Of course! Here's Chapter 2 of The GardenThe Ash Beneath Our Feet
The world smelled of rust and rot.
Ren Ashveil crouched behind a half-collapsed pipe, staring at the patrol of Enforcers moving past. Their polished armor clanked softly, boots stomping in perfect rhythm over the steel bones of Garden Caelum. High above them, gears the size of cathedrals turned in slow, groaning circles, shrouded by drifting clouds of black steam.
Ren's heart was a hammer in his chest.
It had only been two days since the Incident.
Two days since he found the Seraph Core buried in the forgotten maintenance shaft.
Two days since he heard Ashir's voice inside his head—soft, ancient, full of broken laughter and the grinding of endless machinery.
"Take it, Ren," Ashir whispered again now. "Their hearts beat like glass. You could shatter them."
Ren shook his head.
He wasn't ready. Not yet.
Not until he understood what he had become.
Not until he understood how deep this machine's rot went.
The Enforcers moved on, their metal masks catching the flickering red glow of distant fires. Ren exhaled carefully and slipped from cover.
Beneath his gloves, his fingertips still glimmered faintly red, veins of crimson light spider-webbing beneath his skin, pulsing in time with the Core hidden in his satchel. His whole body felt… wrong. Too heavy. Too sharp.
Alive.
But alive with something he didn't trust.
Ashir.
The Seraph of Rust.
---
As he moved deeper into the lower levels of the Garden, the world changed.
Up above, the aristocrats of Caelum drank wine in towers of glass and whispered about distant wars. Down here?
Down here, there were no whispers. Only the quiet sobbing of the broken. The thin cries of starving children echoing in empty drainage corridors.
Ren knew this place.
It was his home.
And it was dying.
"Ren!"
A voice. Sharp. Familiar.
He turned to see Mira, running toward him across a meshwork of broken scaffolding, her boots skidding dangerously on rusted beams. Her dark hair was braided back in the style of the underfolk, streaked with soot. There was grease on her face, a wrench in one hand, a flare gun in the other.
"You're supposed to be laying low!" she hissed, grabbing his shoulder. "What the hell are you doing out here? After what you—"
"I know," Ren said, too tired to argue. "But I need answers. Someone down here knows about the Core."
Mira's eyes flicked to his satchel, and she winced. "You still have it?"
"I can't get rid of it."
"You don't want to get rid of it."
She wasn't wrong.
Ever since he touched it, something deep in his bones had changed. Like a door had opened. A door that should have stayed locked.
---
The ground shook violently.
Not from footsteps. Not from machinery.
From gunfire.
From above.
Ren's and Mira's heads snapped up at the same time. Another tremor. A thundercrack. Somewhere far up in the higher tiers, explosions rippled through the Garden's lower support rings.
"What now?" Mira growled, pulling him down into a crouch.
Through the rusted grating above them, Ren caught glimpses of light. Fires. And not the accidental kind.
"It's starting," Ashir whispered again in his mind. "The end of gardens. The cities will burn. You can watch, little flower—or you can choose to bloom."
Ren clenched his fists. His veins burned. The red glow returned.
"I need to find him," Ren said.
"Who?"
"Caelum's Architect."
Mira's expression dropped. She looked afraid for the first time since he'd known her. "You're insane."
"He built this machine. He'll know what the Core is."
"No one's seen him in years! And the Enforcers would skin you alive if they caught you even asking about him!"
Ren stood anyway. "Then I'll just have to not get caught."
---
They moved quickly through the dark, following the arterial maintenance tunnels that threaded beneath Caelum's lowest support levels. The further they went, the more broken the world became. Forgotten shrines to old machine gods sat crumbling in corners. Flickering signs written in languages no one spoke anymore buzzed faintly, half dead.
Ren could feel the Core guiding him.
Left. Right. Down.
Ashir's voice, soft as silk, sharper than razors: "Almost there. He waits for you in the Iron Heart."
Finally, they came to it.
The Iron Heart wasn't a place. It was a machine the size of a cathedral. Gears taller than apartment blocks, chains thicker than train tracks, all moving slowly, endlessly, like the breathing of some great, ancient beast.
And hanging over it, suspended by countless wires and tubes, was a figure.
Human?
No.
More like what used to be human.
Ren stared up at the withered body, its limbs almost entirely replaced by chrome and ancient steel, its face hidden behind a mask of black iron. Tubes fed into what remained of its veins, pulsing with thick, glowing coolant.
The Architect.
Still alive.
Barely.
The ancient thing opened one mechanical eye and looked directly at him.
"Child…" the voice croaked. It was like static over a broken radio. "…you bring… it here?"
Ren took a step forward, ignoring Mira's frantic hand pulling at his sleeve.
"You know what this is," he said, reaching into his satchel, pulling the glowing Seraph Core free. "Tell me. Tell me what it's done to me."
The Architect let out a slow, mechanical breath. "It has… chosen you…"
A deep groaning sound echoed around them, not from the machine—but from the walls.
Mira's eyes went wide. "We've been followed."
Sure enough, Enforcer boots clanged against the upper catwalks. Black armor. Crimson visors.
One of them pointed. "There! By the Heart!"
They raised their rifles.
"Kill the heretic!"
---
The world exploded into violence.
Mira fired the flare gun. A streak of blue fire lit up the machine hall.
Ren barely thought. The red glow spread up his arms, through his chest, flooding his vision with crimson light.
And in the moment between heartbeats, he understood.
Ashir wasn't just inside the Core.
Ashir was inside him.
"Break them."
Ren raised his hand. Not to shield, but to strike.
And when the first shot rang out, the bullet stopped mid-air.
Stopped.
Hung there, spinning.
The Enforcers paused, confused.
Then the bullet… melted.
Molten steel, dripping down as Ren's outstretched fingers curled into a fist.
His voice wasn't his alone anymore. It was doubled. Echoed. Machine and man speaking together.
"I'm done hiding."
The floor beneath the Enforcers cracked. Gears that had been still for decades screamed into motion. Chains snapped free. And with a roar of tearing metal, part of the upper walkway collapsed, dragging the soldiers down into the Iron Heart's grinding teeth.
Ren stood still, breathing hard, feeling the impossible strength humming through his bones.
Mira was staring at him like she didn't know him anymore.
Maybe she didn't.
Ren looked up at the Architect, whose single glowing eye burned brighter now.
"…You are the first," the ancient voice rasped. "The first of the new Seraph."
Above them, the sky began to turn black with smoke.
The war had begun.
And Ren Ashveil was no longer just a fugitive.
He was the weapon that would break the world.
---
[To be continued]