"Shut up and move."
Keyla shoved aside the map-covered section of wall, revealing a narrow passage disappearing into darkness.
Roku slipped through first with both daggers drawn. Solara followed close behind while Keyla pulled the hidden panel shut behind them. The passage was barely wide enough for one person, with old stone pressing in from both sides and the smell of dust and candle wax following them underground.
Something heavy struck the cellar hatch behind them.
Roku glanced back.
"They found it fast."
"They knew where to look," Keyla whispered.
That bothered him more.
The passage eventually opened beneath an abandoned storage shed near the edge of Ardent Wells. Keyla checked outside before motioning them forward.
"You two head south."
Solara frowned.
"What about you?"
"I'm staying."
"They know your shop."
"They know one of my shops."
Roku almost smiled.
Keyla caught it.
"Don't look so impressed."
"I wasn't."
"You were."
Solara stepped between them.
"Where do we meet you?"
"You don't. Stay off the main road. I'll find you when I know who came looking."
Roku looked back toward town.
"We could stay."
"No."
"We can fight."
"I know. That's why you're leaving."
Keyla looked directly at him.
"Whoever came into that shop already knew what weapons you carried. Don't give them exactly what they want."
Roku didn't like retreating, but she was right.
Keyla looked at Solara.
"If he turns around?"
"I'll drag him."
"You're not dragging me."
Solara smiled.
"Then keep moving."
Keyla sighed.
"Go."
They disappeared into the desert.
---
Nearly an hour later, Ardent Wells was gone behind them.
Moonlight covered the Badlands in pale silver, stretching across dunes that seemed endless at night. Wind pushed thin sheets of sand over the ridges, slowly erasing Roku and Solara's tracks as they moved.
Roku suddenly slowed.
Solara noticed immediately.
"What?"
He raised one hand.
They stopped.
"I felt something."
"Qi?"
Roku nodded.
Solara closed her eyes and carefully extended her Soul senses behind them. At first she felt only small desert creatures beneath the sand.
Then came human presences.
Seven.
But something about them was wrong.
Her brow tightened.
"There are seven."
"How close?"
"Two dunes back."
Roku looked behind them.
"Hellfire?"
"I don't know."
Solara concentrated.
Their Soul presence felt uneven. Two were controlled and focused.
The other five felt scattered.
Confused.
Almost sick.
Solara opened her eyes.
"Something's wrong with five of them."
Roku looked toward the black ruins rising from the dunes ahead.
"Then we find out what."
---
The ruins were half buried beneath the desert.
Broken stone walls created narrow corridors while shattered arches rose from the sand. Roku immediately liked the terrain. Seven enemies meant less if they couldn't surround them.
Solara moved deeper into the ruins while Roku climbed onto a broken wall.
Then they waited.
Movement appeared along the ridge.
Seven figures.
Two wore ash-gray coats over dark armor.
The broken-flame symbol was visible across their chests.
Hellfire Rebels.
But the five people moving around them looked nothing like organized fighters.
Roku's eyes narrowed.
The infected humans walked with stiff, uneven movements, their shoulders twitching as if their muscles were receiving commands a moment too late. Their clothing was ordinary—travel gear, torn guard equipment, pieces of merchant clothing. One still wore the remains of a Transmorra mission badge around his neck.
Their skin had turned pale and dry around dark branching veins that climbed their necks and disappeared beneath their clothes. A faint red-black glow pulsed beneath those veins every few seconds.
Their eyes were worse.
The whites had become gray and cloudy while their pupils glowed faintly red, unfocused until one of the Hellfire Rebels moved.
Then all five infected heads turned together.
Solara felt her stomach tighten.
"They're alive."
Roku looked at her.
"You're sure?"
"I can feel them."
Her Soul Qi brushed against the infected humans.
Fear.
Pain.
Confusion.
Buried beneath something else that was forcing their bodies forward.
"They're still in there."
One Hellfire Rebel raised his hand.
Every infected human stopped.
He pointed toward the ruins.
All five started moving again.
Roku's grip tightened around his daggers.
"They're controlling them."
Solara's expression hardened.
"We don't kill the infected."
Roku nodded.
"Then we take out the two giving orders."
---
Three infected humans entered first.
They spread through the narrow corridor while the Hellfire Rebels remained behind them.
Human shields.
Roku hated them already.
One infected man suddenly sprinted forward.
The change was violent.
His slow, uneven walk became an explosive charge as red-black Qi surged through the veins in his legs.
Roku dropped from the wall.
The man swung.
Roku slipped underneath the punch and struck him behind the knee with the flat of his dagger.
The infected man collapsed.
Then immediately tried to stand.
"Persistent."
"Roku!"
Another came from behind.
Roku twisted aside.
Solara snapped one of her folded fans against the infected woman's wrist, knocking her attack away.
The woman stumbled.
Solara caught her.
For a moment, their eyes met.
The infected woman's lips trembled.
"Help…"
Solara froze.
The woman's entire body jerked.
Red-black light surged through her veins.
Her hand shot toward Solara's throat.
Solara barely moved aside.
"She can talk!"
Roku blocked another infected attacker.
"Then definitely don't kill them."
One of the Hellfire Rebels raised both hands.
Dark-red Qi stretched from his fingers like thin burning threads.
The infected humans reacted immediately.
Roku saw it.
"The one on the left."
Solara followed his gaze.
"He's controlling them."
The second Hellfire Rebel thrust both palms forward.
Black-red flame erupted through the corridor.
Solara opened both fans.
Her Soul barrier flashed into existence.
The corrupted flame crashed against it.
Solara grunted as the barrier shook.
Roku moved.
Lightning snapped around his feet.
He accelerated along the edge of Solara's barrier, slipped past an infected man, and drove directly toward the controller.
The Hellfire Rebel saw him coming.
Two infected humans immediately changed direction.
Roku cursed under his breath.
They weren't protecting themselves.
They were protecting him.
One infected man jumped directly in front of Roku's dagger.
Roku twisted the blade away at the last second and slammed his shoulder into the man instead.
The infected man flew into the sand.
The controller smiled.
"Still worried about saving them?"
Roku's eyes hardened.
"Yes."
He threw his dagger.
The controller ducked.
Exactly what Roku wanted.
Lightning jumped from the dagger into the metal armor across the man's shoulder.
His body locked.
Roku closed the distance and punched him across the jaw.
The Hellfire Rebel dropped.
Every infected human froze.
For half a second, the ruins became silent.
Then the second Hellfire Rebel shouted something Roku didn't understand.
The red-black veins inside all five infected humans flared.
Solara felt their pain hit her Soul senses at once.
"No!"
The infected screamed.
Their bodies started moving again.
Faster.
More violently.
The remaining Hellfire Rebel had taken control of all five.
---
The fight changed immediately.
Roku could no longer simply avoid them.
The infected attacked without protecting themselves, throwing punches hard enough to tear their own muscles and launching themselves from broken walls without caring how they landed.
Solara blocked one strike and heard the attacker's wrist crack.
He didn't react.
"This is destroying them!"
"I know!"
Roku ducked another attack.
He saw the Hellfire Rebel standing behind the infected.
Everything led back to him.
"Keep them off me."
Solara looked at the five infected rushing toward them.
"All of them?"
"For ten seconds."
"That's a lot of people, Roku."
"You can do it."
"That isn't an answer!"
Roku was already moving.
Solara cursed under her breath and opened both fans.
Her Soul Qi expanded.
Not an attack.
A barrier.
Golden light formed across the narrow corridor as the infected crashed into it. Solara slid backward through the sand, struggling to keep the barrier strong without hurting the people pushing against it.
Roku disappeared around the side.
The Hellfire Rebel realized what was happening.
Too late.
Roku came from behind.
One dagger knocked the man's weapon aside.
The second stopped against his throat.
"Release them."
The Rebel smiled.
"No."
Roku punched him.
Hard.
The man collapsed.
The red-black threads disappeared.
All five infected humans fell almost simultaneously.
Solara dropped her barrier and rushed toward them.
She knelt beside the woman who had spoken earlier and placed two fingers against her neck.
A pulse.
Weak.
But there.
"They're alive."
Roku looked toward the unconscious Hellfire Rebel.
"Good."
The first Rebel groaned nearby.
Also alive.
Roku walked over and dragged him upright.
"Now we ask questions."
---
The Hellfire Rebel laughed weakly as Roku held him against a broken wall.
"You think this is about you?"
Roku pressed one dagger beneath his chin.
"I didn't ask what it was about."
Solara remained near the infected humans, checking their breathing while listening.
Roku leaned closer.
"Who sent you?"
The Rebel smiled through bloody teeth.
"The ritual already started."
Solara looked up.
"What ritual?"
His eyes shifted toward her.
"The Caged…"
His breathing became rough.
"…will be Uncaged."
Roku frowned.
"What's Caged?"
The man laughed.
"You're already too—"
Solara suddenly felt something.
Sharp.
Distant.
"Roku!"
He moved instantly.
A thin beam of dark Qi tore across the desert and struck the Hellfire Rebel through the head.
Roku threw himself aside.
The Rebel's body glowed red-black.
Then collapsed into ash.
Silence returned.
Roku landed with both daggers ready.
Solara searched the surrounding dunes.
Nothing.
Whoever had fired was too far away for either of them to sense clearly.
"They silenced him," she whispered.
Roku stared at the ash.
"Which means he was about to say something useful."
Solara looked toward the second Hellfire Rebel.
Roku followed her gaze.
Still unconscious.
Still alive.
"At least we have another one."
Then the ground moved.
Barely.
A low vibration traveled beneath the ruins.
Roku felt it through his boots.
Solara felt something much worse.
Her Soul Qi reacted on its own.
Her awareness sank beneath the desert.
Past the sand.
Past the stone.
Deeper than she had ever intentionally reached.
Something was there.
Something enormous.
Solara stopped breathing.
For one brief moment, she felt a presence so deep beneath the Badlands that she couldn't understand where it began or ended.
Then a voice entered her mind.
The seal weakens.
Solara stumbled.
Roku caught her arm.
"What happened?"
She stared down at the sand.
"Solara."
Slowly, she looked toward the distant horizon.
A faint crimson glow pulsed beneath the desert night.
Once.
Like a heartbeat.
Then vanished.
Roku followed her gaze.
"What did you hear?"
Solara swallowed.
"The seal weakens."
Behind them, the infected humans lay unconscious but alive, their red-black veins slowly fading.
One Hellfire Rebel remained unconscious.
The other was nothing more than ash blowing across the desert.
Roku stared toward the place where the crimson glow had disappeared.
Whatever was happening in the Badlands was bigger than missing mission warriors.
Hellfire had infected people.
They could control them.
They were stockpiling Qi equipment.
They were talking about a ritual.
And now something beneath the desert was talking about a weakening seal.
Roku tightened his grip around his daggers.
They had finally found answers.
The problem was that every answer had given them something worse to worry about.