Chapter 168: You See The Records

It was by pure luck that Veyris had been able to pick up the signature for a divine fragment opening as he had been passing by Aroth when his long-distance teleportation had failed, and he had to make several short hops across cities instead.

He had been on the way to commemorate the birth of the Storm Prince, and Ascendant Candidate whose talent was said to shake the world, when he had detected the opening of a Fragment in a distant city so far flung from the beaten path that he almost thought there was a smudge on the map.

If he could take this Ascendant Candidate to the celebration and present them as one of the honor guards to the Storm Prince, then he would gain great favor in court, that was his thought at that time, but now Veyris was thinking that whatever happened here he was not supposed to know, and because Stormfall was in the middle of nowhere, Veyris had assumed that the Asylum’s array was simply… slow, outdated or neglected.

But this was not a neglected array; if the records were correct, then this was a masterpiece of ancient Formation craft, still fully functional and monitoring everything within five hundred miles, even in its dormant state, a formation like this could not just fail unless it was deliberately sabotaged, and that would raise alarm all over the continent, the Heavenly Restrictions above would make sure of that, and those could not be tampered with.

An array like this built in and around the Asylum would not be easily built today because of the cost and the politics involved, only in times of war would crazy amount of resources like this would be spent.

“So if the array had degraded enough to allow him to sense the opening of a Fragment, then why hadn’t it alerted a Warden that it was already broken? Or was there something else happening here?

Veyris flipped forward, searching for more information on the array’s operation. What he found made his blood run cold.

®

Array Calibration Note – 423,000 Years Ago.

Following the incident of Cycle 47, the array has been recalibrated to ignore signatures originating from within the Asylum itself. This was deemed necessary to prevent false alerts caused by the… inhabitants of the Lower Levels. The array will still detect external signatures with full fidelity, but internal events are now automatically filtered.

Veyris bowed his head in thought as he contemplated these last passages from the records.

Internal events filtered. Signatures from within the Asylum were ignored, and the boy’s Ascension had occurred inside the Asylum.

This seemed to be the explanation for why he could detect the opening of the Fragment, and yet, he was not satisfied with this answer. A Fragment opening and what the Formation was calibrated to ignore were two different things, and the only reason he should be able to detect an opening like this must be because it was a Greater Fragment that was used by Elias, but that was ridiculous.

Why would Commander Yseult want anybody to ascend in a place like that, and how the fuck did he detect it with the sort of Formation that was supposed to be protecting that place?

The more he read, the more nothing made sense. It was as if he were missing something essential that was in front of him, and yet he could not see it.

Veyris closed the tome and sat in silence for a long moment.

“Lord-Captain?” Nathan’s voice was hesitant. “Is something wrong?”

“Everything,” Veyris said quietly, “is wrong.”

He looked out the tent’s window at the Palace walls, at the tunnel entrance where Elias had spent four years working, at the distant silhouette of the Stoneward Asylum crouched on its cliff like a waiting predator.

“The Asylum’s formation array is one of the most powerful on the continent,” he said. “It can detect surges of Lumina for hundreds of miles, and this is at its dormant state; that range could cover a third of the continent if it is fully unleashed, and that means the suppressive nature of the Formation must be very powerful. And yet I detected the boy’s Ascension from a city away.”

Nathan frowned. “That’s impossible. Unless…”

“Unless the array was designed to ignore what happened inside the Asylum.” Veyris’s golden eyes rotated faster, his mind racing through implications. “Four hundred thousand years ago, they recalibrated it. To ignore internal signatures. To prevent false alerts from… the inhabitants of the Lower Levels.”

“The Lower Levels?” Nathan’s voice was barely a whisper.

“There’s something beneath the Asylum, Nathan. Something they’ve been containing for eight hundred thousand years. And the array is calibrated to ignore anything that happens inside those walls, so I should not have detected this Ascension ceremony. Unless the Formation is broken and the Commander does not truly guard against the horrors below. I came here searching for an Ascendant Candidate; perhaps I may have uncovered a terrifying plot that could destroy this city.”

Nathan was pale. “But… the Lord Protector. Surely he knows? He must—”

“He knows nothing.” Veyris’s voice was cold. “My brother is many things, but a fool above all else if he thinks he understands the ways of these ancient Angels, especially one with her bloodline. He sits in his palace, playing at being Lord Protector, while beneath his feet, something ancient sleeps, or maybe it is already fucking awake. And the Commander—” He stopped, pieces clicking into place. “The Commander isn’t just protecting the city. She’s guarding it. Guarding whatever’s in those Lower Levels, but what if she is no longer a guardian?”

The Senior Scribe went pale at what Veyris had said, fearful of what the implications of this might be, and then he gasped, “Luka had not returned for two days now; he was sent to look into the affairs of the Asylum.”

“Luka?”

“Oh, he is a Junior Scribe. I brought him with me to gain experience, and he has been missing since he went on his own accord to the Asylum. The child was always one to push into situations without thinking things through, and in certain situations, that could prove problematic.”

“Oh, this might be good for us. It should give me an excuse to enter the Asylum once more, now that I know what I am looking for.” Veyris paused, “I hope he is dead, then I might be able to use force and compel Calyx to follow my lead. However, it is much too early, and the evidence on hand does not fit together properly; we must make sure of our move before making any, and so for now we watch and prepare.”

He turned to Nathan. “You’ve done well. Better than well. Return to the palace and await further instructions. With the men you have brought me, we can begin taking bolder steps. And Nathan—”

“Yes, Lord-Captain?”

“Tell no one what you’ve read. Not a word. If the wrong people learn what’s beneath that Asylum…”

Nathan nodded, understanding. “I’ll be silent, Lord-Captain.”

Veyris looked at the city spread before him. Millions of souls, living their lives, unaware of the ancient horror sleeping beneath their feet.

“Eight hundred thousand years,” he murmured. “What have you been waiting for? What in the nine hells have I discovered here?”

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