Chapter 1012: Bad News
Chapter 1012 – Bad News
Sira saw his eyes move. "No."
Lux looked at her. "I didn’t say anything."
"You thought work."
Aela looked at him. "You are still recovering."
"I am healed."
"You are not—"
But Lux interrupted her.
"No. We need to move fast."
His gaze sharpened, the warmth at the table fading beneath calculation.
"Kaelmor is already checking his prisoners. If he reinforces the seals, moves them, or kills the weaker ones before we reach them, we lose our chance."
He tapped the table once. "We’re racing against time."
The silence came back.
This one had teeth.
Aela lowered her spoon slowly. The moonfruit pastry in front of her suddenly looked too bright, too innocent for the weight that had settled over the table. Naomi’s expression shifted into the calm of someone already rearranging resources in her head. Rava’s fingers curled lightly around her cup. Mira leaned back, eyes narrowed, dragon instincts waking beneath mortal skin. Fiera’s tails stilled one by one.
Sira watched Lux.
Not his face.
His hands.
Because Lux’s hands always betrayed him before his mouth did. When he was amused, his fingers relaxed. When he was annoyed, he tapped. When he was calculating, he went very still.
Right now, he was too still.
Lux looked from Zehar to Corvus. "Tell me you know one or two things about the prisoners’ locations."
Corvus shifted on his shoulder.
Zehar, still beside the stolen coffee cup, wobbled once in a way that was somehow guilty.
Lux’s eyes narrowed. "That wobble is not encouraging."
Zehar made a small jelly sound. "We are trying."
"You are trying," Lux repeated.
Corvus clicked his beak. "Following royal personal guards is not like following drunk nobles leaving a casino."
"I know."
"Do you? Because you have that face."
"What face?"
"The face that says, ’Why didn’t my minions solve the geopolitical puzzle before dessert?’"
Lux stared at him.
Corvus stared back.
Sira muttered, "He has that face often."
Lux ignored her because she was correct and that made it worse.
Zehar slid a little closer to the center of the table, tiny body glowing faintly under the chandelier. "We tried to follow the guards. The personal ones. The ones not using normal palace routes. But..."
Lux leaned forward slightly. "But?"
"We felt something weird."
Yue’s eyes sharpened. "Weird how?"
Zehar jiggled, searching for words. "Too clean. Too easy. Like footprints left by someone who knows you are watching and politely placed chairs along the road."
Gula frowned. "That sounds like a trap."
Corvus raised one wing. "Congratulations, Gluttony. You have passed basic survival."
Gula pointed her fork at him. "I can eat birds."
"I am information."
"I can eat that too."
Zehar continued, "We decided to pull back."
Lux looked between them. "They detected you."
Corvus shook his head. "Not detected."
Lux’s brow lifted.
Corvus’s voice lowered. "More like... they pretended not to know something was following them."
The table chilled.
Naomi’s expression sharpened. "So they knew enough to bait pursuit."
"Exactly," Corvus said. "No direct counter-surveillance. No sudden ward flare. No chase. Just... convenient gaps. Soft paths. Easy angles."
Fiera’s eyes narrowed. "Fox bait."
Mira nodded. "Dragon hunters do the same with wounded prey."
Lux’s expression went colder. "So you pulled back."
Zehar wobbled. "Could be a trap."
Corvus cawed once. "Ninety percent is a trap."
Lux’s fingers tapped the table again. "So they might be trying to lure us somewhere."
"Yeah," Corvus said. "Or lure the unknown sovereign. Or Shadow Corridor agents. Or anyone greedy enough to chase."
Gula raised her hand with a dumpling still between her fingers. "Question. Did the guards go to mortal realm sites?"
Corvus turned to her. "No. That’s the strange part."
Lux’s eyes sharpened immediately. "They didn’t?"
"No. At least not the route we followed. Still underworld. Deep Hell routes. Old infrastructure. Pre-throne tunnels, possibly."
Zehar added, "So maybe this one is from Hell itself."
A prisoner from Hell.
Not mortal realm. Something Kaelmor kept under his own realm.
Sira’s fingers flexed. "That’s risky."
Yue nodded. "But practical. A power source inside Hell is easier to guard."
Lux’s eyes dimmed into calculation. "If he is baiting with underworld guards, he either wants us to chase something false..."
Naomi continued softly, "Or he moved something real enough to make the bait convincing."
Lux gave her a small nod. "Exactly."
Aela looked around the table. "I do not understand all of this."
Ely squeezed her hand gently. "Kaelmor kept you as one of his power sources. We think there are more like you. Now he knows something is taking them, so he’s checking or moving them."
Aela’s face tightened. "And if he fears losing them?"
Lux’s voice was calm. "He might kill them before anyone else can free them."
Aela’s spoon slipped from her hand and clinked against the bowl.
Before anyone could soften that, the air changed.
Lux’s system flared.
A red-gold warning burst open in front of him with enough force that even those who could not see the system felt the pressure shift.
[ALERT]
[Unauthorized Spatial Breach Attempt Detected]
[Location: Vaelthorn Mansion Outer Ward Layer]
[Method: Forced Portal Insertion]
[Entry Point: Internal Corridor Projection Attempt]
[Result: Failed]
[Ward Response: Active]
[Threat Assessment: High-Level Trespass]
[Secondary Alert: Defensive Personnel Engaged]
Lux stood fast.
The chair scraped backward.
Every woman at the table moved in the same instant.
Sira’s claws appeared.
Mira’s draconic aura stirred.
Rava’s eyes deepened like storm water.
Fiera’s tails flared.
Yue’s spear appeared in her hand.
Lullaby lifted her pillow-hammer with sleepy murder in her eyes.
Gula swallowed the dumpling whole and summoned her fork spear.
Aela stiffened, looking around as if roots might burst from the walls again.
Lyra appeared at the dining room entrance.
Her usual calm remained, but her gaze had sharpened into something that reminded Aela that "servant" in this house did not mean harmless.
"My lord," Lyra said. "High-level trespass. Someone is trying to get into the mansion."
Lux stared at the warning. "I can see."
Another system layer unfolded.
[Outer Patrol Defense Report]
[Fenrir Response: Active]
[Veyra Response: Active]
[Previous Minor Intrusion Attempts: Deflected]
[Assassination Probe Signatures: Neutralized]
[Trace Preservation: None]
[Current Breach Tier: Beyond Standard Silent Suppression]