Very Important
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Joyfully announce that the views for the recent chapters have crossed 1k+. But collections and comments are nearly zero. A veteran writer told me that most of the views come from google bots rather than real readers. So, i really want to know how many of those views are from my real readers instead of google bots.Please leave any word or even just a letter in the chapter comments so i can determine the real count. I'll check for this chapter.
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Vol 02: The Hunt │ Part 03: The deeper call.
1
The deep Warrens were silent.
Kaelen sat with his back against the stone wall, the twin blades across his knees. The pool of warm water glowed faintly in the darkness, casting rippling shadows on the ceiling. Around him, the Archivists slept in exhausted clusters. Rook and Torrin lay near the water, their wounds freshly bandaged. Lyra had finally closed her journal, her head resting on her pack.
Fenris was awake, his amethyst eyes fixed on the tunnel entrance.
Through the bond, Kaelen felt the hound's alertness. Something was coming.
He reached out with the Insight Kite. The dead rift's influence was weaker down here, but still present. His senses were muted, blurred at the edges. But he could feel them. Emotions. Cold, hungry, determined.
The Grey Cabinet was in the Warrens.
2
Kaelen stood. The movement woke Lyra, whose eyes snapped open immediately.
What is it? her telepathic voice echoed.
"They are coming. Solon's agents. They are searching the tunnels."
Lyra sat up, her hand going to her stiletto. "How many?"
"Hard to tell. The stone interferes with my Kite. But enough."
Harken was already moving, waking the others with quiet efficiency. "Into the lower chambers. Tamsin knows the way. Move quickly. No noise."
The Archivists gathered their belongings, their weapons, their wounded. Marta supported Torrin. Lyra helped Rook. Zora climbed the walls, her cat eyes scanning the darkness above.
Kaelen stayed at the rear, Fenris beside him, the twin blades drawn.
The Grey Cabinet agents were getting closer.
3
They found the chamber an hour later.
Solon's voice echoed through the tunnel, cold and precise. "Spread out. They cannot have gone far. The boy is here. I can feel him."
Kaelen pressed himself against the wall, the Insight Kite straining. Solon's emotions were a storm of hatred and hunger. The loss of his fingers had not humbled him. It had sharpened him.
He wants you alive, Lyra's voice whispered in his mind. He will not kill you.
"He will kill everyone else."
Then we do not let him.
The first Grey Cabinet agent entered the chamber. A woman with a capture rod, her grey armor gleaming in the dim light. She swept the room, her eyes missing the shadows where the Archivists hid.
Kaelen moved.
The Combat Kite guided his body. The twin blades sang. The agent fell without a sound, her capture rod clattering to the stone floor.
But others heard.
4
They came from three directions.
Harken shouted" take the injured one to the safety"
Kaelen fought like a cornered animal, the twin blades flashing in the darkness. The Insight Kite showed him their intentions, the Combat Kite made his body obey. But there were too many.
One agent grabbed Lyra. She screamed, her stiletto flashing, but the man was stronger. He pinned her against the wall.
Zora dropped from above, her claw covers tearing through the agent's armor. He released Lyra and fell, clutching his chest.
"Behind you!" Lyra shouted.
Kaelen turned. Solon stood at the entrance to the chamber, his bandaged hand raised. In his left hand, he held a resonance suppressor—a smaller version of the device he had used at the Haven.
"Lot 42," Solon said. "We meet again."
Kaelen raised the twin blades. "You should have stayed above."
"I do not run, boy. I hunt."
He activated the suppressor.
5
The grey light exploded outward.
Kaelen felt his Kites flicker, weaken, die. The Artisan Kite went dark. The Combat Kite faded. The Insight Kite vanished like smoke.
He was human again. Just a boy with steel blades.
Solon smiled. "Now we are equal."
He drew a knife from his belt—long, curved, coated with something that shimmered green. He lunged.
Kaelen blocked with one blade, but without the Combat Kite, he was slow. Solon's knife sliced across his arm, opening a shallow cut. The green poison burned.
"Fenris!" Kaelen shouted.
The hound attacked, violet light blazing from his fur. Solon stumbled back, his knife clattering to the floor. Fenris pinned him, teeth at his throat.
"Kill him!" Lyra screamed.
Kaelen stood over Solon, the twin blades in his hands. The poison was spreading, numbing his arm. He had seconds.
"Do it," Solon whispered. "Kill me. Prove that you are no better than I am."
Kaelen raised the blade.
The fourth Kite stirred.
6
Not hunger. Not cold. Something else.
The void in his chest opened—not to consume, but to connect. He felt the shadows in the chamber, the spaces between the light. He felt the darkness behind the stones, the cold places where nothing lived.
Come, the void whispered. Step through.
Kaelen lowered the blade.
He looked at Solon, at the hatred in his eyes, at the bandaged hand where three fingers should have been.
"No," he said. "I am not you."
He stepped into the shadow.
7
The world folded.
Kaelen was nowhere and everywhere. The darkness wrapped around him like a cloak, cold and alive. He could feel the entire Warrens—every tunnel, every chamber, every hiding place. And he could be anywhere.
He stepped out of the shadow behind Solon.
The Evaluator's eyes went wide. "Impossible."
Kaelen brought the flat of his blade against the back of Solon's skull. The man crumpled, unconscious.
The resonance suppressor fell from his hand, shattering on the stone floor.
The Kites returned.
8
The remaining Grey Cabinet agents fled.
Without Solon, without the suppressor, they were no match for Zora's claws, for Marta's knives, for Tamsin's silent fury. Within minutes, the chamber was secure.
Kaelen stood over Solon's unconscious body, the twin blades in his hands. The fourth Kite pulsed in his chest—warm, alive, complete.
Void Step.
He could move through shadows. He could be anywhere the darkness touched.
Lyra ran to him, her hands checking his wound. You did it, her telepathic voice was full of wonder. The fourth Kite. It awakened.
"When I stopped trying," Kaelen said. "When I stopped fighting the void and let it become part of me."
He looked at Solon, at the man who had hunted him across the Rift.
"We need to move. He will wake soon. And when he does, he will be more dangerous than ever."
9
They carried Solon deeper into the Warrens.
Tamsin knew a chamber where the resonance was strongest, where the stone would block even the most determined seeker. They bound Solon's hands and feet, gagged him, left him in the darkness.
"He will not die," Harken said. "But he will not escape either."
"What if his agents find him?" Lyra asked.
"They will not. The Warrens are a labyrinth. Without a guide, they will wander until they starve."
Kaelen looked at the tunnel that led back to the Forge. He could feel the Grey Cabinet agents above, searching, hunting. But they would not find the deep chambers. Not today.
"We rest," he said. "Tomorrow, we plan our next move."
10
That night, Kaelen sat by the warm pool, Fenris beside him.
The fourth Kite pulsed steadily, a new rhythm in his chest. Void Step. He had used it only once, but he could feel its potential. With practice, he could move faster, farther, more precisely.
Lyra sat beside him, her journal open. What does it feel like? she asked.
"Like becoming shadow," he said. "Like being everywhere and nowhere at once. Like the void finally accepting me."
And Solon?
Kaelen looked toward the chamber where the Evaluator was bound.
"He will escape. Eventually. He is too clever, too determined to stay locked away. And when he does, he will come for us."
Then we will be ready.
Kaelen touched his chest. Four Kites glowed. The diamond was complete.
"Yes," he said. "We will."