Chapter 3 Sparks Beneath the City

Aurevia never slept.

From the windows of the sanctum’s upper chamber, Seren watched the city pulse with artificial light. Neon veins crawled up skyscrapers, mimicking the ley currents Nyros had taught her to sense beneath the ground. Somewhere in that web of metal and fire, her brother’s body lay hidden in a hospital ward and somewhere deeper, his soul remained chained to the Covenant’s reactor.

The knowledge sat heavy in her chest, hotter than the forgefire still running through her veins.

Nyros had gone below to strengthen the sanctum wards. She could feel his magic like a heartbeat under the floor steady, fading in and out of the hum of the ley lines.

But tonight, something felt wrong.

The city’s rhythm was uneven. Broken.

Seren grabbed her jacket, slipped through the stairwell, and stepped out into the alley. Rain drizzled in fine mist, hissing as it met the heat still clinging to her skin. She pulled her hood low and moved quickly through the maze of backstreets, drawn toward the place where the pulse of magic stuttered.

The alley opened into a half-flooded tunnel entrance, marked by a faded warning: “AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY LEY MAINTENANCE GRID.”

She crouched, brushing her fingers over the slick metal surface. The air was warm, humming faintly. Power raw and unstable spilled from a crack in the plating.

“Curious place for a midnight walk,” a voice said behind her.

Seren spun. Fire flickered along her fingertips before she could stop it. Kaien Vale leaned against the wall, cloak drenched, silver hair darkened by the rain. His sword hung sheathed at his side, but his stance was alert ready.

She glared. “Following me now?”

“Protecting you,” he corrected. “Or trying to. The Covenant is moving faster than expected.”

“I don’t need your protection.”

Kaien’s expression didn’t change. “You might need my information, then.”

She hesitated.

“Talk,” she said finally.

“The Heartforge you destroyed in the undercity was just one node. They’ve built five more across Aurevia. Each one draws from a fragment of your brother’s soul.” His tone softened slightly. “They’re using him to stabilize the ley breaches your power reopened.”

Seren’s throat tightened. “You’re lying.”

“I wish I were.”

The air thickened between them. The hum of the ley current below grew louder, almost angry.

Seren’s flames flared instinctively. “If this is true, where?”

Kaien nodded toward the tunnel. “Below this grid. The Covenant calls it the Ember Vault. It’s guarded too heavily for a direct fight.”

“Then we find another way in.”

Kaien’s lips curved slightly. “You sound like him.”

“Who?”

“Your brother. He said the same thing before the explosion that put him under.”

Her hands froze mid-motion. “You knew him?”

“I recruited him,” Kaien said quietly. “He believed he could use the Covenant’s research to heal the city’s ley scars. He didn’t know what Arkan planned until it was too late.”

Seren felt the world tilt beneath her. Memories flashed Rowan sketching runes on napkins, muttering theories about energy harmonics, about the way magic could power hospitals instead of destroying them. She had laughed, called it superstition.

Now the guilt hit like a blade twisting deep.

“You led him to them,” she said.

“I led many to them,” Kaien said. His voice was hoarse. “That’s my curse.”

Her flames surged higher. “Then give me one reason I shouldn’t burn you alive right now.”

He didn’t flinch. “Because I’m the only one who can get you inside the Vault.”

The tunnel swallowed them whole.

They moved through dripping corridors where pipes rattled and the walls glowed faintly with red sigils Covenant marks of warning. The deeper they went, the thicker the heat became. The hum of the leyline was no longer beneath their feet it was inside their bones.

Kaien walked ahead, one hand brushing his rune-brand as if steadying it. The markings crawled across his arm like molten veins, reacting each time Seren’s firelight brushed too close.

“What happens if your curse breaks?” she asked quietly.

He didn’t turn. “Depends who’s watching.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“No,” he said, “it’s a truth.”

They reached a heavy steel gate inscribed with molten glyphs. Kaien pressed his palm to the sigils; they flared briefly, then dimmed. The gate groaned open, releasing a wave of hot, metallic air that made Seren’s skin prickle.

Beyond lay a vast chamber a cathedral of machinery. Dozens of cylindrical reactors lined the walls, glowing with liquid fire. Cables coiled across the floor like serpents, pulsing in rhythm with the ley current.

At the center, encased in crystal, floated a single sphere of golden light. It pulsed faintly heartbeat steady, fragile. Seren’s breath caught.

“Rowan,” she whispered.

Kaien’s voice was barely audible. “A fragment. The Covenant harvests pieces of his soul to power the Vault. Each time they draw more, his real body fades.”

Seren moved toward the sphere, but Kaien caught her arm.

“Touch it and the alarm triggers,” he warned. “We need to sever it from the conduit first.”

“Then do it.”

He hesitated. “Seren… once it’s disconnected, his soul fragment won’t return. It will burn out.”

Her pulse stuttered. “What?”

“You can’t save this piece,” Kaien said softly. “But you can stop them from taking the rest.”

For a heartbeat, she couldn’t breathe.

Every part of her screamed to save what remained to cling to the flicker of her brother’s essence glowing before her. But the hum of the ley current beneath her feet whispered something older, deeper. Fire remembers what survives the burning.

“Do it,” she said.

Kaien’s eyes flickered with something like grief. Then he drew his sword. The rune-brand flared blinding white as he slashed through the conduit.

The chamber howled. Energy erupted, shaking the ground. Seren staggered as molten light burst upward from the severed core. The sphere pulsed wildly then shattered, scattering gold embers into the air.

For a moment, one ember drifted to her palm and lingered there, warm and gentle.

A whisper brushed her mind. Don’t stop.

Then it was gone.

The alarms roared to life. Red lights bathed the Vault. Voices echoed through the tunnels Covenant enforcers closing in fast.

Kaien sheathed his sword. “We have to move!”

They sprinted through the collapsing corridor. Steam burst from ruptured pipes, and molten sparks rained from the ceiling. Seren threw up a barrier of fire to block falling debris, her veins glowing like molten glass.

Kaien leapt over the wreckage, grabbed her arm, and dragged her toward a narrow escape shaft. “Up there!”

They climbed, the sound of pursuit echoing below. As they reached the surface, Seren gasped in the cool night air. The city stretched before them silent, rain-slicked, unaware of the war burning beneath its streets.

She turned toward Kaien. “That was one node. You said there are five.”

He nodded grimly. “Four now.”

Her hands clenched. “Then we destroy the rest.”

Kaien looked at her, something fierce flickering behind his calm exterior. “You’ll need more than fire to fight them. You’ll need allies.”

“I have you,” she said.

He gave a bitter half-smile. “For now. Until the curse calls me back.”

“Then we break it,” she said.

He stared at her as though she’d said the impossible. Maybe she had. But the flames behind her eyes said she believed it and for the first time in years, so did he.

Thunder rolled above the city, rumbling like a sleeping dragon.

Far below, in the ruins of the Ember Vault, the shattered fragments of Rowan’s soul coalesced for a moment into a faint outline eyes opening, glowing gold.

And somewhere in the Covenant’s inner sanctum, High Flame Arkan smiled.

“The Heartforge burns,” he murmured, tracing a sigil across the map of Aurevia. “Let it temper her.”