Bones of the Betrayed: Rise of the Last Bonekeeper

CHAPTER 3 — “THE BONES OF TRUTH”

The slums of Lowbone were a maze of narrow corridors and leaning shacks, lit only by flickering marrow-lamps that buzzed like dying insects.

Elias moved quickly, keeping Seren close, ducking beneath torn awnings and weaving between vendors closing their stalls for the night. Seren whispered, “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere the guards won’t bother us,” Elias said. “And where the Bone Alchemists can’t reach.”

Seren hugged herself. “Do they… do they really take children here too?”

Elias’s jaw tightened. “Everywhere.”

A street beggar lifted his head as they passed. “Elias?” he rasped. “Back so soon? Thought your noble wife kicked you out for good.”

Elias gave a strained smile. “Good to see you too, Harp.”

The beggar squinted at Seren. “Who’s the little one?”

“My responsibility,” Elias said, and something in his tone made the man nod and return to his blankets.

Seren whispered, “You know everyone here.”

“I used to treat people,” Elias replied. “Even without magic.”

“Why?”

“Because someone needed to.”

Seren didn’t speak again, but her eyes softened. Elias led her to a small wooden door tucked behind a butcher’s stand. He pushed it open with his shoulder. “Here,” he murmured. “Inside.”

Seren walked into the dim interior, a cramped room with a cot, a rickety table, and shelves filled with old medical supplies.

It had once been his clinic when he lived among the slums during the early years of his marriage. Seren blinked. “Do you still live here?”

“No,” Elias said. “But no one else comes here. It’s safe.”

A rumble of thunder shook the building. Seren crawled onto the cot. “Is it okay if I sit?”

“Of course.”

Elias lit a bone-lamp, the small flame casting soft shadows across the walls. Then he knelt before her. “Seren… tell me everything,” he said gently. “From the beginning.”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “My brother, Bram… he was only twelve. Strong. Brave. Everyone said his bone-core glowed bright. The Alchemists came last week. They said, they said it was for ‘evaluation,’ but…”

Her voice cracked. Elias placed a hand near hers, not touching, just offering warmth. “It’s alright.”

“I never saw him again,” Seren whispered. “Not even his… bones.”

Elias felt cold spread through him. “Did anyone report it?”

“To whom?” Seren scoffed bitterly. “The nobles? The guards? They protect the Alchemists.”

She wasn’t wrong. Seren continued, voice trembling. “Tonight, I heard them. They were going to take me like they took Bram. So I ran. And the bones told me to find you.”

Elias inhaled sharply. “You keep saying that…”

“Because it’s true,” Seren said. “It wasn’t a voice in my ears. It was in my bones. Like a whisper.”

Elias stared. “Did the bones ever speak to you before?”

“No,” Seren said. “But tonight… they screamed.”

Elias leaned back, shaken. “Bones don’t just speak to anyone.”

“Then why me?” Seren asked.

Elias didn’t have an answer. He stood and moved to the table, pouring water into a chipped cup. “Drink.” Seren took it with both hands.

Elias exhaled slowly. “We need to figure out what they did to your arm.”

Seren stiffened. “It hurts.”

“Let me check.”

He reached out, hesitant at first, then touched her wrist lightly. Instantly, a rush of sound flooded him. Not the chaotic screams from before. This was clearer. Sharper. More like… words.

Injected marrow… corrupted… veins darkening… inside burns… danger… danger…

Elias’s eyes widened. “Seren… they’ve marked you.”

Seren froze. “Marked me?”

“You have… marrow corruption.” His voice broke. “They gave your bone-core something to track you with. A toxin, maybe. Or a magical signature.”

Her face drained of color. “Am I going to die?”

Elias cupped her shoulder. “No. I won’t let that happen.”

“But you said”

“I don’t care what I said,” Elias breathed. “I’m not losing you.”

Seren blinked. “Like you lost someone before?”

Elias hesitated. He rarely spoke of his past. “My father,” he said quietly. “He disappeared when I was your age. People told me he abandoned me. But… I don’t think that was the truth.”

Seren studied him. “Is he the one the bones whisper about?”

Elias looked up sharply. “What do you mean?”

Seren lowered her voice. “When you held my arm earlier… the bones didn’t just call you dangerous. They said you’re… the Echo.”

Elias stared. “The what?”

“I don’t know what it means,” Seren whispered. “But the bones said it like a name.”

A shiver crawled up Elias’s spine. Before he could respond, a loud crash sounded outside the clinic. Seren yelped, clinging to him.

Elias extinguished the bone-lamp instantly. “Stay behind me,” he whispered.

Footsteps surrounded the building. Then a voice, smooth and confident, called out: “Elias Dray. By order of the Bone Alchemist Council, surrender the child and step outside.”

Elias’s stomach twisted. “They found us…”

Seren choked back a sob.

Another voice answered the first, gruff and impatient: “If he won’t come out, we break the door.”

Elias grabbed Seren’s hands. “Listen to me. There’s a back exit, but it’s narrow. You’ll have to run and not look back.”

“What about you?” she whispered.

“I’ll hold them off.”

“No!” Seren shook her head fiercely. “They’ll kill you!”

“Better me than you.”

She clutched his sleeve. “Elias… don’t leave me.”

He knelt to her level. Rain drummed on the roof like a heartbeat. “I’m not leaving you,” he said softly. “I’m buying you time.”

Tears filled her eyes. “Go,” he whispered. “Now.”

Seren hesitated, just long enough for Elias to push her gently toward the back door. As she slipped through the narrow hallway, Elias rose to face the front door. It shook violently. “Last warning!”

“We will break it down!”

“Take the girl alive!”

Elias inhaled. His bones hummed beneath his skin, quiet but insistent. Thrum… thrum… thrum…

He placed a hand on the door. “This power…” he whispered to himself. “I don’t understand it. But if it will save her…”

The bone-song grew louder. Rise… Echo…

He closed his eyes. The door splintered inward. Four Bone Alchemist enforcers stepped inside, bone-blades drawn. Their masks glimmered with runes of extraction.

“Elias Dray,” the leader said. “Stand aside. Give us the girl.”

Elias stepped forward. “No.”

The enforcer tilted his head. “You can’t fight us. You have no core.”

Elias exhaled. “That’s what everyone believes,” he murmured. “But my bones do not agree.”

He raised his hand, not in threat, but in instinct. The bone-song surged out of him like a wave of trembling air. The enforcers staggered. “What, what is this resonance?”

“Impossible! He has no core!”

“My bones, my bones are vibrating !”

One enforcer collapsed to his knees as his femur began to crack. Elias’s eyes widened. “Wait, stop,  I didn’t mean”

The bone-song quieted instantly. The leader stared at him in horror. “W-What kind of monster are you?”

Elias lowered his hand, breath shaking. “I don’t know.”

But he knew one thing with absolute certainty: Anyone who came for Seren would have to go through him first. The leader’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll return with more men. You cannot hide her forever.”

Elias stepped closer. “I’m not hiding her.”

“Then what”

“I’m protecting her.”

The leader hesitated, then retreated with the others, dragging the injured enforcer out into the rain. When they were gone, Elias locked the broken door.

Seren peeked out from behind a shelf, red-eyed and shaking. “Elias… are we safe?”

“No,” Elias admitted. “But we’re alive.”

Seren rushed to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He froze, then slowly embraced her back. “You said they’d kill you,” she whispered.

“And they still might,” Elias said softly. “But not tonight.”

Seren looked up at him with trembling hope. “What do we do now?”

Elias inhaled deeply. The bone-song inside him whispered one word, clear as a heartbeat: Run.

He nodded. “We leave the city,” he said. “Find answers. Find safety. Maybe even find your brother.”

Seren’s eyes widened. “Bram… he’s alive?”

Elias hesitated. “I don’t know.”

“But the bones said…”

Elias lifted her gently. “We’ll follow their voice,” he said. “Together.”

Seren nodded, gripping his shirt tightly. And as they stepped out into the rain-soaked streets, Elias felt the bone-song thrumming inside him, guiding him forward into a destiny he never asked for, but could no longer deny.