The climb into the upper corridors felt different quieter, colder, wrong. Elias felt it first: a vibration in the marrow, subtle and low, like something ancient had awakened far above them.Seren noticed him tense. “Elias… your bones are humming again.”“It’s not like before,” Elias murmured. “This is… heavier.”Caedia froze mid-step. “Describe it.”Elias placed a hand on the wall. The bones in the stone pulsed faintly beneath his touch, whispering a frequency he didn’t recognize. “It feels like… something calling. Not to me past me. Older.”Caedia inhaled sharply. “The Marrow Throne.”Seren blinked. “The what throne?”Caedia turned toward them, expression grim. “The seat of power once held by the Bonekeeper Sovereigns. If it stirs, the city is not merely unstable. It is waking.”Sylare whimpered softly behind them. “That’s bad, right? Really bad?”“Very,” Caedia said. “Because its awakening means someone has touched it or corrupted it.”Elias clenched his fists. “Lyra.”Seren stepped

The lower palace ward was too quiet. Not peaceful wrong. Wrong in the way a heartbeat stops a second too long, in the way every lantern flickered with the same unnatural pulse.Elias felt the shift before the others did. His bones hummed like thunder trapped inside marrow. Seren tugged his sleeve. “Elias… something’s off.”Caedia lifted her head, blind eyes narrowing. “It’s not something. It’s everything.”Sylare shivered behind them, clutching the cloak Elias had given her. “They moved the guards… all of them. I don’t know why.”Elias scanned the empty corridor. “The Alchemists wouldn’t abandon the ward. Not unless they were preparing something.”Seren swallowed nervously. “Preparing what? Another trap? Another ritual?” “Or an execution,” Caedia said calmly and that calm sank like a knife.Elias’s jaw clenched. “Not Lyra.” Seren touched his arm gently. “We’ll get to her. Just breathe.” He tried. But the Echo inside him was restless, shuddering, tugging at every bone in his body like

The stairs spiraled downward into a tunnel of polished bone too smooth, too silent, too cold. Elias’s footsteps echoed behind him, each one swallowed quickly by the tunnels, as if the place itself didn’t want sound to linger.Seren followed close, gripping his cloak tightly. “Elias… this path doesn’t feel right.”“It isn’t,” Caedia murmured behind them. “The Bonekeepers avoided this route for a reason.”Sylare, still pale from her ordeal, whispered, “Then why are we taking it?”Elias answered without looking back. “Because the upper tunnels are crawling with hunters. This is our only way to reach the palace before it’s too late.”Seren swallowed. “But what’s down here?”Caedia’s blind eyes glowed faintly.“Tombs. But not ones for the dead.”Seren blinked. “Then… for who?”Caedia said nothing. Elias didn’t push. The growing chill said enough. They reached the base of the spiral staircase.A wide hall stretched out before them lined with hundreds of alcoves carved into the bone walls. Ea

The palace gates exploded inward. Stone screamed. Bone fractured. Guards scattered like insects as a wave of white resonance ripped through the grand archway and shattered centuries-old wards.Elias stepped through the smoke. “Hold the line!” someone shouted.Too late. “Elias,” Seren said sharply at his side, “left flank.”“I know.” He lifted his hand. The Echo answered. A pulse snapped outward, invisible but devastating. Armor collapsed inward. Men screamed as their bones vibrated out of alignment.The front line crumpled without Elias taking another step. Silence followed thick, stunned, terrified. Then someone whispered it. “The Echo…”Fear spread faster than fire. Seren scanned the carnage, jaw tight. “You didn’t have to hit them that hard.” “They raised weapons,” Elias said flatly. “They chose.”“You’re not supposed to sound like that.” Elias didn’t answer. Because if he did, he’d admit the truth: It was getting easier.They moved fast through the outer halls, boots splashing thr

The palace undercorridor ended abruptly. Elias stopped so suddenly Seren nearly ran into him. “Why did you” she began, then fell silent.Before them rose a massive gate forged from gold-veined bone, ancient and unmistakably noble. Royal sigils were carved deep into its surface twisted lions, crowned spines, and the unmistakable mark of the Alchemist Circle burned into the center like a scar.Caedia inhaled sharply. “We’re beneath the palace.”Seren’s voice dropped to a whisper. “So… that means Lyra is close.”Elias stared at the gate, his bones vibrating with a low, angry hum. “She’s on the other side.”Sylare swallowed. “That gate is warded. Not Bonehunter wards Alchemist wards.”Caedia nodded. “Blood-locked. Echo-sensitive. It will react to Elias.”Seren turned to him immediately. “Is that bad?”Elias didn’t answer at first. He stepped closer to the gate. The moment he did, the sigils flared crimson. A voice echoed not aloud, but inside his skull. Echo detected.Seren grabbed his a