Chapter 166: You Are Beneath The Earth

Lord-Captain Veyris Kaelthar stood in darkness so complete that it seemed to press against his eyes like a physical weight. He had been here for hours and had barely moved from his position. Despite the darkness, he was familiar with this place because it was built beneath every major city on this continent.

No city could remain under Asulon’s domain without making this place a part of their foundation, and the entirety of this continent fell under the Great Royal House Arathor, Stormcrown, whose Ascendant Asulon Arathor ruled over the entire continent from his Lightning-crowned mountain peak.

House Kaelthar was one of the lesser noble houses under House Arathor, and they were on the rise because the Queen-Regent was an Ancestor of House Kaelthar, but she had many enemies at court, even though she was the one who should hold the ears of the Storm Ascendant.

Veyris had been in the darkness, thinking, before he could send any report to the court, he needed his words to be as foolproof as possible, and yet he was well aware that he could not make any excessive moves or Commander Yseult could just kill him, and even though she would suffer a harsh punishment, a powerful Angel like her had great backing at the royal court and other foreign court, and she would not be punished for long.

There was no evidence yet, but Veyris’s intuition was telling him that something extremely unusual was going on in this city, and if he played his card right, perhaps he would be one of the few Lord-Captains who would get to chop off the head of an Angel.

After a while, Veyris opened his eyes and activated his sight, causing the darkness of the tunnel to flee before him. He could have called for Ember Orbs, but there was no need for something like that for a Siphon of his power. He was at the Peak of Amber Exile, and with his talent, he should already be a Void Sentinel decades ago, but Veyris wanted a perfect vessel for his ascension, or he would be stuck as a Void Sentinel forever.

His ambitions ran deep, and he would not spend his life as a Lord-Captain, no matter how eminent most people would view this position. He always looked far in all of his dealings, and it was better to wait a few decades and reap a reward that would last him for centuries, even millennia if he played his cards right and transcended the level of Void Sentinel.

Pushing these distracting thoughts away, Veyris looked around at the tunnels beneath the Palace walls, which were ancient, likely older than the city itself, older than most things he had encountered in his centuries of service to the Crown.

His golden-key eyes rotated slowly, adjusting, piercing the gloom with the ease of long practice. He could feel the age of this place, and he nodded in satisfaction because Calyx had done a great job of finding a spot like this for placing the statues of the Storm Ascendant.

Around him, the statues of Asulon stood in silent rows, their twelve-foot forms barely visible in the dim light that filtered from somewhere far above. They lined both sides of the tunnel, stretching into darkness so far that even his enhanced perception could not find the end. Thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands.

Veyris knew that the boy who was now an Ascendant Candidate worked on a similar tunnel like this one, but that tunnel was above him, and was freshly constructed a century ago, and he began slowly walking towards the new tunnel where Elias had worked, which was closer to the surface.

Veyris ran a gloved hand along the surface of the nearest statue, feeling the faint pulse of Lumina within the stone. Most would not know the truth of these statues, but they were not mere sculptures; only fools would believe this was made to glorify the glory of the Ascendant, the man did not need any more glory than that which was greater than killing a god.

These statues were batteries, repositories of power that had been accumulating for decades, centuries, perhaps longer, in the central place. The statues there have been accumulating power for a million years, as all over the domain of Asulon, he was slowly accumulating the sort of power that would make any Ascendant worry.

Veyris was aware that in the distant past, this had caused issues between the Ascendant Houses, but he could not be sure how it was resolved. No matter the results, he still knew that the Storm Ascendant was not stopped from creating all of these batteries of power, and that meant that Asulon must have won the argument.

Veyris was also worried, but the nature of his worry was different. Why would that boy be sent here to work for more than four years at this point, and that was even as a mortal?

“The Heavenly Restrictions should have made this impossible,” Veyris murmured to himself. “A mortal, working beneath the Palace, surrounded by this much concentrated power? He should have been driven mad within weeks. Did that child know the truth, or was it hidden from him? Commander Yseult knows the truth of this tunnel; she is an Angel.”

But Elias hadn’t gone mad; he had thrived to the extent that he became an Ascendant Candidate with a beyond-average potential. One Ascendant Candidate would not destabilize the affairs of the crown, but if the child was not just average, there lies the problem. Tall trees that could destabilise the rule of the Royal Houses must be pruned and made to know their place before they grow out of bounds.

After many instances of breaking down rebellions from mighty powerhouses over the years, it was generally known that the best way to kill a powerhouse was when they were young and weak, because after a certain time had passed, the cost for killing them became truly painful to bear, and sometimes, even the Ascendants themselves had to descend to end the conflict.

Veyris moved through the tunnel heading towards the surface, his footsteps echoing off stone that had been laid when the gods may have walked the earth.

The formations carved into the walls were subtle, so subtle that most Siphons would miss them entirely. But Veyris had spent centuries studying such formations due to his noble ancestry, permitting him to come in contact with places of power like this, and he recognized the patterns here.

Veyris was examining the statues as he got closer to the surface when the soft chime of his communication array interrupted his thoughts, and he frowned. He had asked not to be disturbed, and then he realized that he had been away for more than twenty-four hours, and he had told the Scribes to contact him after this length of time had passed.

Veyris touched the device at his wrist, and a familiar voice echoed in his mind.

“Lord-Captain. I have the records you requested. From the Central Archive.”

Nathan, the Senior Scribe, must have arrived a while ago, and for him to contact him now must mean that the Scribe must have waited until he was able before reaching out.

“Where are you?”

“Outside the Palace walls. The Lord Protector’s guards tried to stop me, but your authority—”

“I’ll be there shortly. Stay where you are.”

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