Chapter 15: Valk Bloodline
The quiet didn't last.
It never did.
The hideout's perimeter alarm tripped at exactly 03:00. A thin blue light blinked three times—a signal preprogrammed for immediate breach. A vibration spread through the floor as if the desert itself was warning them.
Ashen was on her feet before the others stirred. "They've found us."
Kai snapped awake instantly. He was already gripping the Vein Blade by the time Lina sat up, bleary-eyed and blinking.
"Thought you said this place was hidden," Lina said, pulling on her boots.
"It is. But the Echoes don't search. They remember." Ashen's voice was tight. She was already reaching into her coat for the emergency grav-beacon and a second crystal flare.
Kai looked around the dimly lit hideout. "Do we have an exit?"
"Back tunnel," Ashen said. "But it leads deeper into the waste. No shelter. We'll be exposed for miles."
"Still better than facing those freaks in a box," Lina muttered, checking her pulse caster.
Ashen paused. She looked between them, hesitating. Then she drew a slow breath and said, "Before we go… you both need to know something."
Kai's eyes narrowed. "Now's the time?"
Ashen nodded. "Because we might not get another chance."
She reached for her collar and unfastened the clasp. A flat, diamond-shaped pendant fell free. The surface shimmered, showing holographic glyphs—Ascendancy characters, old and mostly banned. They glowed with the same energy Kai had felt back in the Vault.
"This isn't just a family crest," she said. "It's a key. A signature. My lineage traces back to one of the original architects of the Fragments."
Kai blinked. "You said your mother was SynTech…"
"She was," Ashen said. "But not just any technician. She was on the integration committee that helped design the early cultivation-linking protocols for the Custodian Initiative. Before they knew what Fragments could really do."
Lina's mouth fell open. "You're basically Custodian royalty."
Ashen shook her head. "No. We were researchers. Engineers. Idealists, once. But when the Custodians realized how much power the Fragments offered, they turned from science to strategy. My family tried to stop the shift."
Kai could hear the bitterness building in her voice.
"They called it project purification. Remove the emotional burden. Make soldiers who only served. That's when my brother Aric joined the Trials. We thought he'd resist. Speak out. But... he came back different."
Her voice trembled now.
"He didn't recognize me. He didn't even blink when I called his name. The man I knew was gone, replaced by something colder. Something silent. I think they fractured his soul with overexposure. Left him… echoing."
Lina stepped closer, more gently now. "You think he's one of them?"
Ashen nodded once. "I know he is. I saw his stance during the attack in Veyrus. That shift-step technique—only he ever mastered it."
Kai looked away, jaw clenched. "I'm sorry."
Ashen finally met his eyes. "This is why I help you. Not just for answers. Not just to outrun them. I want to see the system that did this... broken."
A deep vibration rippled through the ceiling. The sand above shifted.
"They're here," Kai said.
Ashen turned and activated the flare. "Back tunnel. Let's go!"
---
They sprinted through the winding corridor, its walls closing tighter the deeper they ran. The tunnel curved downward into a maintenance shaft that reeked of rust and damp stone. Even here, Kai could feel the Fragment's unease. Like it was trying to pull him away from danger—anticipating violence.
They reached a vertical drop lined with an old grav-lift system.
Ashen slammed a panel with her palm. The platform shuddered, then descended. Sparks danced along the rails.
"I've adjusted its polarity," she said. "It'll fry any Echo trying to follow."
The moment they landed, a low siren echoed back up the shaft.
Too late.
The top of the tunnel exploded.
A Black Echo descended—blinking into place like it had stepped out of a broken dream. The mirrored mask tilted. Its blade flickered to life.
Ashen cursed and grabbed Lina, hurling both of them behind a ruined console. Kai spun, ready to intercept.
The Black Echo didn't speak. It didn't hesitate. It simply moved.
Its Vein Blade lashed out in a blur, and Kai barely blocked the strike. The impact sent a vibration straight into his bones, and his Fragment flared with pain.
Kai grit his teeth. Not fast enough.
He activated Core Instinct.
Time slowed.
The Echo's next move unfolded before him in fractured glimpses. A lunge. A twist. A pivot on the left foot. An upward arc of the blade.
Kai bent with the motion, parried once, then unleashed a kinetic pulse from his core. The shockwave pushed the Echo back—just long enough for Ashen to slam a disruptor mine into the ground.
The explosion was more sound than light—a scream of anti-resonance that scrambled spiritual frequencies.
The Echo froze mid-step.
Ashen pulled them both away as the creature collapsed, spasming.
"Won't stop it for long," she hissed. "We need to vanish."
---
They emerged into the open wasteland beyond the tunnel mouth. Dawn had begun bleeding across the horizon, painting the sky in streaks of red and orange.
Lina pointed west. "What now?"
Ashen brought up a holographic map. "There's an extraction pod buried near the cliff line. Should get us halfway across the continent."
Kai glanced at the display.
There it was.
A new blinking signal.
Fragment 4: Rootstar Depths.
"Underwater," he muttered.
Ashen nodded grimly. "And unclaimed. No Custodian reach, no Black Echo presence."
Lina looked skeptical. "And probably filled with abyssal horrors."
Kai sheathed his blade.
"Perfect," he said. "Let's dive."