Chapter 604: I can knock you down if it helps.
The path to the old chapel began with Kael walking in the back.
He did not like it.
He made that clear in the third corridor.
"Just for the record, I still think this is a terrible formation."
Amelia, who was walking a few steps ahead, answered without turning around:
"Recorded."
"It was not meant to be actually recorded."
"Then choose another expression."
Sylphie was beside him, holding his marked arm with calm firmness. It did not look like force, but Kael knew that if he tried to pass ahead, she would use root, mana, body, or anything else to stop him.
"You are enjoying this," he said.
"A little."
"Too honest."
"Do you prefer it when I lie?"
"Depends on the lie."
"Then yes, I am suffering greatly keeping you behind."
Kael looked at her.
"That was horrible."
"I tried."
In front, Liza followed with Violet and Eleonor. Elion came right behind them, carrying two containment spheres in a bag reinforced with runes. Yggdrasil walked beside her, arms crossed, looking at each wall as if the entire palace were personally guilty of existing.
Umbra was farther away, moving from shadow to shadow. After the containment Sylphie had made, she seemed less irritated, but not comfortable. Her own shadow remained far too heavy.
Irelia walked near Amelia, her dagger sheathed, but easy to draw.
Elizabeth did not go with them.
She did not like that.
Liza liked even less having to argue with her daughter in the corridor. In the end, Elizabeth stayed in a safe room, with doubled guards, and a formal promise that she would receive explanations later. Kael thought the promise would not prevent an argument. It would only delay it.
Violet opened an old map as she walked. It was a dark parchment, full of faded marks.
"The chapel used to stand in the west wing, before the renovation during Alistair’s reign. Officially, it was demolished to expand the reception halls."
"Officially," Irelia said.
Violet nodded.
"According to the records, yes."
Liza looked at the map.
"But Serena said ’under the old chapel.’ If the place was incorporated, not demolished..."
"Then someone lied during the renovation," Amelia completed.
Kael took a deep breath.
"One more old lie. We are collecting them."
Yggdrasil grumbled:
"You build houses on top of blood mouths and then act surprised when the house starts biting."
Liza looked at her.
"Not all of us knew."
"I know. I am complaining to the architecture."
Elion smiled.
"I like her."
Kael pointed at his mother.
"Do not encourage her."
Eleonor did not turn around.
"Elion, no operational friendship with Yggdrasil during a crisis."
"That was very specific."
"Because I know both of you."
Yggdrasil looked at Eleonor.
"I am not her friend."
Elion smiled wider.
"Yet."
"I will turn your bag into a root."
"I would accept studying that."
"See?" Eleonor said. "That is why."
The corridor ended before a wall decorated with old portraits. The place looked far too ordinary. Dark tapestries, tall vases, a stone bench, and two statues of kneeling vampires with swords across their knees.
Liza stopped.
"Here."
Kael looked around.
"It looks like just an expensive corridor."
Violet pointed at the floor.
"This section does not match the current floor plan."
Amelia crouched, analyzing the joints between the stones.
"The floor was replaced."
Irelia looked at the statues.
"And these statues are later additions?"
Liza narrowed her eyes.
"Yes."
Umbra appeared near one of the statues.
"They are not decoration."
Kael sighed.
"Of course they are not."
Umbra touched the statue’s shadow. The outline moved incorrectly, as if the statue had a shadow more alive than stone should have.
"Guards?"
"Markers," Umbra replied.
Elion approached, interested.
"Markers for what?"
"For passage."
Eleonor raised a hand before Elion could touch it.
"No."
"I did not even do anything."
"You thought with enthusiasm."
"That is not a crime."
"With you, it is evidence."
Kael almost laughed, but the mark on his arm itched. The laugh died before it came out.
Sylphie noticed.
"Again?"
"Light."
"Lie?"
"Small."
She reinforced the green layer. The itch decreased, but did not vanish.
Liza observed the gesture.
"Is it getting worse?"
Kael shrugged.
"It is complaining."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the one I have."
Eleonor approached and looked at his arm.
"Do not use that mark as bait again."
Kael opened his mouth.
Eleonor raised a finger.
"No."
He closed his mouth.
Violet examined the statues.
"How do we open it?"
Umbra looked at both shadows.
"With absence."
Kael blinked.
"That was irritatingly vague."
Yggdrasil pointed to the lanterns.
"Put out the light."
Liza looked at Violet. She made a signal, and the nearest guards extinguished the corridor lanterns. The red light dimmed. The place became almost dark, lit only by the weak glow of the containment runes.
The shadows of the two statues stretched until they touched each other in the center of the floor.
When they touched, a line appeared.
It was not a door. It was a crack in the floor, thin, straight, hidden between the stones.
"Ah," Kael said. "Absence."
"I said it," Umbra spoke.
"I understood later. It was still vague."
Liza knelt and ran her fingers along the crack.
"No blood."
Kael pointed at her.
"Good."
She looked at him.
"I am not an idiot."
"I did not say that."
"You thought it."
"Not about that."
Sylphie squeezed his arm.
"Kael."
"I am being diplomatic."
"You are not."
The crack began to open on its own.
This time, no one had touched anything besides the light. The stones moved apart without sound, revealing a short staircase descending. Unlike the previous one, this was wider and well-carved. Perhaps the chapel had truly been important. Perhaps the hiding place beneath it as well.
The smell that came from there was less rotten, but stronger.
Fresh blood.
Kael became serious.
"That is not old."
Liza noticed it too.
"Someone was here recently."
Violet drew her sword.
Eleonor looked at Kael.
"Behind."
"I know."
"I am reinforcing it."
"Everyone is reinforcing everything today."
They descended.
The staircase led to a smaller room than the basin chamber. It was rectangular, with walls covered in niches. Inside the niches were empty cups, some broken, others intact. At the back, where a normal chapel would have had an altar, there was a stone table with fresh stains.
On the table, a body.
Violet advanced first, then stopped.
"Alive."
It was a male vampire, young, perhaps a servant or lower guard. He was unconscious, bound by thin red threads that crossed his shadow on the floor, not his skin. His chest rose and fell slowly.
Liza took a step.
"Who is he?"
Violet looked carefully.
"Darian. External service guard. Disappeared during yesterday’s shift change."
Amelia approached, but kept her distance from the table.
"So the mouth here was still being fed."
Elion looked at the threads.
"Not exactly fed. Used as a transmitter."
Kael looked at the guard.
"Is he the third shadow?"
Umbra shook her head.
"No. He is where it left the shell."
Irelia looked at the niches.
"Then where is the shadow?"
The answer came from the ceiling.
"Above."
Kael looked up at the same time the thing fell.
It did not fall like a body. It dropped like a dark sheet, opening in the air. Eleonor raised a purple barrier, Liza pulled Violet to the side, and Sylphie grabbed Kael by the arm before he could throw himself forward.
"No!"
"I was only going to block!"
"Lie."
The shadow struck Eleonor’s barrier and spread along the sides. It did not try to cross. It went around.
"Smart," Elion said.
"Do not praise it," Kael replied.
The shadow gathered behind the altar, forming a body more defined than the previous ones. Still faceless, but firmer. The red lines on its chest looked like writing.
Yggdrasil lowered her gaze to it and made a face.
"This one is older."
Eleonor nodded.
"Yes."
Liza stared at the creature.
"You were in my palace."
The shadow turned its head to her.
"I was here before him."
"Before the palace?"
"Before the crown you wear."
Liza went still.
Kael tried to take a step, but Sylphie did not let go.
The shadow continued, its voice low, but clearer than the others:
"You call it infiltration because you forgot the pact."
Amelia spoke quietly:
"It is trying to control the narrative."
Irelia replied:
"And provoke Liza."
Liza did not fall for it.
"What pact?"
The shadow seemed to smile, though it had no mouth.
"The first king asked for endless hunger. Asked for obedience. Asked that the lineages never break. We gave shape to his desire."
Kael narrowed his eyes.
"We?"
The shadow turned to him.
"Marked."
"Kael. I already corrected that."
"You carry door."
"Does it taste bad?"
Sylphie closed her eyes.
"Do not provoke the thing."
"It started."
Eleonor looked at Elion.
"Darian first."
Elion was already moving.
"Yes."
She went to the unconscious guard carefully, avoiding the shadow threads. Yggdrasil jumped from a step to the side of the table and placed her small hands over the shadow bound to his body.
"He is alive, but the memory is scratched."
"Can you hold it?" Elion asked.
"I can, if you do not do something stupid."
"You and everyone else keep saying that."
"Because you threaten to do something stupid frequently."
Kael looked at the larger shadow.
"While they save the guard, we distract it?"
Eleonor answered:
"Without offering yourself as bait."
"That limits my options."
"Good."
Liza took a step forward.
"You said the first king asked for this. Prove it."
The shadow tilted its head.
"Your blood remembers."
"My blood was taught to remember lies."
"A repeated lie becomes law."
Liza tightened her hands.
"Not for me."
The shadow moved fast.
This time, toward Liza.
Kael almost advanced, but Eleonor was already expecting it. The purple barrier closed in front of the queen, and Violet crossed from the side, cutting the shadow in half. The cut did not destroy it, but opened space.
Umbra appeared behind the creature and drove her arms into its back.
"Caught it."
The shadow twisted.
"Empty."
Umbra smiled.
"Yes."
Sylphie released Kael for only a second to extend both hands. Green roots sprouted from the chapel floor and fastened themselves to the red lines on the shadow’s body.
Kael looked at her.
"I could help."
"You are helping by staying there."
"That kind of help is humiliating."
"Survive your own arm and we can discuss it."
The shadow pulled Umbra back with force. The green film around her fragment shone and crackled. Umbra locked her teeth.
Kael felt the mark on his arm heat.
The thing was trying to call the piece inside him.
He took a deep breath.
"It is pulling."
Eleonor looked at him.
"Stay still."
"I am."
The mark climbed a little more.
Sylphie saw it and released the roots to grab his arm again.
The shadow took advantage of the opening.
Violet shouted:
"Your Majesty!"
Liza did not retreat.
She took one of the empty cups from a niche and threw it against the altar. The cup broke, scattering fragments of dark silver across the floor.
The shadow stopped.
For half a second.
Liza smiled coldly.
"You like symbols."
Kael used the interval.
He did not use the new technique. He did not advance toward the shadow. He only raised his free hand and launched a short blade of scarlet mana at the red writing on its chest.
The blade struck.
The shadow staggered.
"That counted as staying still," Kael said.
Sylphie looked at him.
"Technically."
"Thank you."
Eleonor closed her hands. Violet cut again. Umbra pulled from behind. Sylphie held the part trying to answer Kael’s mark.
Elion shouted from the table:
"Darian is loose!"
Yggdrasil completed:
"But he will vomit blood when he wakes. Do not panic."
Kael looked at her.
"Why would you warn us like that?"
"So you do not panic."
"That causes panic."
"In amateurs."
The shadow tried to flee toward the niches. Amelia, who until then had been observing, activated three small crystals and threw them on the floor, one after another. Short barriers appeared at the escape points.
Irelia looked at her.
"You kept three?"
"Five."
"Good to know."
The shadow struck the barriers, lost form for an instant, and was pulled by Umbra.
Eleonor compressed it.
This time, it resisted more.
Liza took one step and spoke:
"You do not speak for my crown."
The shadow answered with difficulty:
"Crowns pass. Mouth remains."
"Then I tear out the mouth."
Eleonor used the sentence. The purple magic closed like a press, and Umbra pulled the dark core from the shadow’s body. The form dissolved in the air. What remained was a red fragment, small, but dense.
Elion raised a containment sphere.
"Now."
Eleonor threw the fragment inside.
The sphere closed.
The chapel fell silent.
Darian, the guard, coughed on the table and turned onto his side.
He vomited blood.
Yggdrasil pointed at him.
"See? I warned you."
Kael passed a hand over his face.
"You are terrible at calming people down."
"And you are terrible at staying behind."
"I stayed."
"Almost."
Liza went to Darian and checked his face.
"Will he survive?"
Elion answered:
"Yes. But he will not remember everything."
"Perhaps that is better," Violet said.
Amelia was already looking at the walls.
"No. We need whatever he can remember."
Kael looked at the sphere in Eleonor’s hand.
"Was that the last one in the palace?"
Umbra closed her eyes for a few seconds.
"Of the active ones, yes."
Liza released the air.
For the first time in hours, she looked truly tired.
"Of the active ones."
"There are old marks," Umbra said. "But no open mouth."
Eleonor stored the sphere.
"Then we have a window."
"For what?" Irelia asked.
Elion answered, excited again:
"To study before the external network notices it lost contact."
Kael looked at Sylphie.
"I hate when the answer is study fast."
Amelia raised the notebook.
"I like it."
"I know."
The mark on his arm pulsed once.
Everyone looked.
Kael sighed.
"It was only once."
Sylphie held his arm with both hands.
"Kael."
"I know. Bench, rest, supervision, no punching altars, no serving as bait."
Eleonor nodded.
"Good summary."
Kael looked at her.
"I was being sarcastic."
"I was not."
Liza looked around the old chapel.
"Violet, seal the entrance. After that, I want every name of every person who has worked in this wing from Alistair’s renovation until today."
"That is centuries, Your Majesty."
"I know."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Kael began climbing the stairs with Sylphie beside him.
"On the bright side, we found the chapel."
Irelia looked at him.
"And discovered there is an external network, ancient mouths, and that your arm has become a partial key."
"I said bright side. Not the complete list."
Elizabeth was waiting in the upper corridor when they returned, despite the orders.
Liza looked at her.
"Elizabeth."
"I stayed outside the room."
"You stayed too close."
"But outside."
Kael murmured:
"She has an internal lawyer."
Liza looked at him.
"Do not help."
He raised his free hand.
"I am not."
Elizabeth looked at Darian being carried by the guards.
"Another victim?"
Liza nodded.
"Yes."
The princess pressed her lips together.
"So Cassian was not the worst problem."
"No," Kael said. "He was the noise."
Amelia completed:
"And someone used the noise to hide the structure."
Elizabeth looked at her mother.
"What now?"
Liza looked at Eleonor, then at Kael and the mark on his arm.
"Now we truly close the palace."
Eleonor nodded.
"And we begin working."
Yggdrasil grumbled:
"And I lose another afternoon."
Kael looked at her.
"You do not even know if it is afternoon."
"It is afternoon somewhere."
"That is fair."
Sylphie pulled Kael by the arm.
"You are going to a room."
"Again?"
"Yes."
"I am being kidnapped by care."
"You finally noticed."
Umbra appeared beside him.
"I can knock you down if it helps."
"No need."
"What a shame."
Kael looked at everyone around him. Liza giving orders. Eleonor and Elion already discussing method. Yggdrasil complaining. Amelia writing. Irelia evaluating routes. Elizabeth trying to look less frightened. Violet carrying the practical weight of turning decision into action.
He took a deep breath.
"Fine. Room."
Sylphie seemed surprised that he accepted.
"Without arguing?"
"I will argue later. I am choosing the moment."
Amelia wrote it down.
"Possible lie."
Kael pointed at her.
"I saw that."
"It was meant to be seen."
He followed Sylphie down the corridor, with the mark still hot on his arm and the irritating certainty that this was not over.
But at least, for now, no one else was coming out of the walls.
That was an improvement.