They had walked for a short while after leaving the Mirror Ward. The corridor ahead subtly narrowed as they progressed until it only allowed them to move in pairs down its length. The carved stone walls seemingly absorbed the sound of their passage leaving the corridor eerily silent. They had left the flickering presence of the Mirror Ward sigils nearly an hour past and now only the cold silence remained, broken every so often by the crunch of boots on gravel. It was only about a further ten minutes before they could detect the next change, ahead there was a low hum of power that pulsed like a heartbeat buried deep beneath the surface.

  Soon the path opened up into another circular chamber, this one had faded reliefs marking the walls, scenes of ancient bindings and decrees etched in long lost languages or non-mortal tongues. Such that even Xavier’s trait couldn’t decipher the vast majority of them. Ahead of them, at the back of the chamber lay what could only be the Vault of Chains, waiting impassively. It was a single seamless stone arch, simple and almost plain in design however there was a heavy weight of dormant menace that clung to the stone. There was no visible ward, glyph or even magical plane covering the entrance just the empty archway and the tons of stone and earth that hung overhead. Xavier reached out with his nascent ability to feel the earth and could detect nothing out of place.

  Lythara stepped forward, leaving the group where they stood. Her pace slowed as she approached the archway until she halted just a pace from its threshold. Her crimson eyes narrowed slightly, a frown etching delicate lines across her brow as she studied it. Finally, she took a deep bracing breath and took another step forward. Immediately she staggered backwards, her breath coming in short gasps as if a giant had closed its hand around her chest and was slowly crushing her ribs and lungs. As she staggered the slight claws on her fingers dug furrows into the stone walls seeking to support and balance her and her tail lashed violently back and forth.

  Xavier rushed to her side holding out a hand for her to grasp. “Lythara?”

  She gritted her teeth as she shook her head slowly and met his eyes. “I warned you. The contract will not let me pass into the vault without Ivarik. His clause of ‘you may not enter any repository where I place this pact without my presence.’ Another joke of his to keep me from trying to break it by myself. His presence unlocks the way for me.

  There was no physical barrier for the infernal woman. No shimmering line to mark her limit, just a sudden pressure, internal and inescapable. A leash and collar that was bound to her soul, not her body.

  Ella moved forward next, coming to Lythara’s side opposite of Xavier and placing a steadying hand on the succubus’ forearm. “Are you alright?” She queried.

  Having moved back from the direct entrance to the vault Lythara’s breath had calmed and she regained her composure. “It is not damage and fades quickly when I step away.” She responded. “It is just the enforcement of the contract.” Her expression remained grave and tense as she looked between the two. “I can go no further. My presence beyond this point without Ivarik is a violation of the contract and it would kill me… or worse.”

  For several long moments no one responded to her words. Then Xavier nodded and turned to gaze at the archway. “Don’t worry Lythara. I said we would get it for you. We will get it for you and bring it back.”

  Lythara said nothing, her orbs locking on the back of his head until he turned back to her. As their eyes met a moment of unspoken trust passed between them.

  Ella touched Lythara’s arm lightly as she stepped past her. “We will not fail.”

  Behind the succubus Lianna checked her bow then gave Xavier a silent nod. Sihri adjusted the bindings of her fighting wraps, her ears twitching warily as she moved towards the Vault. Valkra and Frostclaw were the last two to follow, not because of hesitation just the limitations of the corridors leading the chamber had held them in rear guard.

  With no further words the group moved forward. One at a time they breeched the threshold and were swallowed by the vault. No magic flared to mark their passage, no curse screamed out, they just passed into the darkness. Behind them a single figure stood. Lythara, alone in the light of her single torch, watched them vanish into the Vault’s embrace, she was not held back by choice but by chains written in blood and infernal ink.

  Crossing the threshold into the vault bought a palpable change to the very air around them. As they followed the slowly downward curving spiral of the corridor, the air felt heavier, denser. It had a pressure as if they had made their way into the very lungs of the earth itself. As they walked, they realized that the sound around them was muffled oddly, the weight of the ancient stone around them even dulling the noise of their breathing. As they walked, they noticed the walls were etched with faintly glowing sigils, most were long faded and dull. Some of those marks however pulsed sluggishly, like the heartbeat of a dying titan. Everything they felt and saw only emphasized how monumentally old the vault was.

  Xavier paused a short way down the spiral as a fork opened up before them. Resting his hand along one of the stone walls he closed his eyes and extended his senses, not the usual ones of sight, smell and hearing. Instead, he reached out with the new earth sense that he had been gifted from the Earth Ley Line. The pressure of the stone around them, the tension in the foundations, even the subtle bends where something had once moved through the earth. He couldn’t precisely see, he just knew what there was.

  Pointing to one of the tunnels, he adjusted their route. “This way,” He murmured, shifting left at a fork that looked no different from the rest. But the ley line spoke of weakness in the alternate path, an old cave-in, or maybe a collapsed decoy passage.

  Ella did not hesitate and followed without comment. Lianna came second, her gaze swept the corners and ceiling of the corridor, every muscle beneath her armor was taut and ready to strike. Frostclaw padded next to Lianna. His movements those of a hunting cat on the prowl, slow steady breath and soft footfalls. Only his slightly raised hackles indicated his tension as not even a growl escaped his throat. Sihri ghosted behind them, her every step light on the balls of her feet as her ears swiveled back and forth listening for any danger. Valkra brought up the rear. As is normal for her kind her paws made no sound as she moved. She crouched low to the ground, and her yellow eyes were wide with unblinking curiosity. Like Frostclaw she didn’t growl, she didn’t need to. The way her body coiled tighter with each step said enough. Even the little cub could sense when they were being watched by something unseen.

  As they moved deeper Xavier started noticing oddities, something that didn’t stand out at first, but he was starting to catch faint flickers of light in the corner of his vision. Then he saw something clearly, a hairline seam on the stone floor just ahead had a soft subtle pulsing red glow. He held up a hand stopping everyone as he moved closer to it. Crouching close to but avoiding touching it he examined it from several angles until he received a new notification.

  That was it, no further information was on the notification and Xavier sighed in frustration. Leaning down he blew across the outlined tile, careful to still avoid touching it. Beneath the dust and grime a magical sigil pulsed with a dull crimson color, it was nearly completely invisible except for his skill’s highlighting it. The rune was etched into a stone plate that was discolored from the rest of the floor, something that the layers of dust had hidden, though the color change was so miniscule that only a trained eye could have caught it. Knowing there was something there enabled Xavier to notice the difference, however.

  Ella moved up and knelt beside him. “Containment rune,” she murmured. “Brutal one, it utilizes compression to collapse the ceiling on anyone who triggers it.”

  Xavier was nodding to her explanation however his eyes narrowed as he stared at the glyph. Though the lines were unfamiliar he could pick out the flow of the design. After a few moments he recognized the mechanisms of it like a lock requiring a key. Something about the shape of the rune, the layering of curves and the tapered ends, made sense in a way he couldn’t quite explain.

  He glanced at Ella, “I can feel it,” he said. “Let me try something.”

  Reaching out he began to trace lines in the air above the rune. With each pass the image in his mind sharpened. It was not learned knowledge so to speak as it was an intuitive understanding of the rune. His fingers moved with ever increasing certainty until he reached a final flourish. Below, on the stone, a gentle pulse passed through the rune and its glow dimmed, then vanished.

  Ella blinked. “You just memorized and disarmed a containment trap with no prior study.”

  “I learned it,” Xavier said, exhaling. “Like I already had the pieces… and just needed to see how they fit.”

  Ella nodded, a smile flickering. “Then that rune’s yours now.”

  A new notification followed her words confirming what she said.

  Xavier grinned as they moved deeper down the corridor. As they moved Xavier’s Keen Eye skill continued to cause places to glow subtly, a faint red glow marking dormant traps they now knew to avoid, and a few soft white flickers tucked into strange crevices or wall seams. Secrets, Xavier mused, he made mental notes to return if they had time.

  A short distance later and suddenly Frostclaw growled low, his ears pivoting sharply towards the ceiling. Behind the group Valkra did the same, her body tense and twin tails lashing anxiously.

  Lianna’s hand tightened on her bow as her other rested on Frostclaw’s back. “Something is moving,” she whispered loud enough for only the group to hear. “Either above us or behind us.”

  The group readied for combat but after several minutes the corridor remained empty.

  “We’re running out of time,” Xavier stated. “We need to pick up the pace.”

  The moved down the tunnel with a slightly quicker step, still watching warily for traps. Ahead the path curved once more before it opened into a wide cross shaped chamber. At the end of each of the three legs stood massive stone doors, each holding a different emblem etched into their surface. Dust clung to every surface in the room but those symbols each shimmered faintly with residual energy.

  Xavier stepped closer, his innate talent for languages allowing him to read the symbols even as it told him they were etched in ancient Ignithari. That tickled his mind a moment until he remembered a scrap of lore that it was the language of the ancient Phoenix Empire, the one that had conflicted with the Sylmyrian Dominion.

  As he looked at each emblem he spoke aloud. “Containment. Records. Sigils.”

  He glanced back at the rest of the group and noticed Ella nodding in agreement.

  “Alright, we find the Animari records and Lythara’s contract fast,” Xavier said. “Then we try and find the binding sigil for King Rorik.”

  As they began moving towards the doors a faint white glow caught Xavier’s attention. He paused and looked towards it more directly and noticed it originated from a spot nestled low along the base of the left-hand wall where the stone wall met the floor. It was tucked back into a shallow recess that was nearly swallowed by shadows which is why it had caught his attention. As he looked closer it pulsed once then held a steady glow, gentle and unthreatening. Stepping away from the others he knelt to look closer.

  Lianna followed him, “Trap?” She asked, her expression was cautious.

  “No,” he replied as he brushed away a fine layer of dust. “Traps glow red to my skill; this one is white. I noticed some earlier as well, but we bypassed them for time. I think this is a hidden secret or passage.”

  His fingers probed around the edge of the glow until he found a faint seam, it was barely perceptible but to his eyes, augmented by his earth sense, it was unmistakable. He pulled out Vaeltheris and resized the blade to a small dagger. Carefully he slipped the blade into the groove and gave a firm but cautious twist. A soft click sounded behind the wall and a recessed panel slid open revealing the hidden cavity.

  As the light fell upon the small space he saw a tightly bound bundle wrapped in oilcloth, resting atop the bundle was a circular stone disc that was about the size of his palm. The disc was dark and highly polished, shimmering faintly under the torchlight he could see its surface was inscribed with incredibly fin rings of concentric runes. Carefully he picked it up, keenly aware of its ancient nature. As his hand closed on it he noticed it felt unnaturally cold to the touch. As soon as it was lifted more to the light and he could see the etchings his talent triggered again and he understood the writings and their meanings.

  “Ignithari,” he murmured. “Ancient Phoenix Empire…”

  There was a slight intake of air from Ella as she moved to his side. “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely.” He rotated the disc slightly and pointed. “See these are not words, they are coordinates. Multiple ones. My guess would be locations.”

  “Locations for what?” Lianna asked.

  He shifted the disc so she could see them as well. “Vaults maybe? Other significant places. The symbols on the door are Ignithari as well.”

  Ella scowled slightly. “So, they built more of these?”

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  Xavier nodded. “I assume these are all over where their empire was or had embassies.”

  On a hunch he changed his map interface, zooming it out until he could see the entire continent. A couple thoughts later he had added the various coordinates on the disc to the map as well and they glowed faintly in his vision. As he examined them he noted that the majority of them were in the Shattered Expanse.

  “Most of them are in the Shattered Expanse,” he murmured.

  There was a long silence before Ella spoke again. “The Shattered Expanse was where the heart of the Phoenix Empire was prior to the Skyfire Cataclysm. If this one survived maybe some of the others survived there.”

  She didn’t voice the rest of her thoughts though everyone had come to the same conclusion. That region had long been scorched into silence. Its unstable ley lines made it highly dangerous as they triggered arcane storms and mutated the flora and fauna found there. The nomadic tribes that lived along its boarders rarely ventured far or long into its interior. Its surviving secrets, if any remained, were sealed under ash and blood. But if something there still stirred, it might hold truths even older than the Vault they stood in now.

  Xavier looked back at the bundle, still unopened. “We’ll deal with the rest later. But this,” he said, sliding the disc and bundle into his satchel trusting its space folding nature to protect them from damage, “this matters.”

  Whatever the Phoenix Empire meant to hide… it had just started to whisper again.

  They stepped out of the alcove and started to move down the corridor leading to the central door. As they moved the corridor narrowed as the pressure in the air thickened, along the walls frost started to show but it wasn’t from cold, the temperature stayed neutral. The frost increased as the dormant magic drew inward like a held breath until the shimmer appeared. A translucent veil rippled across the passageway blocking further progress. It was nearly invisible unless they shifted to view it at an angle. Under Xavier’s eyes it pulsed faintly with layered glyphwork, resembling concentric circles nestled inside each other, their outermost edges anchored to the walls with carved sigils. Xavier stopped the party once again and Ella peered over his shoulder.

  “It’s a live ward across the whole corridor,” she stated.

  Behind them everyone else stopped immediately and Ella moved to stand beside Xavier to get a better look. Her eyes narrowing as she stepped closer and studied the structure.

  “It is not passive,” she said. “It looks like a containment field. If triggered incorrectly it will not just lock us in it could obliterate everything within its reach.”

  Lianna growled from behind them, “Lovely.” She then shifted to a low stance and turned to eye the ceiling and passageway behind them.

  Sihri kept herself closer to the wall, her own stance low and still as well. Nearby even Valkra and Frostclaw were wary, both of their feline forms alert but unmoving as they could sense the threat from the ward as well now.

  Xavier crouched near the base of the wall. His Rune Deciphering skill stirred as the sigils swam into mental alignment. They weren’t Ignithari like the other markings they had found, but the containment logic was clean even elegant, in a brutal sort of way.

  “Look here, they’re using mirrored glyph anchors,” he said, fingertips hovering just above a junction point. “It creates a pulse loop. If we break just one side, the whole thing detonates.”

  Ella looked at what he pointed out before she scanned the upper glyphs. “Here. That sequence there, it's a resonance echo. If we mirror it from the base junction and fold it through the center loop, it’ll collapse the lattice safely.”

  Xavier closed his eyes briefly picturing what he had seen and what Ella had pointed out. The runes arranged themselves in his mind and he could see sequence, purpose, pattern. He felt the rhythm of the glyphs more than saw it. As though the stone itself was whispering how it wanted to be unraveled.

  “I can do this,” he said, and reached out carefully. He traced the mirrored rune sequence in reverse, carefully following Ella’s directions. As his finger completed the final arc, a low hum vibrated through the stone. The veil pulsed once, twice, and then silently vanished. The air stilled.

  Lianna exhaled slowly. “Subtle enough.”

  “No sparks or explosion is a win,” Sihri added under her breath.

  Ella gave Xavier a faint smile. “You’re picking this up faster than I expected.”

  Xavier smirked at her before he straightened, his gaze falling on the massive door now fully revealed ahead. Its sigil was unmistakable, etched deep into the center in angular Ignithari script that matched what they'd seen before was a single word. Records.

  Xavier stepped forward, resting a hand briefly on the stone. “This is it. The archive.”

  The Vault door stood before them, waiting.

  Placing hands on the door Xavier pushed, it swung inwards with minimal effort, the craftsmanship such that it still was almost perfectly balanced. Inside the chamber was vast and still, its ceiling was vaulted and soared into the darkness above their heads, its details lost in the inky blackness. No light illuminated the chamber, the sole source of light being the torches that the group held aloft. For Xavier though, there were other faint white illuminations. His Keen Eye was triggering and revealing secret locations hidden away throughout the chamber.

  Xavier stepped inside and scanned the walls slowly. He let his focus shift across the soft indistinct white glows. Most of them were dull, likely archival caches tucked behind stone panels or false shelves. All of them but one that is, it shimmered just a little brighter than the others, its shape larger and more distinct. It came from the back of the chamber, hidden beneath a sagging shelf that had old Animari knotwork carved into patterns across its edges.

  Already moving towards the area Xavier spoke, “There is something here.”

  Behind him the other fanned out and he crouched down near the base of the shelf. A seam in the floor, it didn’t match the rest of the floor, and he felt the distinct difference as he traced his fingers over the edge. As the dust was cleared the seam glowed brighter to Xaviers eyes.

  “Help me clear this away,” he told the others.

  Sihri and Ella helped him clear several old crates and bundles of dry-rotted cloth off the shelf and move it out of the way. Beneath everything Xavier identified a pressure plate, it was not etched with any glyphs as had been found in the hallway leading here. Gingerly Xavier triggered the plate, and the floor groaned before a large panel slid out of the way with the low rumble of stone on stone. As the dimly lit opening widened, they could perceive a new stairway leading down.

  Xavier sighed and rolled his eyes, the cliche of numerous games coming back to him. “Of course there is a hidden floor,” he muttered.

  Behind him Lianna groaned as well. The tension of the excursion into the vault wearing on the Iskari who much preferred the out of doors.

  Ella tilted her head, listening. “No wards. No alerts. It was meant to be used, just not found easily.”

  Xavier led the way down. The hidden chamber below was small but meticulously preserved. Dozens of scroll cases lay organized by kin-type, each bearing the old Animari sigils: Cervari, Ursari, Vulpiri, and many more. Their wax seals remained intact. There was no dust here, no decay, this place had been preserved by intentional magic, not to protect the world from its contents, but to protect the contents from the world, and ravages of time. Xavier’s hand hovered over one scroll case marked with a silver leaf: Lynari. He didn’t touch it, yet.

  “There’s more,” Ella said, moving toward a secondary alcove at the chamber’s edge. “Look here.”

  A thick, black-bound case lay atop a pedestal, surrounded by faintly glowing runes of suppression, not defense. Again, they were runes of storage careful, delicate magic.

  These runes were unfamiliar now. His trait did not translate them unlike the others. Turning to Ella he raised an eyebrow to explain them.

  Scowling slightly, she studied them for a long moment. “Infernal, these are not wards nor defenses. Just preservation.” She surmised, pulling from the ageless knowledge within the souls inside Vaeltheris

  “It’s a contract,” Xavier guessed.

  Ella nodded in agreement. “An infernal one.”

  His gaze sharpened as he knew of only one contract likely to be down here. “Lythara’s.”

  He took a slow breath and reached for the case. As his fingers brushed it the white glow from his Keen Eye pulsed briefly… then faded, as if satisfied. No ward triggered. No alarm sounded. He lifted the contract case and turned to the others.

  “We’ve got what we came for.” But as he glanced back toward the shelves, toward the thousands of years of Animari bloodlines sealed here, hidden from the world he knew they’d uncovered far more than a mission objective. They’d uncovered a truth someone had gone to great lengths to bury.

  Some time later they emerged from the hidden archive and left the hall of records. Making their way back towards the other sealed corridors they turned towards the one marked ‘Sigils.’ Xavier’s enchanted satchel hung heavy, even with its weight reducing capabilities, it carried the bundled Animari records and Lythara’s contract nestled inside its magical space. He could feel their weight pressing down on him more than just physically, they bore on his every step.

  Frostclaw lead the way this time, tail low and steady as he prowled looking for danger. Valkra remained closer to Xavier now, her ears twitching and eyes darting from shadow to shadow alert to every possible change within the vault.

  The right most chamber stood at the far end of its own stone hall, much like the records one had. Its massive door was cut from the same dark stone, likely granite, as the others but here the glyph seemed to be cut deeper, sharper even into the stone backing. Xavier shuddered slightly as it felt like a wound to the stone more than simple carving. As they moved closer the details of the sigil came more into focus it was not just ‘Sigils’ as previously noted, it actually read ‘Sigils of Binding.’

  Xavier started to move towards it but after the first step his senses recoiled at the assault on them. The magic in this hallway was denser than any previously experienced. It didn’t compose of a warding barrier like with the hall leading to the records. It was focused on the door explicitly and it was woven with exquisite complexity not just brute force. Studying each rune that surrounded the doorway, Xavier could instinctively tell that they interlocked, like overlapping chains. They were not passive, nor were they reactive, they were binding a vastly intricate lock meant to do nothing more than keep the door sealed and deny passage to any but the one who laid them.

  “That has to be it,” Ella hissed as she studied the sigils as well. “Lythara said King Rorik’s binding sigil was here. This must be the chamber that holds it.”

  Xavier couldn’t disagree with her, but it seemed too obvious, the markings on the door were newer than the others but still done in the same script just with a different energy to his feelings. Almost as if an obvious trap were being laid for someone.

  Xavier approached the door carefully, running his hand just above the surface. He didn’t need to touch it to feel the resistance. The runes didn’t flare or spark at all, in fact they didn’t challenge him in any way. They simply existed, sealed in layers upon layers, forming a cipher of magical energy. He tried to parse the structure of the runes. His skill in rune deciphering enough to let him see that the lines coiled back into themselves, the arcs overlapped, repeating symbols nested three deep like recursive logic loops he had coded back on Earth. Every rune referenced another the whole thing was a self-protecting script.

  “It’s locked beyond anything I’ve seen,” he murmured. “A living seal.”

  Ella stepped closer, one hand resting on the wall near the door as she focused once more drawing on the knowledge held within Vaeltheris. Her expression hardened as it came to her.

  “They wove the wards with redundancy,” she said. “If one link is tampered with, the others reset the entire structure. It is meant to outlive any tampering attempts.”

  “Can we break it?” Lianna asked, watching the corridor behind them with practiced tension.

  “Not now,” Xavier said, stepping back. “Not without unraveling the full structure. It’d take hours… or a key.”

  Ella’s eyes flicked to him. “You think the Ignithari disc could be part of it?”

  Xavier didn’t answer immediately. His thought it might be possible, but this magic didn’t feel like it was Ignithari. He had noticed the difference between the older magics they had unraveled and this one. It was Arenvalan. Likely cast or reinforced by Ivarik himself.

  “It might be, but we’ll need something more,” he said at last. “And time we don’t have.”

  Sihri shifted her weight. “Then we move before the Vault decides we’ve overstayed our welcome. We have already been here longer than we should have.”

  They turned as one, backing away from the door that rebuffed them so completely. Xavier looked over his shoulder one last time, the faintest ripple stirred across the binding glyph. There was no sound no change in glow, but the door had noticed him; and something behind it had felt that recognition.

  They hadn’t made it far from the ‘Sigils of Binding’ door when a pulse of pressure swept through the Vault. It was not an explosion, it was not even a noise, but a ripple. The kind that shivered through the bones rather than the skin. The kind that meant they had been noticed by something. Xavier stopped mid-step. Valkra froze beside him, her hackles raised, body low and trembling in silence her tails lashing anxiously once again.

  Then they heard the sound. Slow, purposeful bootsteps. It was not stone shifting, not magical mechanisms or even magical wards exploding in alarm. It was a person.

  “Contact,” Lianna whispered, already moving into a flanking position. Frostclaw mirrored her instinctively, lips peeled back in warning.

  From the corridor behind them, just beyond the now unsealed Records door they had explored first, a shape emerged. It was tall and shrouded in a cloak of gray-black silk that moved like smoke. No features could be seen beneath the veil of the hood, only the outline of a humanoid figure, and a glint of something metallic beneath the folds: bracers, breastplate perhaps, or armor too finely crafted to make noise. It didn’t speak. It had no reason to it was just there to deal with the intruders. And its presence was wrong, not infernal, abyssal, not elemental. Just... cold, controlled and surgical.

  Ella stepped forward her twin swords held at the ready, her voice steady. “Ward construct?”

  “No,” Xavier said, instinct cold and certain in his gut. “It’s not part of the Vault.”

  Lianna’s arrow was already notched and aimed towards the figure. Sihri moved to take slight cover in one of the alcoves her fists held at the ready.

  The being didn’t slow. It advanced with fluid steps, raising one hand as if to summon something but there was no spell cast, no chant rose from the folds of the hood. Only the feel of pressure sharpening in the air. Then the first blow came fast.

  In the space of a blink, it was on them. Its strikes coming with precision rather than brutality. Xavier blocked the swing with Vaeltheris, back in his preferred short sword form, barely redirecting the force, but it was like trying to stop a moving wall so massive was the strength of the unknown being. He tried to trigger Insight but the skill was rebuffed as well only giving him a single piece of information. The being’s title “Enforcer.” The being didn’t seem to breathe, it didn’t flinch, and it didn’t miss.

  Lianna fired. The arrow glanced off a shimmer of force just beneath the cloak. Not magical shielding, ward-forged armor. It was much finer than even what they had seen on the Redmaws or Lythara.

  “A Shadow Court agent,” Ella breathed. “It has to be.”

  “We have no proof,” Xavier said grimly, dodging a sweep that cracked the stone beside him. “And it wants to keep it that way.”

  Sihri flanked it from behind, her metal reinforced wraps clanging against the armor beneath the cloak, but the thing twisted away before she could land a solid strike. It lashed out catching her with the back of a gauntleted fist. She rolled with the blow, cursing in pain but alive.

  “We’re not winning this fight,” Ella said, own attacks landing grazing blows that barely staggered the thing. “Grab the records. Get out.”

  Xavier slashed in a controlled arc the Emberstone sword following behind Vaeltheris’ lead, covering Sihri’s retreat. “Lianna, try and cover our escape.”

  “Gladly,” the Iskari woman replied.

  The team disengaged in a controlled rhythm, leapfrogging as they backed toward the path leading to the Vault’s exit. Xavier felt the scrolls and contract thudding within the satchel against his hip. The mission was complete. They had what they needed, but the Vault would not let them go quietly. The Enforcer didn’t pursue with rage. It didn’t shout. It simply followed, methodically, without urgency, like a butcher preparing a table.

  “Let’s move!” Xavier barked, leading the retreat as Sihri pulled down a shelf behind them, hoping to slow the pursuit for precious seconds.

  They didn’t win the battle. That was not the goal. They didn’t need to. They just had to escape with the truth of what they had found. They ran.

  The halls of the vault sped past them as they ran up the winding corridor. Sigils, statues, traps and hidden compartments, empty chambers and silent wards all flashed by as they fled. The atmosphere had taken on an even heavier presence, as if the very structure of the subterranean location resented the fact that they were within. However, no alarms sounded, no traps triggered, and no spells flashed into being to harm them. No, the only thing that hounded their steps was the soft echo of the deliberate footsteps following close behind them

  As they rounded the corner and could see the archway that marked the entrance to the vault Xavier hazarded a glance behind. The Enforcer had stopped, it now stood at the edge of the most recent corridor they had exited, its veiled hood turned specifically towards him. It was watching from the distance, and it made no further move to pursue them. It threw no parting attack, it didn’t even make a sound, retaining its eerie silence.

  As Xavier struggled to understand the change the being lifted a hand. It reached out, pointing two extended fingers together towards Xavier and made a gesture so subtle it could have easily been missed. Xavier, however, felt it. A prickling raised on his skin, faint, cold and worrisome. Somehow, he knew the Enforcer had marked him, not with a wound or a glow but something had been placed. He didn’t know how he knew but he knew that a memory, or a trace, or some type of link lingered between him and the Enforcer, something that would have to be delt with in time. Then the shadows swallowed the figure, and it was gone.

  They emerged through the archway into the cold stone of the chamber that held the entrance of the Vault. A short distance from where they paused Lythara stood waiting with anxious patience for them. The calm stillness of the air outside the archway was a balm to their nerves and almost felt surreal after the tension inside the vault. They still cast about furtively searching for the figure that had pursued them but vanished into the shadows before they escaped.

  Sihri collapsed against one of the walls, her breathing still coming hard and fast from the flight. “Well… that sucked,” she wheezed.

  Lianna still held an arrow to string and turned to aim it back in the archway, she didn’t let it lower until she was certain nothing was still pursuing them. “Yes, it did but we made it out.”

  Frostclaw and Valkra both circled the group several times before settling nearby their companions. Both of the felines still had raised hackles but they were otherwise unharmed by the foray into the Vault.

  Ella stepped to Xavier’s side, her hand briefly touching his arm as she glanced to the satchel. “You still have it all in there correct?”

  “All of the Animari records… and Lythara’s contract,” he responded with a nod, his voice low and tense still.

  Ella sighed in relief. “Then we did it, we still need to address the King’s binding but we did the majority of what we came for.”

  Xavier didn’t respond, his gaze lingered on the gloom beyond the archway. “No… we didn’t just take information,” he murmured eventually. “We took notice as well.”

  Lianna glanced at him ready to draw the bow again hearing his words. “Do you think it will follow us then?”

  Xavier considered her question a moment then shook his head. “No, not for now. I don’t think it needs to now. I think it knows me now.”

  Ella looked at him sharply. “You felt it?”

  Sighing Xavier nodded. “Yeah, when it pointed at me and made the gesture.”

  The small party moved to gather around Lythara. The succubus was still unable to go closer to the Vault, so they compromised. She stood tense, restrained by the clause in the contract that kept her away from the vault and eyeing them anxiously. Her reaction was visible when Xavier pulled the infernal scroll case from his satchel. Her breath caught and she surged forward a single step before the bindings of the contract stopped her once again.

  Holding the case up Xavier spoke to her. “It’s here, we got it as promised.” He held the case out so she could clearly see it. Though it was still sealed, bound, and held her as firmly as before, Lythara’s shoulders straightened and her eyes glimmered brighter with that tinge of hope from before.