The air inside the subterranean ruins beneath the capital was cold, stagnant, and thick with the heavy stench of damp stone and ancient decay.
For forty-five minutes, Raileigh and Jamie had been navigating the twisting, claustrophobic labyrinth of forgotten tunnels. The silence between him and Jamie had become a living thing—heavy, awkward, and impossible to ignore. The only sounds were the crunch of their boots against the debris and the distant skittering of corrupted creatures in the shadows beyond their path.
Jamie walked beside him, her hair swaying with each step. She moved with the easy, confident gait of someone who had survived in a place far more dangerous than this. Her eyes scanned the tunnels constantly, and her skin was slick with a thin sheen of moisture from the damp air.
Raileigh kept his eyes fixed forward, but his mind was racing. He stole a quiet, covert sideways glance at her. He took in the striking contrast of her vibrant indigo hair, her sharp, piercing blue eyes, and her smooth olive skin.
'Gods above,' Raileigh thought, his heart doing a ridiculous little flutter against his ribs.
'She really is something else.'
He looked away quickly, feeling a sudden, hot flush of color creep up his neck to his ears.
'No no what is wrong with me?'
Truth be told, Raileigh was entirely out of his depth. He had spent his life surrounded by formal palace staff, his sisters , their overly protective mothers, or Todd. He had never really interacted with a girl like Jamie—unvarnished, fiercely independent, and brimming with a wild, rough-edged energy. She was terrifying. And fascinating. And he really, really wanted her to like him.
He desperately wanted to break the ice and form a real bond with her, but every time he opened his mouth, his mind went completely blank.
Jamie caught him staring out of the corner of her eye. She paused mid-stride, turning her head with a raised eyebrow.
"Is something on my face, or is there a monster behind me?"
Raileigh jumped, letting out a high-pitched, nervous laugh that he immediately regretted.
"Ah! What? No! No, nothing at all! Just...yeah. Mm."
Jamie's gaze lingered on him for a long, suspicious moment, her blue eyes narrowing slightly before she shrugged and looked back down the dark corridor.
"Right. Whatever you say, Princey."
Raileigh internally kicked himself, dragging a hand over his face.
'Stupid! That was your chance, you complete idiot! What would Elias have said? How does he even talk to her without sounding like a rambling fool?'
Then, a sudden, nagging thought crossed his mind, souring his mood slightly.
'Speaking of Elias... why on earth were those two sleeping in the same bed this morning? Is that... a regular thing for them? Just how close are they? What else do they do when the two of the are together?'
"You know, you're being really distracting right now," Jamie called out over her shoulder, her tone laced with mild irritation.
Raileigh blinked, coming to a dead halt. "Huh? What do you mean?"
"The intent coming off you is practically screaming," Jamie said, tapping her temple.
"It's like someone's beating a drum inside my head. You're broadcasting a messy cocktail of anxiety, weird curiosity, and embarrassment."
Raileigh's face exploded into a brilliant, incandescent shade of crimson. He had completely forgotten about her sensory abilities.
"Ah—right! Sorry! I... I'll tone it down!"
Clearing his throat loudly, he cleared his mind and fell back into step beside her, desperate to pivot to a safer topic.
"So... that intent-sensing thing, synesthesia? You and Elias can both do it, right? You mentioned what it does before, but you never really explained how you two picked up something like that. Is it from an artifact?"
Jamie grinned, her tomboyish charm flashing through as her face lit up.
"Nope! No fancy artifacts or royal traits. We learned it back in the Iron Forest."
"The Iron Forest?" Raileigh echoed, genuinely intrigued.
"Isn't that the Node near Blackhaven? I read about the nodes in the royal library."
"Yeah, that's it." She smiled, a fond, distant expression crossing her face.
"We spent a month there for Elias' Rite of Passage. The ambient Flow was so thick you could practically taste it."
"When we were soaking up the ambient Flow from that deep node, we spent weeks just watching the environment. We noticed that wild beasts don't rely on sight or smell alone—they can sense the raw, unfiltered intent of the creatures around them to figure out who's hunting and who's running. Elias found the whole concept completely fascinating. I thought it was awesome so I tried imitating them even though Elias said wouldn't work."
She paused, letting out a chuckle.
"I disturbed him till he practiced it with me. At first we didn't see results plus training that meant we needed to be out in the open to try it out. We almost got eaten one time." She laughed.
"But after a month of continuous practice in that high-density Flow environment, we could both feel the intent of every living thing moving through the trees."
Raileigh frowned.
"So it's a technique? Learned through observation, or rather experience? Fascinating...because mind you, beasts naturally possess a much higher baseline affinity for ambient Flow than humans do. That's precisely why a wild beast at the same stage as a human Votary is almost always significantly more powerful meaning what you both did was by no means an easy feat and to pull it off in a month?"
Raileigh grinned.
"That's... interesting."
"It's useful," Jamie said a fond, quiet smile touched Jamie's lips as her mind drifted back. She remembered watching her father and Sir Eddie fighting just to bring down the Sapphire Salamander less than year ago. She missed him.
"I'll get stronger," Jamie muttered softly under her breath, her fists tightening at her sides. "So strong that no monster in this world can ever hurt my friends again."
Raileigh glanced at her, catching the low murmur. "Hm? What did you say?"
"Nothing," Jamie snapped back quickly, shaking her head to clear her thoughts.
Raileigh stroked his chin, pressing further. "If you only learned how to sense intent, how are you able to project it back outward like a weapon?"
"Easy," Jamie said, hopping over a fallen stone pillar.
"Prey learned how to sense intent so they could mask their own and stay hidden. Predators, on the other hand, learned how to sense prey, but they also learned how to cast their malice outward like an invisible net—paralyzing the target with pure, concentrated fear before moving in for the kill."
To prove her point, Jamie stopped near a shadowed alcove where a cluster of supersized, mutated subterranean rats were greedily feasting on the decaying shell of a giant, mantis-like creature.
Jamie turned her gaze toward the vermin. Her blue eyes hardened, and a sudden, oppressive wave of cold, predatory intent radiated from her frame.
The giant rats instantly froze mid-chew. Their bodies began to tremble violently, their tiny black eyes wide with sheer, unadulterated terror as the invisible force pinned them to the stone floor.
Raileigh watched in absolute awe, his breath catching in his throat.
"And that's not the only trick," Jamie added, a sly smirk spreading across her face.
She shifted her synesthesia, softening the paralyzing color of malice the the color of different intent into a sharp, commanding wave of absolute dominance. She gestured toward the dark tunnel behind them.
"Go," she commanded the rodents silently through the intent link.
"Bring back ...um...yeah bring back a really big bug."
To Raileigh's utter disbelief, the giant rats scrambled to their feet, squeaking frantically as they turned in perfect military formation and rushed off into the shadows.
"Humans and beasts are fundamentally different," Jamie explained, stepping past the carcass.
"Predators only have malice, and prey only have fear. But humans carry so much more—we have hope, sadness, joy, anger, malice, fear..."
She paused, her blue eyes turning to lock onto Raileigh's,
"...and love."
Raileigh's breath hitched, and he instinctively jerked his head away, blushing furiously as he stared at the damp floorboards.
"Elias and I realized we could project all of those human intentions," Jamie continued unfortunately aware of his internal panic.
"I recently figured out that if I focus it right, I can use it to directly influence or outright control weaker-willed creatures."
A few moments later, the swarm of giant rats scurried back out of the gloom, collectively dragging the heavy, venomous corpse of a dead subterranean scorpion, dropping it right at Jamie's boots like an offering.
Raileigh took an instinctive step back, his nose wrinkling in disgust.
"Ugh... repulsive."
Jamie looked down at the dead scorpion, completely unbothered, and casually walked right around the pile of vermin. Raileigh hurried after her, casting a glance over his shoulder. The moment Jamie's intent faded, the rats snapped out of their trance, immediately squeaking in terror and savagely tearing into the scorpion corpse to devour it.
Raileigh looked at Jamie's back, a chill running down his spine.
'She's terrifying,' he thought, his heart pounding in his chest.
'Absolute horror wrapped up in a small girl... and somehow, that makes her even more lovely.'
Jamie frowned. "Hey, you're doing it again."
Raileigh squeaked, remembering her sensory abilities.
"Ah! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-!"
Jamie rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh.
"Can I learn that intent technique too?" Raileigh asked hastily, desperate to fix his blunder.
"Dunno." Jamie admitted, scratching the back of her neck.
"Elias said we only managed it because the ambient Flow in the Iron Forest node was so insanely thick it forced our bodies to adapt. That and the fact that both of us are really really really awesome." she beamed.
"So you could still try though, even if you could become like us it might take a few years."
Raileigh noted how her voice softened, how her tone naturally brightened every single time she uttered Elias's name. A small, competitive fire flared in his chest.
'I won't be discouraged,' he vowed silently.
'I'm going to prove myself. I'll get closer to her than Elias ever could.'
Ten minutes later, the narrow corridor terminated at a dead end—a massive, ancient stone wall carved with faded religious murals.
Tucked into a shadow near the base of the wall was a small, tight cave opening hidden behind the crumbling torso of a headless stone statue. To reach whatever lay beyond, they had to drop to their hands and knees, crawling through the damp, tight earth one after the other.
Reaching the other side, Raileigh pushed past a curtain of hanging roots and stepped out into a massive, cavernous subterranean chamber.
The room was an ancient, long-forgotten church from the civilization that had predated the capital. Decaying stone pillars stretched upward to hold up a dripping, damp ceiling. The whole space was lit up with torches and at the far end of the sanctuary, raised upon a grand marble platform, was an altar.
Peering around a headless statue that was concealing the entrance he just came out of, he saw, lying casually on top of the altar, kicking his legs back and forth like a bored child while twirling a blood-stained man catcher in his hands, was a man wearing a patchwork cloak and a cracked porcelain mask. There were a number of patchworked individuals in the room as well.
Jamie squeezed out from behind the headless statue, dusting off her knees. She peered into the gloom, squinting as her eyes adjusted to the brightness.
"Huh, where are we? And who's that guy?"
"Shhhhh!" Raileigh quickly put a finger to his lips.
"That's the Revolutionary, the man who started pandemonium in Aethelberg with his ideas of revolution. If he's here then that must mean this place is-"
Jamie snapped her head around, glaring at him with absolute, incredulous fury.
"Wait a second! You never said the Oblivion Cube fragment was sitting inside the Revolutionary's damn base!"
Raileigh offered a weak, sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his neck.
"To be entirely fair... I didn't know either."
"What hell do you mean you didn't know?!" Jamie hissed.
"Shhhh."
"Don't shhhh me! You shhhhh!"
"Listen, I'm just following Laplace's directions!" Raileigh whispered frantically.
"Following Laplace? What does that even mean?"
"It means..." Raileigh paused.
"She sometimes... guides me. Gives me directions. I'm not sure how it works. She was the one who told me to go straight through the Old Ruins, so I went straight!"
Before Jamie could smack him, a shadowy figure near the altar turned their head toward the statue. Jamie instantly grabbed Raileigh by his collar, dragging him flat against the cold stone behind the headless torso.
"What are we going to do now, oh brilliant leader?" Jamie whispered sarcastically, her hands on her hips.
"Hold on, let me ask her," Raileigh said softly. He closed his eyes, crossing his legs, and concentrated deeply.
Jamie watched him, impatiently counting the seconds.
Less than a minute later, Raileigh snapped his eyes open, looking utterly defeated.
"She... she didn't answer."
Jamie slapped her palm firmly against his temple with an audible THWACK and let out a groan of absolute despair.
"Ouch that hurt!" Raileigh yelped.
"Just great, we're lost, in the base of a madman, with no backup and no plan."
"To be fair, I had a plan. It just... didn't account for this." said quietly.
Jamie glared at him.
Before they could argue further, heavy footsteps echoed from the main arched entrance on the far side of the church. A squad of armed revolutionists hurried into the sanctuary, breathing heavily.
The Revolutionary sat up on the altar, tilting his porcelain mask toward them.
"Ah, friends. What good news do you bring from the surface? Is the capital burning nicely?"
The lead revolutionist bowed deeply.
"Sir... the riots have been completely quelled."
The Revolutionary froze.
"Oh?"
"A masked entity calling himself 'Agent Orange' appeared," the scout reported frantically.
"He unleashed waves of sacred golden flames that systematically burned away the Black Dandy vapors and purged the crowd's rage. The citizens have dispersed and returned to their homes."
Behind the statue, Raileigh's eyes lit up with a brilliant smile.
"Elias did it," he whispered proudly. "He actually managed to stop the riots."
Jamie crossed her arms, a heavy pout on her face.
"Ugh, I wish I could have seen him! He gets to do all the cool stuff while I'm stuck crawling through mud with you!"
Up on the altar, the Revolutionary muttered darkly under his breath, his playful demeanor instantly vanishing.
"No, no, no... that simply won't do. My masterpiece... ruined by a fox mask?" He suddenly chuckled, raising his hands theatricality.
"Fear not, my dear friends! The spark of revolution cannot be doused so easily, for we shall—"
BOOM!
Before he could finish his dramatic monologue, the high stone wall on the western side of the church violently exploded inward in a shower of stone, dust, and debris.
Through the gaping breach stormed Emma, Pihla, and a fully armed strike team of elite Enforcers, their weapons drawn and glowing with lethal Flow.
"Drop your weapons and surrender immediately!" Emma's voice boomed across the sanctuary.
Behind the statue, Jamie observed the new drop ins.
"Even Emma is here."
She turned her head sharply, glaring daggers at Raileigh.
"Did you invite them here too?!"
"How could I have possibly known they were tracking this place?!" Raileigh retorted defensively, raising his hands in protest.
Jamie opened her mouth to snap back, but without warning, a violent, blinding spike of agony ripped through her left shoulder.
"Gah—!" Jamie gasped, dropping to her knees and clutching her shoulder as blood began to seep through her clothes, a strange, burning sensation tearing through her entire core.
Raileigh's eyes widened in absolute terror. He dropped beside her, grabbing her arms.
"Jamie! What's wrong?!"
Before Jamie could choke out a response
—
And the Revolutionary laughed.