A week passed.
Kael trained. Met Liana twice more in the old market. Learned more about her father's movements, his allies, his plans. The Core grew stronger with each meeting—not just from Liana's information, but from something else. Something Kael didn't want to name.
Connection, the Core whispered. Trust. You're building something.
He ignored it.
Seraphine worked her own sources, pulling threads from the empire's vast web of secrets. The men visiting Lord Vex were mercenaries—former soldiers, blood mage hunters, men who'd spent years tracking down and eliminating "aberrations." People like Kael.
People with the Core.
"They're getting closer," Seraphine told him one night. "They've identified the recruit who survived the assassination attempt. They're matching descriptions, timelines. Another week, maybe two, and they'll have a name."
Kael stood at the window of her office, staring at the city. "Then we move first."
"Move how?"
"Vex's mansion. He has records. Names. Plans. If we can get inside—"
"Inside?" Seraphine laughed. "It's the most protected house in the capital. Guards, wards, blood magic traps. No one gets in without invitation."
Kael turned. "Liana can get us in."
Seraphine's expression flickered. Jealousy? Concern? Both? "You trust her that much?"
"I trust that she hates her father more than she fears him." Kael paused. "And she wants out. Desperately. If we can offer her a way—"
"We'd be risking everything on a noble girl's word."
"You risked everything on me."
Seraphine was silent. Then she smiled—small, reluctant, real. "Fair point. But if we do this, we do it carefully. No heroics. No Core unless absolutely necessary." She stood, walked to him, stood close. "I won't lose you now, Kael. Not when we're just beginning."
Her hand found his. Squeezed.
The Core pulsed—warm, content.
Kael squeezed back.
---
The next meeting with Liana was different.
She arrived at the old market with shadows under her eyes and fear in her movements. Before Kael could speak, she grabbed his arm.
"He knows."
Kael's blood chilled. "Knows what?"
"Not about you. Not yet. But he knows someone's been meeting me. Someone followed me last time. I lost them, but—" She was shaking. "Kael, I'm so scared."
Kael pulled her into the shadows of a collapsed building. "You're safe now. No one followed you today?"
"I don't think so. I took three different carriages, walked through the crowded market, doubled back twice." She took a breath. "I'm fine. We're fine. But we need to move faster."
Kael told her the plan.
Liana listened, eyes wide. When he finished, she was pale but steady.
"My father's study. Third floor, east wing. He keeps everything there—letters, ledgers, names. If anyone knows about the Core hunters, about why they want you, it's in that room." She paused. "There's a party in three days. My father's birthday. The house will be full of people, guards distracted. It's our best chance."
"You'd do this? Betray your father?"
Liana's eyes hardened. "He stopped being my father the day he sold me to Corren Malk." She looked at Kael. "I'll get you inside. But you have to promise me something."
"Anything."
"When this is over—when my father falls and Malk is gone—you get me out. Away from this city, this life, everything." Her voice cracked. "I can't stay here. I can't be Liana Vex anymore."
Kael looked at her. Trapped. Desperate. Burning.
"Promise," he said.
Liana smiled—tears and hope and fear all tangled together.
"Three days, then. I'll leave the servant's entrance unlocked at midnight."
She slipped away into the ruins.
Kael watched her go, the Core humming in his chest.
She's one of us now, it whispered. Ours to protect. Ours to keep.
He didn't argue.
---
The night of the party, Kael stood in the shadows across from the Vex mansion.
Lights blazed from every window. Music drifted through the night. Carriages lined the street, disgorging nobles in their finest. Guards patrolled the walls, the gates, the gardens—dozens of them, professional and alert.
Beside him, Seraphine adjusted her dark clothing. "You sure about this?"
"No."
"Good. Certainty gets people killed." She checked her knives—four of them, hidden in sleeves, boots, belt. "I'll create a distraction on the east side. That should pull guards away from the servant's entrance. You'll have ten minutes, maybe fifteen. Get in, get the documents, get out. No heroics."
Kael nodded. The Core pulsed—ready, eager, hungry.
"What about Liana?"
"She'll meet you in the study. She knows the layout, knows what to look for." Seraphine's voice was carefully neutral. "Trust her."
"I do."
Something flickered in Seraphine's eyes. "Good. Now go."
She melted into the darkness.
Kael waited.
---
Ten minutes later, an explosion rocked the east garden.
Kael moved.
The servant's entrance was unlocked, just as Liana promised. He slipped inside, into a narrow corridor smelling of soap and old wood. The Core guided him—up stairs, through passages, past kitchens where servants gossiped about the explosion.
Third floor. East wing. A single guard stood outside the study door.
Kael didn't hesitate.
The Core surged. Time slowed. He moved—fast, faster than human—and the guard was on the ground before he could scream. Not dead. Just sleeping. The Core had shown him how.
Archive, it whispered. We keep what we learn.
The study door opened.
Liana stood inside, pale and trembling. "You came."
"I promised."
They worked quickly. Liana knew where to look—a hidden drawer behind a painting, a false bottom in the desk, a wall safe with a combination only she knew. Kael stuffed papers into his bag, barely glancing at them. Names. Dates. Plans. All of it would be useful later.
Footsteps in the hall.
Kael froze. Liana's eyes went wide.
"Someone's coming," she whispered.
Kael pulled her behind the desk, one hand over her mouth. The Core pulsed, ready to fight.
The door opened.
Lord Vex walked in.
He was older than Kael remembered—grayer, wearier—but the eyes were the same. Cold. Calculating. The eyes of a man who'd watched another burn and felt nothing.
Vex moved to his desk, poured himself a drink, and sat down with a heavy sigh.
Kael could have killed him then. Right there. One surge of the Core and it would be over.
Liana's hand found his. Squeezed. No, her eyes said. Not like this. Not yet.
Vex finished his drink, stood, and left.
Kael breathed again.
---
They found Seraphine waiting in the shadows outside, bruised but alive.
"Took you long enough," she muttered. "The distraction only bought ten minutes."
Kael held up the bag. "Worth it."
Back at her office, they spread the documents across the desk. Names. Dates. Transactions. Plans. The Core hunters weren't just after Kael—they were after everyone with blood magic. A purge. A cleansing. And Lord Vex was funding it all.
"There's more," Liana said quietly. She held a letter, hands shaking. "This one is about me. About my wedding." She looked up, eyes wet. "I'm not just marrying Malk. I'm being given to him. As payment. For something my father owes."
Seraphine read the letter. Her face went pale. "It's worse than that. Malk isn't just a noble. He's one of them. A Core hunter. He's been tracking bloodlines for years." She looked at Kael. "Your father wasn't his first kill. And you won't be the last."
Kael stared at the documents. Names he didn't know. Deaths he'd never heard of. A conspiracy stretching back decades, reaching into every corner of the empire.
The Core pulsed—not hunger this time. Something else. Something that felt almost like...
Purpose.
We were meant for this, it whispered. To stop them. To end them. To burn them all.
Kael looked at Seraphine. At Liana. Two women who'd risked everything for him.
"We're going to need help," he said.
Seraphine nodded. "I know some people. Dangerous people. People who've been fighting this war for years."
"Then we find them. And we fight." Kael's voice was steady. "No more hiding. No more waiting. We end this."
Liana stepped closer. Her hand found his.
"Together," she whispered.
Seraphine moved to his other side. Her hand found his too.
The Core pulsed—warm, full, complete in a way it had never been before.
Kael looked at the two women beside him. Allies. Friends. Something more, maybe, someday.
But not yet.
First, they had a war to win.