3, no armed force of the Capital may cross into the North without a 'Pass of Passage' signed by the ruling Duke. Do you have one?"
Marcus's jaw tightened. "The Temple's authority transcends borders."
"Not in a courtroom it doesn't!" I snapped. "And certainly not in the North. If you take one step across this line to seize Emily, you aren't 'reclaiming a lamb.' You are invading the North. You are committing an act of war. Are you prepared to explain to your sister why the Empire is burning because you couldn't wait for a subpoena?"
I turned back to Emily, holding her hands in mine. They were ice cold.
"Emily, the law is just words on paper until someone has the courage to stand behind them. If you stay with us, I will put you on a stand in front of the entire Empire. I will make sure the Emperor himself hears how you were threatened. I will make your truth the law. But you have to choose. Do you want to be a victim, or do you want to be the woman who took down a Saintess?"
The silence in the tunnel was suffocating. I could see the sweat on the knights' brows. They were looking at Marcus, waiting for a command. Marcus looked at Cassian, whose hand was pulsing with a violet, magical aura.
Emily looked at Marcus. She looked at the white sun on his chest the symbol that had terrified her for weeks. Then she looked at me. She saw a woman who had been in a dungeon, who was covered in mud, who was limping, but who hadn't blinked.
"I... I want to stay," Emily whispered. She stepped back, moving behind Cassian's massive frame. "I want to tell the truth."
Marcus's face transformed. The "holy" mask shattered, revealing a snarling, desperate man. "Seize them! Kill the Duke if you must, but bring me the girl!"
"Don't you dare," I yelled, but Marcus was already lunging forward.
"CRACK!"
The ground shook. Cassian didn't draw his sword. He slammed his fist into the stone floor of the tunnel. A massive wave of violet energy erupted, traveling through the earth like a lightning bolt. The ceiling of the tunnel groaned. Dust and pebbles began to rain down.
"The tunnel is unstable!" one of the knights screamed.
"Seraphina, go!" Cassian grabbed me by the waist and tossed me toward the exit, Emily right behind me.
"Cassian!" I screamed as I hit the snowy ground outside.
I turned back just in time to see the mouth of the tunnel collapse. Huge boulders thundered down, sealing the entrance in a cloud of choking grey dust. Marcus and his knights were forced back toward the woods, while we were on the outside.
But Cassian was still inside.
"No!" I scrambled toward the pile of rocks, digging at the stones with my bare hands. "Cassian! Answer me!"
The dust settled. For a long, terrifying minute, there was no sound but the whistling of the Northern wind. Then, the rocks shifted.
A massive boulder was shoved aside by sheer, magical force. Cassian climbed out, coughing, his black hair white with stone dust. He looked battered, but he was alive. He looked at me, saw my bleeding fingernails from digging at the rocks, and his expression softened into something I couldn't quite name.
"I told you," he rasped, shaking the dust from his cloak. "I have a very high survival rate."
I didn't think. I threw my arms around him, burying my face in his chest. He froze for a second, then his arms came around me, holding me so tight I could barely breathe.
"We made it," I whispered.
"We did," he replied, his chin resting on the top of my head. "Welcome to the North, Lady Seraphina. Here, the laws are cold, but they are mine."
I pulled back, looking at the vast, snowy plains of the North stretching out before us. In the distance, I could see the fires of a military camp the Winter Legion.
We had the witness. We had survived the forest. We had humiliated the Saintess's brother.
"Twenty-five days left," I said, my lawyer brain already calculating the next move. "Cassian, we need to gather every tax record, every guest log, and every scrap of evidence about the Rose family's finances. If Isabella is a 'Saintess' who can see the future, she's been using that information to make money. And in my experience... following the money is the fastest way to find the lie."
"Then let's start the audit," Cassian said, gesturing toward the camp.
As we walked toward the safety of the Northern lines, I felt a strange sensation in the back of my mind a flicker of blue light in my vision.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: ARC 1 - THE ESCAPE - COMPLETED]
[REWARD: LEGAL INTUITION LEVEL 2]
[NEW QUEST: THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY - 25 DAYS REMAINING]
I smirked. The System was back. And this time, I knew exactly how to use it.