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Home / Fantasy / Bones of the Betrayed: Rise of the Last Bonekeeper / CHAPTER 34 — “THE SHADOW IN THE VEINS”
CHAPTER 34 — “THE SHADOW IN THE VEINS”
Author: Milky-Grip
last update2025-12-02 00:12:58

The palace’s undercorridor stretched ahead of them narrow, cold, and echoing with the steady drip of water from pipes overhead.

Compared to the catacombs, the place felt unnervingly civilized marble floors cracked from years of neglect, lantern brackets long rusted, columns carved with faded noble crests.

Seren wrinkled her nose. “This place smells like old nobles and mold.”

Elias managed a faint grin. “Both accurate.” Caedia raised a hand sharply. “Quiet. This passage leads directly beneath the inner palace. There will be guards… and worse.”

Sylare shivered behind Seren. “They kept me down here… when they first caught me. The Alchemists use these halls. For storage. For experiments.”

Seren grimaced. “Fantastic. Horrifying. I hate this.” Elias took a breath calm, steady. “We stay together. No one wanders.”

He moved ahead, Echo humming faintly along his skin. Seren stepped beside him, whispering, “You’re glowing again.”

“Can’t help it,” Elias whispered back. “The closer we get to Lyra,
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  • CHAPTER 69 — “THE GATES OF BONE AND GOLD”

    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

  • CHAPTER 68— “THE ECHO WARNS”

    The palace undercorridors breathed like a living thing. Stone ribs arched overhead, slick with condensation, bone-veins pulsing faintly in the walls as Elias led the group forward.Every step sent a vibration through his skeleton a low, uneasy hum that refused to quiet. Seren noticed immediately. "You’re hearing it again,” she said softly.Elias didn’t deny it. “It won’t shut up.”Caedia slowed beside him, her blind eyes unfocused yet sharp. “The Echo does not warn without cause.” Sylare hugged her cloak tighter. “That’s not comforting.”Elias stopped walking. Seren bumped lightly into his back. “Elias?” He raised a hand. “Quiet.” The hum sharpened no longer a background murmur but a tight, urgent vibration that thrummed directly behind his eyes.Danger. Not shouted. Not whispered. Stated. Caedia inhaled sharply. “You felt it too.”“Yes.”Seren’s voice dropped. “What kind of danger?”Elias turned slowly, scanning the corridor ahead. “The patient kind.”Sylare frowned. “That… doesn’t s

  • CHAPTER 67— “THE DAY THE PALACE BLED”

    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

  • CHAPTER 66 — “THE PRICE OF THE ECHO”

    The palace undercorridor breathed like a living thing. Stone ribs arched overhead, slick with condensation, glowing faintly where ancient Bonekeeper runes struggled against newer Alchemist sigils carved brutally over them.Elias felt the clash instantly his bones ached, as if the walls themselves were arguing. Seren hissed softly. “This place feels… wrong.”“That’s because it is,” Caedia replied, voice low. “They’ve fused Bonekeeper pathways with Alchemist control glyphs. It’s like forcing a scream into a prayer.”Sylare swallowed, gripping her cloak. “They brought Lyra this way.” Elias stopped.Everyone froze. “What?” Seren asked.Elias’s hand pressed against the wall. His breath slowed. His eyes unfocused not weak, not frightened listening. “She was here,” he said quietly. “Recently.”Caedia turned her blind gaze toward him. “How can you tell?”“The bones remember pain,” Elias replied. “And fear.”Seren’s voice cracked. “Is she alive?”Elias hesitated. Then nodded. “Yes.” Relief rus

  • CHAPTER 65 — “THE COST OF PASSAGE”

    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

  • CHAPTER 64— “THE PRICE OF TRUTH”

    The corridor trembled again a low, rolling vibration that shivered through every bone in Elias’s body. Dust drifted down like pale snow. Seren clutched his sleeve tightly, eyes wide.“Elias… that didn’t sound like a Remnant.”“It wasn’t,” Elias murmured.Caedia tilted her head, blind eyes glowing faintly. “No. This resonance is precise. Deliberate. Someone is trying to reach him.”Elias stiffened. “Me?”“Yes.” Caedia narrowed her eyes. “Someone with Bonekeeper blood… or someone using forbidden marrow channeling.”Seren swallowed. “Please tell me Lyra didn’t.”“No,” Elias said instantly. “Lyra wouldn’t touch marrow magic.”Caedia’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Not willingly.”Another tremor pulsed through the corridor this one smaller, sharper, directed like a whisper carried through the walls. Elias felt it hit the center of his ribs like a tap from an invisible hand.Seren jumped. “What was that?!”Elias whispered, “A call.”“To who?” Seren asked.Elias met her eyes. “To me.”They

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