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24 — Bones

Author: Torque Stone
last update Last Updated: 2025-12-04 15:29:20

The city opened beneath her like an old wound—one that never quite stopped bleeding.

Not in spectacle.

Not in fire.

In silence.

New Eidolon’s underbelly began where the light ended—where service tunnels twisted into forgotten veins and the air reeked of rust, oil, and rot. A place built to be unseen, to bury what no one wanted remembered.

Eirwen moved carefully, arm tight around Talia’s waist as they picked their way down the narrow ramp. Water dripped from overhead pipes, each drop echoing too long in the dark.

Behind them, the city closed its jaws.

Above, sirens faded into static—just another background threat.

Talia’s voice was thin. “Your mother knows we’re here.”

Eirwen didn’t answer. She wasn’t following instinct—she was following pattern. The kind of route you only notice when it’s too late to turn back. Markers appeared exactly where someone meant them to.

Up ahead, a faint silver streak caught the light.

Old paint. Not fresh, but deliberately preserved.

The Widow’s mark.

Eirwen slowed, not out of fear, but recognition. Her pulse hardened. Logistics, not legend—this was a map written by someone who understood the value of control.

“Stay close,” she told Talia, her voice quiet and iron-edged.

Talia nodded, swallowing whatever argument she had left.

They went deeper.

The tunnel opened into a utility chamber—old relay servers gutted, wires ripped out and scavenged. The air stank: metal, copper, blood.

Eirwen crouched, fingertips brushing a sticky smear on the concrete.

“Don’t say it,” Talia breathed.

“It’s human,” Eirwen replied, voice flat. “And it’s not Laev’s.”

She stood, tracking the direction of the blood.

Then she saw it:

A handprint, forced against the wall, smeared until the sealant cracked. Fingers splayed, panic frozen in red.

Beneath it, gouged deep:

VÆLAR

Marsel’s old name.

If it was here, it meant one thing—someone wanted the city to remember what power used to look like, before men like Domenik set the rules.

Talia’s grip tightened on her sleeve. “We need to go back. Domenik—”

“No,” Eirwen cut her off, quiet but absolute.

“He can’t follow this trail.”

“Why?”

“Because this isn’t his war.”

A sound behind them—measured, deliberate.

Eirwen turned, hand on her weapon.

Three figures stepped out of shadow.

Bone masks, pale and brutal. Not costume—ritual. Their clothing was armored, practical, unbranded.

Várgr.

They didn’t threaten. Didn’t rush.

They simply watched, letting the silence stretch.

Eirwen stepped between them and Talia, instinctive.

“Say it,” she demanded.

One extended a folded parchment, sealed with black wax.

The Widow’s seal.

Eirwen’s chest tightened—not with fear, but with clarity. This was control, delivered in ritual. She took it without hesitation.

The lead wolf inclined his head. Not submissive. Not threatening. Just acknowledgment. Then he pointed down a side passage—lower, deeper, older.

The message was clear.

Talia’s voice was a whisper: “We shouldn’t—”

Eirwen didn’t look back. “She wouldn’t summon me just to kill me.”

“That’s not comforting.”

“It’s honest.”

She tucked the note inside her jacket, against her ribs. The wolves stepped aside, not escorting, just allowing.

Eirwen moved forward—her boots echoing softly, the air getting colder, heavier, thick with the scent of damp stone and ancient machinery.

This was the city before towers, before names, before power got new faces.

The passage closed behind her, shadow swallowing the light.

Above, somewhere far beyond the concrete and steel, she could almost feel the moment Domenik realized she was gone.

Not panic.

Not weakness.

Fury.

Silent, focused, coiled—a threat that never needed to shout.

She swallowed and pressed on. The Widow hadn’t asked. She’d summoned.

Eirwen Cayde answered—not because she believed in anything but survival, not because she wanted to prove herself. But because some truths had to be dragged out into the open.

And because no one—no one—wrested control from men like Domenik for long.

═══════⊹⊱♚⊰⊹═══════

Next: 25 — Mercy

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