Leo sprang forward, his eyes blazing with panic as he rushed toward her, clawing desperately at the black chains that bound her in place. But the moment his fingers brushed against the dark metal, a surge of force flung him backward, slamming him to the ground. His palms burned and bled from the contact.
"Ah—damn it! What kind of power is this?" he hissed through clenched teeth.
"That's not how you pull a Seer out of her vision, you idiot," came a calm voice from the doorway.
Leo turned sharply. "Tyler… since when have you been here? How did you even find me?"
"I've been following you from the start," Tyler said, leaning lazily against the doorframe, arms crossed. "You just didn't notice. Anyway, she's getting worse. Let's focus on her first."
Leo nodded, still catching his breath. "You're right. We should call Miss Veronica—or the Commander."
"Oh, brilliant idea. Let's invite them to flay us alive for sneaking into Aileen's room and breaking half the rules in the book," Tyler said dryly. "No thanks. Just hand me that dagger."
Leo frowned. "What are you planning to do?"
"The only way to escape mental pain," Tyler murmured, gripping the dagger, "is to create a stronger one—physical."
"What?"
Before Leo could stop him, Tyler drew the blade across Aileen's hand.
A sharp gasp tore from her lips as her body convulsed. Then she collapsed, trembling. Tyler caught her before she hit the floor, lowering her gently to the ground. Her black hair spilled over her face, concealing most of her expression.
When she spoke, her voice was faint. "Where… am I?"
"In your room," Leo said softly.
"What about the mission?"
Tyler exhaled. "Forget it. You need rest. The Commander canceled it."
"What?" Her eyes widened. "Why? What happened?"
"No idea," Tyler replied. "What matters is—it's over. Understood?"
Leo closed the door behind them, leaving Aileen alone with her thoughts.
The two men walked down the corridor in silence until Leo finally spoke. "I saw a woman."
Tyler stopped mid-step, frowning. "What are you talking about?"
"In the cemetery," Leo said quietly. "There was a woman. I didn't mention it before—I thought it was nothing. But now... I'm not so sure."
They stepped out into the courtyard. Dawn had begun to break, brushing the horizon with pale gold.
"There's definitely something strange going on," Tyler muttered. "And Aileen's condition only proves it. While I was digging into Lincum Cemetery, I found something unsettling. It's tied to the royal salts—a magical site. Whenever a body is buried there, a headstone appears on its own. The family then engraves the name. But here's the catch—if there's no body, there can be no stone.
"And if there's a body without a stone, the next burial erases it entirely—as if the grave never existed. But this one…" He paused, lowering his voice. "This one's empty. No body. Yet the headstone remains. Always. Which means—there's more than one corpse bound to it somehow."
Leo eyed him suspiciously. "Didn't the Commander say the mission was canceled? Why did you keep digging?"
Tyler hesitated, then sighed. "Alright, fine—you're right. But aren't you even a little curious?"
Leo groaned. "Maybe. I just want to know who that woman was."
Tyler's grin turned sly. "The Commander's busy in a meeting today. How about we go back there—you get your answers, and I get mine?"
Leo shot him a weary look. "I should've known you'd drag us into trouble again."
Tyler clapped him on the shoulder. "Then finish your training fast. We'll sneak out before anyone notices."
They waited impatiently for nightfall. When the clock struck eleven, they slipped out like shadows and made their way toward the cemetery.
But as they approached the gates, a figure was already waiting—Aileen.
"What are you two doing here?" she asked, her voice cool and sharp.
Leo forced a nervous laugh. "Aileen! We were just… taking a walk."
"A midnight stroll," she said dryly, glancing toward the graves. "How romantic. Perfect place for it."
Tyler smirked. "And you? Out for a walk too? Or do you just enjoy graveyard picnics?"
Aileen's lips curved into a knowing smile. "Oh, absolutely. The grass is lovely tonight. The weather's especially sunny."
Leo chuckled softly. "So it seems. Well then… since we're all here, we might as well finish what we started."
The three of them entered the cemetery with steady, deliberate steps. Their footsteps echoed faintly against the cold stone as they reached the center and stopped.
They began counting again.
"The same number," Tyler murmured. "No new graves tonight. Everything's as it was yesterday."
Aileen drifted toward the last grave—the one from her dream. Her focus narrowed until the presence of Leo and Tyler faded into silence. She knelt beside it, brushing her fingertips over the rough surface of the headstone.
Leo placed a hand on her shoulder, and she startled violently, spinning around to face him.
"Is there something here?" he asked. "You said something about a woman yesterday—what did you mean?"
"When?" she asked, dazed.
"When you were…" He faltered, unable to describe the strange, trance-like state she'd been in.
She understood without needing the words.
"Oh," she whispered. "I dreamed. I was standing right here, on the edge of this grave. There was a girl lying inside it. She spoke to me. She was dressed all in white—from her head to her feet."
Her hand trembled as she pressed it into the cold soil. "She led me somewhere… to a pit, or a well—it was filled with bodies. They said they'd been waiting for me."
Leo listened with mild concern, but Tyler's expression darkened, his eyes narrowing as he absorbed every word.
Leo exhaled softly. "It was just a dream. You're shaken, that's all."
But when he saw Tyler's serious face, he frowned. Pulling him aside, Leo whispered sharply, "You know something, don't you? Why do you care so much about a dream?"
Tyler avoided his gaze. "It's nothing."
"Don't lie to me, Tyler."
The other man sighed in defeat. "Fine. I was suspicious after last night, so I asked the Commander about her—about Aileen. He said she's too young to use her abilities yet, that doing so would drain her completely. Then he stopped talking. I tried to ask what her ability was, but he refused to answer. So I think… there's something between what she's seeing and what the Commander isn't telling us."
Leo's eyes narrowed. "And you didn't think to tell me this before?"
Tyler shrugged with a careless grin. "You didn't ask."
Before Leo could retort, Aileen rose to her feet. "We should find that pit," she said quietly.
Leo, who had dismissed her dream moments ago, now agreed without hesitation.
Tyler raised a brow. "And where exactly do you expect to find a pit in a cemetery?"
Aileen gestured toward the old stone shed nearby—the one they'd found during their earlier search. "That room. It was filled with records and documents. We might find something there."
They stepped inside. The room was in ruins, its air heavy with dust and decay. A rusted cabinet leaned crookedly against the wall, papers spilling from its broken drawers. Tyler rummaged through them until he pulled out a brittle map, its parchment yellowed with age.
"Hey," he said, unfolding it carefully. "I think I've got something."
They gathered around.
"It looks like a map of the cemetery," Tyler explained.
Leo frowned. "But the writing—it's in some strange script."
Aileen leaned closer. "That's ancient Armenian. How are we supposed to read that?"
Tyler gave them a smug look. "You two shouldn't use the word 'we.' I can read Armenian just fine."
Both of them blinked in surprise. He didn't look like the scholarly type. Tyler ignored their stares and began to translate, his voice low and deliberate, until he reached a word that made him pause.
"…'Incinerator,'" he murmured, crossing his arms. "Not a pit. There's an old crematory here. That must be what you saw, Aileen. It wasn't deep—and there was no water, right? Makes sense. But the strange thing is, this crematory was sealed off fifty years ago."
He glanced up, a spark of curiosity lighting his face. "Come on. Follow me."
Without hesitation, Leo and Aileen followed him through the misty rows of graves until they reached the far edge of the cemetery—an empty expanse untouched by burial.
Without warning, Tyler dropped to his knees and pressed his ear to the ground.
"What on earth are you doing?" Leo asked, bewildered.
"Shh," Tyler whispered. "Listen."
He tapped the earth with his knuckles—once, twice, then again. The sound shifted, hollow beneath the soil. His eyes widened.
He leapt to his feet, dusting off his hands. "There it is," he said, a sharp grin tugging at his lips. "Found it."
They both looked at him, puzzled.
"What did you find, man?" Leo asked.
Tyler only smiled. "Just wait," he said, and snatched up a shovel. He drove it hard into the ground—only for the earth to explode back at him with violent force. The shovel flew from his grip as a surge of energy hurled him backward. He would have crashed into a headstone had Leo not caught him at the last instant.
A glowing circle shimmered where the shovel had struck, its edges burning with strange, twisting runes.
"What the hell was that?" Leo shouted.
Wiping the blood from his mouth, Tyler managed a grin. "Heh… it's protected by black magic. Not strong, but nasty enough."
He staggered forward again, staring at the symbols, then turned to Leo, an idea flashing in his eyes.
"Leo," he said, "what do you say you try using your scythe—stab it right into the center of that circle?"
Leo narrowed his eyes. "So you want me to get hit this time if it backfires?"
"Come on, partner," Tyler teased. "Don't be such a coward."
With a sharp exhale, Leo unsheathed his weapon. The air seemed to bend around the curved steel as he drove the blade straight into the heart of the sigil.
A surge of black light burst outward, the circle cracking and shattering like glass. The ground trembled beneath them. Leo barely managed to stay upright, his breath ragged from the strain.
Tyler laughed under his breath. "Told you you could do it."
Leo shot him a glare. "Damn you. Where do you even get that kind of confidence?"
Before Tyler could reply, Aileen stepped forward. She seized the shovel, now trembling faintly with residual energy, and thrust it deep into the broken circle. The soil began to crumble away, collapsing into a hollow void.
She grabbed a lantern and peered down—and instantly covered her nose. The stench of decay was suffocating.
"Oh God…" she whispered.
Below them lay a pit overflowing with corpses—all of them young women. Some were nothing but bones, others half-decayed, and a few still eerily fresh.
"I'm going down," Leo said grimly. "Tyler, keep working on that map. Maybe it'll tell us what this place really is."
Aileen handed him a lantern. Leo descended carefully, boots sinking into the soft, sickening mass beneath him. The air was thick with rot. He forced himself to breathe through his sleeve as he examined one of the fresher bodies—a girl with silver hair and skin tinged blue by death. Her eyes were still open, glassy and lifeless.
He reached out gently to close them. They wouldn't budge. Rigor had long since set in.
"She's been dead for a while," he muttered, glancing upward. "Hey, pull me—"
He froze.
The lantern light flickered over the figure standing above the pit. It wasn't Aileen.
A woman stood there in her place, draped in a long white gown that glowed faintly in the dark. Her hair fell in a black curtain around her face, and her eyes—if they could be called eyes—were nothing but endless pools of shadow.
Her lips curved into a chilling smile.
"I told you," she whispered, her voice echoing through the hollow earth, "you would come back."