The wind in the lower tiers of Varn bit with the sour chill of alchemical runoff. Between crumbling stone alleys and smoke-choked vents, Kael and Rei moved like ghosts. The crowds here didn't look up. No one asked questions. That was why they came.
Rei led them down a narrow flight of stairs hidden behind a forge, past rusted pipes and twitching wires, until they reached a half-sunken archway sealed with a slab of scorched iron. She rapped her knuckles on it in a rhythm Kael didn't recognize.
The slab groaned, then slid open.
A boy no older than fifteen peered out. His eyes widened the moment he saw Kael.
"Rei, what did you do?" he whispered.
"We need somewhere to lay low. Where's Niva?"
The boy stepped aside without a word, vanishing into the dim torchlight beyond the threshold. They followed into a cluttered den of oil lamps, worn rugs, crates of stolen tech, and a ceiling low enough to scrape Kael's hair.
Niva stood near the back, her sharp frame bent over a glowing map etched into a slab of crystal. Her hands never stopped moving, fingers dancing across the surface as glyphs shifted with each touch.
When she looked up, her eyes narrowed. "You brought him here?"
Rei nodded. "He has the core."
Niva stepped forward, brushing her short copper hair back. She had the look of someone who'd seen too much and stopped pretending she hadn't. "I felt it from across the district. Like the city blinked."
Kael sat against the wall, still breathing hard. The pulse in his chest hadn't faded. If anything, it had grown stronger. Sharper.
Niva didn't ask permission. She dropped to her knees in front of him and pressed two fingers to his chest. The moment she touched him, her expression changed.
"You idiot," she whispered. "Do you even know what this is?"
"It called to me," Kael said, voice low. "It woke up when I touched it."
"That's because it isn't a core. Not anymore." She stood and backed away, staring like he was something venomous. "You've bound with a dormant Veinfire relic. They were outlawed for a reason."
Kael frowned. "I thought vein cores were just conduits. Tools."
"Most are. But the one you took is older. Twisted. The kind of thing they lock away in sealed vaults and bury in myth." Niva turned to Rei. "He needs to get rid of it."
Kael looked up, fire flashing behind his eyes. "I can't."
"Can't or won't?"
"I tried. It's inside me now. Like it latched on."
Silence filled the den.
Rei broke it. "We're not asking you to fix him, Niva. We need time. And information."
Niva sighed, pacing. "There's a place. Out beyond the city. A ruin where the old orders used to train. Before the Cataclysm."
"The Academy?" Kael asked. He'd heard stories of it growing up. A place of blood and flame.
"That's the one," Niva said. "If you want to understand what's inside you, that's where you'll start. But getting there is suicide. House Veyren won't let this go. You stole from a Core Lord. You stole something worse than gold."
Kael stood slowly, the glow beneath his skin pulsing again. This time it didn't hurt. It moved with him, like it was part of his blood.
"I need answers. And I don't run from what I've started."
Niva studied him, then finally nodded. "Fine. I'll draw you a route. You leave before first bell. And Kael… don't use the power until you know what it costs."
He nodded.
That night he couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyes he saw flashes of things he'd never lived. Swords buried in ash. Skies that bled. A voice in the dark whispering his name.
Not just Kael.
Veinbound.