The vaults beneath Calven's Rest hadn't been touched in a thousand years. Most believed they didn't exist—whispers of Titan-era ruins buried beneath city stone, lost to myth and politics. But now, with the aether grid shorting and the storm above the keep growing darker, denial was no longer an option.
Alaric stood at the edge of the old breach, cloaked in the shadow of the Council Keep's ruins. The city's streets above had descended into chaos. Reports poured in: Voidbinder saboteurs, missing officials, and a massive surge of unstable aether deep underground.
The scent of ozone and stone filled the air as Kael adjusted the leather bindings on his gauntlet, faint sparks crackling across his fingers. "Whatever's down there isn't waiting."
"Good," Alaric replied, lowering his hood. "Neither are we."
Lysera dropped beside them from the upper ridge of the crater, her coat fluttering in the updraft. Her twin shortblades shimmered with tracing runes, freshly charged with spelllight. "Path's open. Some Voidbinders posted at the second tier, but they're holding the line. Not running."
"That means Maeryn's still below," Alaric said.
Kael frowned. "And she's doing something."
Lysera arched an eyebrow. "What gave it away? The glowing red fissure in the sky, or the fact the birds are flying backward?"
Kael groaned. "Could be both."
They began their descent.
The underways were wrong. The walls pulsed faintly, aether veins glowing like old blood. The trio moved in silence, weapons ready. The further they went, the heavier the air became.
They passed the remains of a Voidbinder patrol—five bodies, shredded, not by steel but by something older. Fused bones. Charred armor. Runes scorched onto the walls like warnings.
"Something killed them after Maeryn passed through," Lysera whispered.
"Something ancient," Alaric said, pressing his hand against one of the seared walls. His Crucible flickered in his chest—flaring instinctively in the presence of latent godflesh. "The Titan's remnants… they're reacting."
Kael tensed. "Can remnants react?"
"Only if they're not fully dead," Alaric replied.
They reached the first ring of the Vault.
The door had already been forced open. Not with explosions—but with access. Aether locks undone by someone with Titan-marked blood.
Maeryn.
As they stepped through, the Vault's air bit into their lungs—cold and heavy, thrumming with unnatural energy.
Bones loomed in the dark. Enormous ribs spiraled into the ceiling like the remains of a cathedral. Chains, still glowing with wardlight, wrapped around the remains of a skull bigger than a siege wagon.
And Maeryn stood before it.
Clad in void-black armor streaked with living shadow, her presence was overwhelming. Aether bent around her. Her eyes burned with Titanlight—no longer just violet, but molten, ringed with black flame. The Titan Essence she'd absorbed had begun to speak through her.
She turned, voice echoing with layered tones. "So. You followed."
Alaric stepped forward, blade drawn. "You're trying to resurrect it."
"I already did," Maeryn said. "In thought. In memory. In will."
"You're not ready to bear that kind of power," Kael snapped.
She smiled. "Neither was I ready to be abandoned by this world. But here I am."
The bones shifted behind her. One of the ribs moved, ever so slightly. Something was waking, not alive, but bound to her pulse.
Aether flared. The Crucible in Alaric's chest roared.
Maeryn raised her hand—and the bone fragments around her spiraled into a construct of jagged motion, forming a skeletal beast of fused Titan remnants and Void corruption.
"Let's see if you're still heroes," she said.
The beast lunged.
Kael surged forward, lightning chaining from his fingertips to the ground. He spun, launching a compressed bolt into the creature's knee. The flash of thunder lit the chamber like a sunburst.
Alaric dodged under a bone-claw, slashing across aether joints with searing precision. His fire core flared, but it was his stone aspect that held steady. His boots struck the ground like anchors, refusing to budge as the force of the blow slammed into his guard.
Lysera flipped overhead, blades spinning, carving radiant arcs along the creature's spine.
They fought as one.
And still, Maeryn stood untouched, watching.
The creature fell at last, shattered by Kael's rising cyclone and Alaric's empowered Crucible slash. It dissolved into aether ash, the remnants scattering into the bonescape.
Maeryn narrowed her eyes. "Not bad."
Alaric leveled his blade. "This ends now."
She stepped backward—into the shadows—and vanished.
Aboveground
A raven landed on Lord Varen's windowsill.
It whispered a name.
His eyes narrowed.
"It begins, then."