The wind shifted in the dead of night. I was the first to stir—sensing it more than hearing it. The warning sensation came as a faint pressure behind my eyes.
There was a rise in ambient qi that tingled across my beast crystals like static crawling through my blood. The fire had burned low, reduced to coals and hot ash. Torren was curled near the rocks, one clawed arm draped over his pack. Lira lay still, her blade tucked under her bedroll. Taryn snored like thunder. Then the wind turned again—this time stronger, colder, and wet.
The sky cracked open.
A fork of unnatural lightning split the clouds, not yellow-white, but violet and green, pulsing with something more than weather. The storm above us wasn't natural. Not quite. Qi-tainted, maybe. Or summoned. Rain fell—not in sheets, but bursts—as if the clouds were struggling to stay open. The trees groaned under the force. I jolted to my feet, shouting across the camp.
"Up! We've got something un-natural overhead—move!"
Torren blinked, already halfway up, ice forming around his bracers.
"A qi storm? Feels... wrong."
He looked to the trees, pupils narrowing. "It's coming from the northeast—toward the Ravine." Kaelin flicked her wrist, snapping her scroll shut, then stuffed it in her cloak.
"No thunder scent. That's not a natural storm qi. That's corrupted essence. Either Kael's near, or a genome beast is breaking through!" Taryn hauled up the last of the packs while Soren silently doused the embers, his hand trailing shadow as he tucked gear into his cloak. "We move," I said, strapping my yew bow across my back. "If this is his doing, we gain ground. If not—we don't want to be here when it finishes forming."
By the time we had our gear cinched, the rain had grown heavy enough to blur the forest edge!
Trees swayed and bent like they were half-melted; qi whorls formed in the downpour as they pulled in nearby debris. "It's drawing from Ley lines," Lira murmured, peering up at the sky. "I can feel it draining my qi!
"This is qi sapping rain!" Torren growled. "Something's riling the flows." I clenched my fists.
"Kael."
We began our descent from the hill, boots sinking into wet moss, cloaks pulled tight. Behind us, the storm boiled like a wounded beast refusing to die. Ahead I could see Viper Ravine, oddly it wasn't raining there.
Mist clung to the forest path like a predator—thick, wet, and alive with wild qi currents that surged underfoot. The trees thinned ahead where the land dipped sharply toward the Ravine's outer ridgeline. I paused at the edge of the slowly descending valley leading into the deep ravine, Crags, vines, broken terrain. The path below zigzagged through ravine-bent slopes, sharp turns, and unstable ledges—all slick with storm runoff.
The qi sapping rain was now just a light mist.
Perfect.
"No more slow pace," I muttered, sparks licking off my ember coil scales. I reached inside with my intent touching my puddle of qi, light and electric, threaded with wind—and triggered my tier three cloud step. My feet glowed. Pressure surged under my heels.
Then I launched—
Boom!
Water vapor exploded off my body as I shot forty feet out! I hit the ground zigzagging through the rough terrain, red boulders overgrown with gnarled tree roots and bramble. I hit the next ridge with barely a sound, knees bending, momentum rolling through me like thunder through bone. The terrain blurred behind me. I turned and shouted back through the curtain of rain—
"What are you waiting for? A kiss from mama." There was a pause, then Kaelin barked a laugh.
"Cocky bastard!"
Lira took to the trees with a leap, her feather-scaled limbs gliding between branches. Torren snarled and kicked off the ground, qi trailing from his limbs as he hit his own boosted cloud step arc—not graceful, but brutal and fast.
"Showoff," he growled through the storm. "Try howling next time, not gloating."
Taryn grunted as he packed the slope down with ground-pounding stomps that stabilized the trail for the rest. "Not all of us are air born jackals."
Kaelin coughed then spoke up, " Well actually..." She trailed off then flew. Soren was just gone—a shadowy streak slithering up the side of the slope, barely seen.
I grinned, the storm surging around us, and turned to face the horizon again. Viper valley lay just beyond the next rise—its twisted rock faces and black stone fissures like the spine of some buried god. My fire burned hotter.
Kael was close.
The wind shifted as we crested the last slope. The black stone spine of viper valley split the landscape below—jagged, gnarled, veined with storm-fed rivers that twisted through the crevices like serpents in mourning. Even the light felt thinner here. The very qi of the land whispered warnings through our Chakras.
Kaelin came to a halt beside me, breath misting in the pre-dawn chill. Her eyes fluttered shut. "Give me a moment," she said softly, placing two fingers to the side of her neck, where a faint spiral sigil pulsed. A swirl of wind gathered at her heels, lifting leaves in lazy spirals around her.
The breeze shifted unnaturally—as if tugged by a thread through the fabric of the storm itself.
"There," she said after a breath. "South by east. Mid-slope. It's thin… like something hiding inside the slope."
Soren moved without a word, crouching at the edge of a rocky ledge. His pupils thinned into dagger-slits, black qi rising from his shoulders like smoke. "He's close," Soren murmured. "There's a hunger in the soil. Not beast-born… it's him. Tainted qi. He's not just feeding—he's sinking into the landscape. Like a serpent looking for warmth."
He turned, voice cold. "Kael's not running. He wants us to come." Torren spat off the ledge, frost mist curling from his lips. "Let him wait. We'll drag him out and crack him open." Kaelin narrowed her eyes at the slope. "Can't- we gotta go in. Be ready. That aura's… unstable.
He's not masking his qi out of fear. He's testing us. He wants to see who flinches." I stepped forward, ember coil lightning flickering across my shoulders.
"We're not here to bluff, or play waiting games. We bring the storm to him."
The team tightened formation behind me, silent but ready. Soren slipped into shadow. Kaelin's wind curled tighter around her arms.
Lira cracked her neck.
Taryn grunted, fists glowing faint ochre.
Torren's breath misted like a wild hound just barely leashed. We moved toward the valleys maw.
Kael was waiting.
The world narrowed as we stepped into the ravine. I tasted the air, it grew dense with decay—thick, metallic, and buzzing with the low hum of corrupted qi.
Viper valleys walls pressed in like the jaws of a buried leviathan. The storm above barely touched the canyon floor, leaving only a gray gloom and the smell of old blood.
We saw him then—Kael. He stood at the center of a bone-strewn clearing, where jagged rocks ringed a broken altar crusted with dried venom.
The Altar was covered in demonic moon sigils! But this wasn't the man who'd ambushed us before.
This was something else.
We halted.
Lira hissed in a low whisper, "What is it!"
His body had twisted—half-man, half-viper monstrosity. His back had split open, revealing a glossy black chitinous shell.
Four clawed limbs unfurled from his ribs, clicking as they twitched. His jaw was now a clicking hissing mandible, with serrated fangs that dripped shimmering qi-venom.
His face was melded in the center of a three-foot-wide viper-hood!
Three stolen Beast Cores pulsed in random places on his sleek serpent body, embedded like tumors pulsing, feeding black qi energy into his monstrous form.
"Assssssshhhhhh…" Kael's voice hissed in our bones. "You brought them all. Good. More to feast upon." His eyes gleamed red—half beast, half man, blended into a predator that had no existing kin. I stepped forward, Jawbreaker hammer rising, lightning sparking from my ember coil scales.
"We're not the prey here, Kael." He laughed, a dry, rattling hiss. "Time will see about that. But I've shed human weakness. I don't bond beasts anymore—I consume humans!" Behind me, Torren growled, Storm fang claws gleaming ice blue.
"You're just a core-thief with a death wish!"
Kaelin raised her hand, wind chi spiraling in her palm.
"This is your last chance to surrender."
Kael lowered his body into a crouch, like a spider preparing to pounce.
"There is no surrender in evolution."
I took another step forward, lightning crackling across the face of the Beast Hammer.
"Formation! He's fast—Kaelin, disrupt the air. Lira, Spiral high and harass his top limbs! Taryn, front with me—watch those claws. Torren, on my mark—Roar to stagger. Soren—cut from shadow."
We moved as one. Kael cackled and hissed black venom! It erupted from around him in a pulse.
The battle began.
Kael's scream tore through the ravine, a sound caught between a human war cry and a venomous beast's shriek.
I circulated sacred breath and surged forward.
"NOW!"
Lightning arced down my arms as I leapt into the fray, hammer raised high.
My cloud step surged—I double-jumped through air, crackling with ember coil force!
I came down like a fiery meteor, my Jawbreaker Beast Hammer igniting in a storm burst.
"Thunder Coil—SMASH!"
Kael twisted, but too late. The hammer cracked across his outer shell; a sickening shatter of chitin and sparks flew!
Venom hissed into the air.
Torren was behind me; Torren bared his fangs and dropped to all fours—frost racing along his Storm fang limbs.
"FROST FANG HOWL!"
The earth trembled as his roar blasted across the battlefield, cold chi sweeping forward in a cone. Kael was slammed by a freezing wolf head attack!
His limbs locking in mid-motion, encrusted in crystalized ice. Kaelin leapt into the air, wind coiling around her arms like living ribbons.
"Wind Strike Barrage!"
A rapid-fire burst of slicing wind qi erupted from her palm, creating shockwaves that hammered into the ice, amplifying Torren's freeze and stunning Kael inside.
Lira descended in a dive from above, wings of qi spreading wide—her Sky Talon Spiral gleaming silver-blue.
"For the Guild!"
She spun mid-air and drove both blades down on Kael's shoulder seam, carving through a vulnerable joint in the fused chitin. Green ichor burst skyward.
Taryn shouted "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach!"
Taryn met Kael at the front, legs planted wide, fists glowing orange.
"Frost Break Stomp!"
The ground under Kael ruptured into jagged ice pillars, locking him in place as shockwaves radiated outward.
The cracked terrain gave me and Torren a foothold for a follow-up.
There was a flicker of shadow behind kael. Soren emerged from nothingness; his hands lined with phantom claws—his Nightshade claws flickering with shadow panther qi!
"They always forget the quiet ones."
He raked across Kael's back, a flash of black qi igniting down his spine.
Man-Viper Kael unleashed, the ice shattered—not cracked, but detonated outward—as Kael roared, his body glowed with corrupted qi essence.
The stolen cores lit up like stars, embedding even deeper into his flesh.
"I am evolution! YOU ARE ECHOS!"
Chitin arms blurred—six strikes at once, one parrying Taryn, one slamming Soren into the wall, one catching Lira mid-air.
Venom qi erupted from his fangs like breath—siphon pulses aimed at Kaelin. His central core pulsed red.
"APOTHEOSIS!"
Venom-laced energy erupted outward in a spiraling storm of fangs, limbs, and soundwaves—enough to shatter formations and scramble minds.
I let my qi flow into the Mind flame Talisman, a ripple of intent-psychic misdirection pulsed outward, weaving a false signal through Kael's spiritual senses.
"Your martial arts are a disgrace!"
Kael struck at an illusion of me—and missed.
"Torren—GO!"
Torren leapt into the misty air, qi frosting off his claws.
"Freeze again, bastard!"
With one massive strike, he unleashed a concentrated Frost Fang Howl, freezing Kael's lower half solid—cracks radiating up his chest. The beast-man snarled, venom pouring from his sockets.
My hammer spun in my grip.
"He's wounded—but he's not done! defensive circle—reset positions!"
Kael roared—and sound warped.
From his corrupted carapace, streaks of alien qi ignited like molten veins.
One by one, the stolen Beast Cores embedded in his abdomen flared with unnatural light. A horned shadow flickered behind him—' 'Ravager Ox.' '
It charged me with bone-breaking momentum.
I cloud stepped, narrowly avoiding the gouging strike—only for Kael's back to ripple, releasing spectral wings.
A glide serpent.
Kael twisted midair, tail lashing in a venomous arc.
Lightning sparked across my arms as I blocked—barely—my scales sizzling.
"He's mimicking beast traits… one after the other…" Torren growled nearby, battered but standing. Kael grinned, ichor dripping from the corners of his mandibles. "You see it now? I've become beyond bonded— through stolen blood and a vow to him"
I clenched my fists. Ember coil qi surged through my beast crystal, but something… new answered.
A second pulse. Faint—hidden deep.
The ember coil spirit awoke at my base chakra uncoiling, riding up my spine hitting prime Chakra points, increasing my qi flow pathways significantly!
A blood line power had awakened unsealed by the ember coil beast spirit!
A blast of crimson and white lightning erupted from my spine, my ember coil scales flaring with heat bathing me in an ancient crimson god of war battle aura.
My body lifted slightly from the ground as the trait awakened.
My aura turned jagged, molten, chaotic—I took on a draconic form of man mixed with fire and lightening
Kael staggered, one antenna twitching. "What—!?"
My voice boomed, dual-toned. "Let me show you what beast mode really means."
Then I vanished—God of war battle aura enhancing my every technique.
"Lightning Cloud step!"
I became a living bolt of power that slammed into Kael's side before the man-viper could react.
Kael went flying into a stone ridge, the ground split by residual flame-lightning arcs!
But he wasn't done. Not yet.
Kael rose, panting, laughing through cracked mandibles. "Good. Show me your limits... And I'll BREAK THEM TOO!"
The battle raged fire—lightning, wind, frost, shadows and serpentine fury converging.
I ducked beneath a spiraling tail-strike, my ancient battle aura rippling with overdrive qi.
Kael was mutating faster now—chitin blooming like armor, spectral wings beating with corrupted qi-fueled malice. Each stolen beast soul howled inside his twisted form.
Then—an idea sparked.
I shouted through the haze: "We have to steal the cores!"
Torren, bleeding from one arm, blinked. "What?!"
I pointed toward Kael's exposed carapace, where one of the crystalline sockets pulsed erratically.
"They're still unstable! Not fully bonded; if we can pull one free, the whole chain breaks!"
Without hesitation, Taryn Frost bear roared—his arms igniting with qi frost.
"Glacial Charge!"
He barreled into Kael like a living avalanche, fists slamming into Kael's side in an echoing double-strike.
Ice exploded across the man-vipers exoskeleton, locking his limbs for a precious second.
"Soren, NOW!"
From the edges of the shattered ravine, a ripple of shadow slipped in—mist curling where footsteps should be.
Soren Shadow claw emerged behind Kael mid-freeze, both blades drawn.
With deadly precision, he rammed one blade into the glowing Core socket at Kael's lower back—
—and twisted.
SNAP-POP!
The Core dislodged. Kael screamed, his body jerking violently as qi backlash tore through him!
The spectral wings vanished. His serpent tail recoiled. For a heartbeat, he staggered, visibly weaker. I didn't wait, using the God of war battle aura surged through me.
"Lightening cloud step!" I appeared within his guard, then came an enhanced blazing tempest windmill kick!
I struck once—then again!
BOOM! BOOM!
Kael was sent tumbling, but he rose—face burned, shoulders seething with fury.
"You… DARE!"
I leveled my palm, ember lightning dancing across my skin. "We're not done. That was one."
Kael shrieked in fury, lashing out with razor-edged limbs and corrupted qi tendrils! But Torren met him head-on, surging forward with a shoulder-barreling frost Lariat, knocking Kael off balance just long enough for me to whirl in with a lightning-backed sweep kick, forcing Kael to stagger back.
Kael countered with a twisting tail whip—too fast—but also too late. Torren ducked, then slammed both fists into the earth.
"FROST FANG HOWL!"
From beneath Kael, ice erupted—a burst of cryo-force locking his lower body in jagged blue crystal.
"Go!" I barked to Torren. "I'll take high, you take low!"
We blitzed forward in unison—I flickered in skyward with lightning cloud step, landing a spiraling roundhouse straight to Kael's exposed shoulder.
CRACK!—my scales lit up, ember coil energy flaring like wildfire.
Torren ducked in low, slamming a precise frost fang palm into a rear socket, ice guiding his qi into the fracture.
POP!
Another Core ejected.
I landed with a thunderclap just as I drove two fingers into Kael's upper back, guiding my qi like a needle.
ZAP—another stolen Core came loose, sizzling with unstable sparks.
Both of us grabbed our trophies— glowing, thrumming, hot with beast resonance—and darted back.
Kael roared—now visibly weakening.
His limbs spasmed as his stolen powers sputtered out.
My face was calm, but fierce. "Let's finish this."
What followed was a merciless flurry of fists, kicks, lightning bursts, and frost strikes—a two-man storm of vengeance.
The other four, Lira, Taryn, Soren and Kaelin guarded the area while looking on at the savage beat down.
Kael could barely guard.
Hidden dragon wind palms cracked into his chest.
Frost-laced roundhouses spun him left and right.
A flickering ember coil feint, followed by a pulse-strike to the ribs.
Kael fell—onto the ground, panting, scorched, and frozen.
My shadow loomed over him, lightning still crackling from my arms.
"Yield. Or we'll keep going!"
Kael's fractured mandibles clicked once. He looked up, bloodied… and dropped his head.
"…I yield."
Minutes later…
I fastened the qi-Disrupting Collar around Kael's neck—a relic built to suppress bonded and stolen qi alike.
Metallic binds locked around his limbs, laced with anti-core sealing glyphs.
I stood over him, still buzzing with residual storm energy.
"Taryn frost bear Soren Shadow, escort the prisoner to the Elder Council.
Tell them everything—Then bring Iron fang members back to secure and catalog this den."
Taryn cracked his knuckles, nodding with a grunt. "We'll run full sprint."
Soren raised an eyebrow. "You're trusting me with politics?"
I smirked; "No. I'm trusting you to scare them into listening."
Taryn gave a rare grin, "What about you?"
I turned back toward the cavern.
"We stay. I want to map the remaining vault structure with Kaelin, finish sweeping for hidden caches.
Lira's guarding the outer rim. And Torren's already itching for something to punch."
my voice dropped lower, steady.
"And if something wakes up now that Kael's gone, I want to be here to handle it."
Soren stepped closer, placing a hand over his heart and bowing once—more sincere than sarcastic, for once.
"Then may the shadows guide you, Ash of Iron fang."
Taryn offered a solid forearm clasp. "We'll bring the clan back. Swear it."
They turned, and with Kael in-between them, vanished into the trees, the rhythm of their footfalls lost to the wind.
"You good?" Kaelin asked.
I nodded once, breathing deep.
"Yeah. But I think this was just the start."
As Taryn and Soren began dragging Kael through the frost-scorched glade, the rogue hunter chuckled—low and rasping through cracked lips.
Soren paused.
"Something funny?"
Kael's head lolled back slightly, just enough to lock eyes on Ash.
One of his remaining pupils shimmered with a dark, oily light—like a mirrored Core still pulsing deep within.
"You think this ends with me?"
He narrowed his eyes smiling, bloodied teeth flashing.
"There are others. Hungrier. Smarter. You've barely scratched the shell."
He leaned in toward Taryns shoulder, whispering like it was prophecy.
"The Demon lord Patriarch has returned. And your—ember coil friend Heh—he's already marked."
Torren whistled; "So what secrets do you think Kael was guarding?"
Kaelin landed beside me, wiping ichor from her arm "Kael is no longer a threat but there's more here."
Lira found it—a narrow crack at the far edge of the altar, veiled in dried vines and a qi-disrupting shimmer.
A hidden passage.
We stepped inside, one by one, into the deeper dark. The corridor twisted downward—walls slick with viper molting, scraps of core-fused armor, and fractured hunter medallions embedded in the stone. The air whined, like it was echoing Kael's last screams.
Torren lit a qi torch.
"He was hoarding."
Within the chamber at the bottom, we found:
Another bone-crafted altar, carved with both hunter sigils and demonic runes—symbols of forbidden fusions.
Broken tomes lay everywhere, likely stolen from cultivators and corrupted mid-study.
A half-eaten storm fang wolf—one of Torren's own kin.
Torren's face darkened; "We burn this place" he said in a shaky voice.
But in the back, Kaelin paused. Her hand hovered over a locked iron chest bound in qi-threaded silk. "Wait… there's one thing here still sealed. This isn't Kael's corruption—it's older." She looked to me. "Ash… I think this belonged to one of the primordial beast researchers—before Kael ever fell." While the others searched Kael's desecrated hoard, my eyes caught a strange pulse—a glint of old qi that didn't match the rest. It was tucked beneath brittle bone-plates and shattered vials, soaked in black venom but refusing to rot.
I knelt.
Unwrapped it carefully, using my dagger to part the toxic film. The parchment beneath thrummed like a heartbeat—written in iron root ink, traced in jagged calligraphy that shimmered between hunter glyphs and beast dialects.
"Spirit Man Project."
My heart jolted, this was an ancestral Scroll.
I had always heard about such scrolls—living scrolls that contained wills of their own. Rare. Dangerous. Not meant for low-level cultivators.
Some said they were created by the first Beast Lords—Master cultivators who grasped and harnessed forbidden techniques. Such a scroll could contain profound spiritual knowledge.
I could feel it already—the way its living will pushed back, testing me.
It wasn't meant to be read. It wanted to be earned. Torren looked over, eyes narrowing. "That thing reeks worse than Kael." Kaelin turned sharply. "That's not a regular scroll.
That's ancestral resonance—if you imprint it, it might rewrite your beast link." Lira stepped closer. "Or unlock something buried in your blood."
I stored the scroll away in the spirit bracelet for later reading. "Lira Kaelin, Torren with me." Their expressions were still taut from the clash, but their posture told the tale; they trusted me to lead now.
I swept a handout in front "This place holds more than we can carry—and more danger than we should leave to rot." "Whatever we find; it all goes to the clan. Nothing gets looted. Nothing gets lost. We don't become what he was."
Lira narrowed her eyes; "And the scroll?" I nodded once, "Secured. It's mine to risk—but the rest belongs to our people."
The scent of smoldering incense filled the chamber, mingling with the quiet murmurs of Scribes and artifact whispers. Elder Vash stood at the center of the room—white-bearded, wrapped in deep crimson robes stitched with gold talon-thread—his beast crystal flickering with storm light beneath his collarbone. Master Korren leaned forward over the bone-carved war table, his arms folded across his chest, contemplative as always.
The twin doors slammed open.
In came Taryn and Soren with a bound and helpless man-viper Kael in between them! Soren stepped beside him, cloak dripping from the sprint. "Behold Kael the Shadow Stalker." A hush dropped in the elder Hall. Several Scribes looked up. One dropped his quill. Korren raised a brow. "The rogue?"
"Man-viper Kael," Soren corrected. "He evolved through corrupted beast core absorption. A twisted fusion of swift viper and something else… but Ash led us. Commanded the field. And survived."
Elder Vash's face grew grim, then solemn.
"The Ravine?"
"Secured. Barely," Taryn said. "There's more down there. Vaults. Artifacts. Maybe an entire lost bloodline's worth of relics. And Kael's core is still intact—sealed in ice."
Korren hissed between teeth. "Kael shadow stalker, your crimes will not be forgiven you. Guards!" Two guards came forward wrestling Kael from between Taryn and Soren.
Take ''Man-viper'' Kael to the inner dungeon for processing and execution.
Kael wheezed a laugh. "This isnt over."
Vash nodded to the guard who shoved a gag in Kaels mouth.
Vash waved a hand. "Take him away."
Vash raised his hand, eyes already burning with decision.
"Iron Fang-we move. Now. Korren, assemble a retinue: Beast Binders, Spiritual Forensics, qi healers, and fifteen more elite hunters."
"Soren. Taryn. You lead us back."
The two bowed.
Vash added, "We must not tamper too deeply. Some vaults seal themselves for a reason."
Soren gave a half-smile. "You'll want to see what he's already found."
Kael's Inner Study – Viper valley depths
I sat cross-legged on a torn mat made from flayed beast hide.
The den stank of venom, scorched qi, and cracked crystals. Around me, Kael's scrawled notes hung in pieces—written in fang-dipped ink on husk-parchment.
Some of it had burned. The rest dripped poison. I unrolled the largest surviving scroll—lined with diagrams of human and beast silhouettes intertwining in grotesque ways.
I read one of his works titled; Essence cannibalism theory.
"Bonding is obsolete.
A true hunter consumes, not negotiates.
Beast instincts, soul fragments, combat memories—absorbed whole through core Inhalation."
"Preliminary risks: Qi Distortion. Instinct Collapse. Emotional Fragmentation. Loss of identity."
"Solution: Sacrifice spiritual anchors. Cremate care. Burn one's life essence."
I exhaled sharply, jaw tightening. This is what Kael became. I held the scroll to a nearby flame crystal. It burst into green smoke. Then my eyes caught a chipped, iron pot—half buried beneath crates of venom tools and broken beast crystal clamps.
It shimmered faintly with residual qi shielding. Curious, I tapped it open.
Metal glinted.
Iron coins. A mountain of them.
I muttered. "You've gotta be kidding me…"
A quick mental count: 8,000 Iron-grade coins, cleanly minted and stamped with a forgotten clan's sigil.
Enough to buy tomes, gear upgrades, and a fortified outpost if I wanted.
Without hesitation, I channeled qi into the spirit bracelet, and a silver light swept the entire hoard inside to the compressed item dimension space, the coins vanishing in a clean burst of suction light.
I stood slowly, brushing dust from my knees, eyes narrowing as the wind outside shifted.
"I hope the old man brings more than speeches."
I turned toward the vault hall behind me—where deeper shadows still lingered.