The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 358

Chapter 358: Blood Relic II

Feigning nervousness, I crept warily through the tunnels behind the man called Rat, my eyes jumping from shadow to shadow. The way was winding and twisting like a knotted rope. We moved cautiously and stopped often to listen and peek around corners, but the zone was quiet except for the light scraping of Rat’s foot as it dragged behind him.

‘I kind of feel bad leaving Caera with all those murderous thugs,’ Regis said, the warm ethereal ball that was his presence hovering around my core.

I know, I acknowledged. I can’t fathom what she’ll do to them without us there to keep her in check.

We passed a collapsed section of the tunnel, and I noticed a churned, loose patch of wall that made me wonder if some beast—or ascender—could tunnel through the dirt. Thinking back to Kage’s rapid appearance at the zone’s entry portal, it made sense. The ability to pass through solid earth was fairly common among more powerful earth-attribute mages back in Dicathen.

We took a right turn that reversed sharply back on itself a moment later to dive below the tunnel we had been traversing. There were many more loose patches of wall that suggested someone travelled this way often, and the veins of red rock that lit the passages grew thicker and brighter the longer we traveled.

The aether in the atmosphere grew denser as well, filling the air like a purple mist. I was confident that Rat was leading me the right way, and that I could find the shrine even without him using the ambient aether.

I expanded my focus in order to feel the aetheric paths connecting each point in space around me. However, with how large these networks of tunnels and caverns were, it was impossible to make sense of the feedback I received.

‘As boring as it was getting to watch you act like a pansy woggart, I’ll admit it was the right call.’

I know. That’s why I so rarely listen to you, I mocked.

“It’s unfair, isn’t it?”

“Excuse me?” I asked, slightly caught off guard when Rat suddenly started speaking.

“How we are expected to serve like pets, but in the act of doing so, we become reliant on our masters’ strength to keep us safe.” The pale, quiet man gave me a tight-lipped smile.

“Is that why you serve Kage?” I asked, altering my inflection to sound as if I was afraid to even say the maniac’s name.

Rat’s hunched shoulders shrugged. “His brutality has made him effective in this place. You may not believe me, but things were worse before he came.”

“You…don’t think he’ll hurt Lady Caera, do you?”

Although I wasn’t particularly worried about Caera, knowing her to be more than capable of taking care of herself, I hoped to strike an emotional chord with my guide. If I could get him to open up to me, I could more easily navigate to the truth of what was happening in this zone, including finding out how to escape it.

Rat’s back hunched further at my question. When he spoke, it was hardly more than a whisper. “Kage and his men are…not kind to womenfolk. I won’t defend it, but…” He paused as I faked a frightened noise from the back of my throat, stopping and turning to face me. His black eyes peered at me searchingly. “We should keep moving. We’re still some distance from the shrine.”

Rat’s ears twitched and he paused for a second before moving on. We travelled in silence for a time, until we reached a tunnel where thick stranglers had grown from floor to ceiling, blocking the way forward. Rat reversed course, finding another tunnel that he said would bypass the overgrown passage.

“How long have you been here?” I asked softly.

“A year…maybe more.” His shoulders bobbed up and down in a helpless shrug. “I fought for a while, like the others. Then hid. Then Kage came. At least with him we have some form of order while we figure out how to claim the relic.”

“Do you really think it takes a blood sacrifice to get it?” I asked, unsure.

Rat sniffed and spat on the ground as he led us through a crossing of several different tunnels. “I’ve seen a year of blood drained into the glyph, and it’s never been enough. A few months ago, Kage dragged all the ascenders he’d imprisoned to the shrine and had their throats cut at the same time, sure that no one had ever spilled enough blood at once…but even that wasn’t enough.” Rat halted, listening around before addressing me. “There are some in these tunnels who think it must be something else. That maybe we read the runes wrong…” A shiver ran down his spine, and I could practically see the weight of those deaths pressing down on him.

“Which is why”--he dragged the thought out, again giving me that searching look—“I have made arrangements for you to see more than just the shrine.”

I watched him uncertainly, but said nothing.

“I think we are very much the same,” he continued warily, with just a hint of hope tinging his words. “We may not be made for bloodshed and battle, but we are worth more than our masters give us credit for.” He hesitated, then shook his head with a nervous smile. “My time here has dulled my manners. I haven’t even asked your name.”

“Grey,” I said, returning his smile awkwardly. “Do you have a name other than…” I trailed off, rubbing the back of my neck.

He frowned sadly, but said, “Amand. But in here…call me Rat. Everyone else does.” He straightened. “Grey, I think that together, we can end this awful cycle. I’m ready to go home, to see my…” He paused again, his frown deepening. “I have a mother…and brother…who probably think I’m dead…”

I opened my mouth, then closed it again, not having to feign my emotions as I thought of Ellie and my mother, hidden away under the Darvish desert, with no idea that I was alive.

Clearing his throat, Rat continued. “I hope you can appreciate the risk I am taking by telling you this but…for some time now, I have been passing information about Kage to the other factions in this zone.”

Regis chortled. ‘So our Rat is actually a mole.’

“It has been months since anyone but Kage and his people have been allowed to see the relic, or the ward that protects it. Although Kage keeps some semblance of order here, he is not particularly…intelligent.”

“And fresh eyes might find new meaning in old words,” I said, quoting a line from a book on spellcasting I had read while still a student at Xyrus Academy.

“Exactly,” Rat agreed. “So…you will help me?”

I nervously opened my mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “I just want to get my Lady away from this zone safely.”

Nodding in acknowledgement, Rat continued leading me to the shrine, which wasn’t far from where we’d stopped to talk. Several turns later, we found three women standing in the tunnel, their weapons drawn.

I froze, but Rat kept moving toward them.

“Who is this?” a tall woman with tightly-braided hair asked, pointing her golden spear at my chest.

“He’s new,” Rat replied breathlessly. “Not one of Kage’s.”

“Why is he here?” Her liquid brown eyes tracked distrustfully across me, seeming to linger around my sternum. Her frown deepened.

Rat scratched behind his ear. “The same reason you are, T’laya.”

She clicked her tongue, but moved to the side of the tunnel. Rat slunk between the women, each one several inches taller than him, his eyes lingering on their weapons.

I mimicked his wariness as I too passed between them, standing like sentinels to either side, regarding me coldly.

We came to a point where the path split, curving away to the left and right. Rat circled around to the left, then stopped at a bare patch of wall. He closed his eyes and pressed a hand against the wall, and a humming vibration shook the passage.

Like a curtain being drawn to the sides, the wall opened, revealing a chamber completely cut off from the rest of the zone. Three men, all ragged and filthy—obviously part of Kage’s gang—brandished weapons, then backed down at the sight of Rat.

An ogre of a man whose beard hung nearly to his belly set the butt of his massive two-handed axe on the ground and rested his hands on the head. He leered at the three women, showing off a mouthful of crooked, stained teeth, but his expression fell when he noticed me.

“You didn’t say nothing about another man,” he said gruffly. “Does Kage—”

“Would I be here if our master didn’t will it?” Rat wheezed. “Kage grows impatient for the relic. This man is a potent Sentry in service to a powerful highblood. Kage has instructed that he be allowed to see the shrine along with T’laya and her womenfolk.”

The burly guard didn’t seem convinced, eyeing us skeptically.

“Do you ever wish to leave here, you bloodless oaf?” Rat snapped, shoeing the three guards off of a huge carving that took up most of the floor.

The man thought about this for a moment, then deferred to Rat and moved aside. Rat waved us in, gesturing to the floor.

My eyes were drawn past it, however, to what could only be the relic so many had killed and died for.

My immediate reaction was…disappointment.

The garment, which hung suspended within a golden beam of light, was best described as armored robes. They were thick and bulky, the fabric a muted grayish brown, with dark leather pauldrons, vambraces, and a gorget. Runes were embroidered into the seams and carved along the edges of the leather armor pieces.

Putting the dated style aside, the relic armor seemed to have been made for an ogre rather than man.

‘Oh, I don’t know. It seems rather fitting,’ Regis said thoughtfully. ‘A macho dress for a macho princess.’

Something about the way the aether was moving in the room caught my eye, and I looked closer. A subtle amethyst glow of aether infused the armor.

‘Is that…?’

I think so, I confirmed, enraptured by the way aether seemed to swirl around the armor, drawn to it from throughout the zone. That’s why the atmospheric aether is so much thicker here.

T’laya crossed in front of me, breaking the relic’s spell. She kneeled down over the glyph, her fingers tracing the deep grooves in the stone floor.

The glyph was a complex series of runes, carefully arranged into concentric circles. It was ingenious, like painting a picture with words, but it was an untraditional design. I couldn’t help but think that even a professor of djinn runes would struggle to divine the exact meaning. This was made more complicated because parts had been worn away or damaged over time, and the grooves were stained reddish brown from all the blood that had been spilled here.

At the head of the glyph, it merged into a second, smaller symbol, where the suit of armor hovered within its protective barrier.

I bent down for a closer look, my fingers tracing the carved lines.

“Light guide me…” one of the ascender women breathed in wonder as she took in the shrine.

Rat sniffed. “What do you make of it?”

‘No wonder no one has figured out how to get the thing. That glyph is a mess,’ Regis said helpfully.

I reread the same section for the third time, struggling with the construction of the runes.

“It begins here,” Rat said, pointing to a break in the concentric circles near the golden light and the relic. “Perhaps it would help if you read from beginning to end.”

I moved to where he had indicated and began to translate with Regis’s aid.

‘That’s a lot of blood for a race of pacifists,’ Regis thought.

He was right. When Kage and Rat had revealed the reason for the violence infesting this zone, I had expected to discover that they were fools and had misread the djinn’s instructions, but the glyph was thick with references to blood.

‘…the blood of one who…what’s that rune say?’

I don’t recognize it, I admitted. Maybe it’s been damaged.

‘…of one who something something blood of our blood, may…be burdened? That doesn’t make any sense…’