THE FRAUD OF FATE

Chapter 6: The Gloom of Evander

The yellow eyes in the darkness didn’t blink. They multiplied.

“Move, Cassian! Unless you want to find out what those eyes belong to!” Saphielle hissed, grabbing his sleeve and yanking him toward a towering, jagged silhouette of a building that leaned over the street like a broken tooth.

“I’m moving! I’m moving!” Cassian scrambled over a pile of rusted gears, his breath hitching in his chest. “But for the record, I’m much better at running away from people who want to audit me than things that want to eat me!”

“Just get inside that gate!”

They lunged through a set of heavy, verdigris-coated bronze doors just as a low, wet growl vibrated through the air behind them. Cassian slammed the doors shut, fumbling for a sliding bolt that looked like it hadn't been moved since the last era. With a desperate groan, he shoved it home.

Thump.

Something heavy hit the other side of the door. Then silence.

“Okay,” Cassian wheezed, leaning his forehead against the cold metal. “Okay. We’re safe. Mostly. Except for the part where we’re in a creepy, abandoned temple in the middle of a ghost town.”

Saphielle didn’t answer. She had raised her staff, the crystal at the tip glowing with a soft, flickering white light. The illumination crawled across the floor, revealing cracked marble tiles and thick layers of dust. The air was stale, smelling of damp stone and something ancient.

“This is a Temple of the Primeval,” Saphielle whispered, her voice echoing in the vast, hollow space. “It’s been deconsecrated for centuries. The Bureau marked this whole sector as a dead zone because the ley lines here are completely twisted.”

“Great. So we’re in a magical dumpster,” Cassian muttered, dusting off his blue suit. “I don’t suppose this place has a back exit? Or a pantry? I haven't eaten since that tiny crab puff at the gala, Saph. My blood sugar is lower than my reputation.”

“Can you focus for five seconds on the fact that we’re being hunted?”

“I am focused! I’m focused on the fact that if I don’t get a snack, I’m going to pass out, and then you’ll have to carry me, which will slow you down, and then the shadow-wolves get a two-for-one deal on Oracles.”

“It’s not an eclipse, you fool. It’s a prophecy.”

The voice didn't come from Saphielle. It drifted down from the shadows of a crumbling balcony above them.

Cassian jumped nearly a foot into the air, spinning around. “Who’s there? I’ve got a very expensive sapphire and I’m not afraid to… well, I’m not afraid to throw it at you!”

A figure stepped into the light of Saphielle’s staff. He was thin, draped in tattered robes that might have once been gold but were now the color of a wet basement. His hair was a wild nest of grey, and his eyes were wide, fixed on a point somewhere over Cassian’s left shoulder.

“The shadow that swallows the sun,” the man repeated, his voice a raspy trill. “It walks on legs of smoke. It drinks the light. It’s coming for the spark that shouldn’t exist.”

“And a ‘good evening’ to you too, buddy,” Cassian said, his heart finally slowing down. “Saph, who’s the guy with the gloomy weather report?”

“Evander Omens,” Saphielle whispered, her eyes wide with a mix of pity and awe. “He was the Chief Harbinger before the Great Silence. They said he went mad after trying to map the Void.”

“He looks like he’s doing great,” Cassian noted. “Hey, Evander! Big fan. Quick question: is there a way out of here that doesn't involve being eaten by the ‘legs of smoke’?”

Evander drifted down the stairs, his feet making no sound on the stone. He walked straight up to Cassian, sniffing the air around his head. “You smell of copper and lies. And something else. A hole. A cold spot where the stars forgot to shine.”

“It’s called ‘cheap lavender,’ and it’s my signature scent,” Cassian snapped, stepping back. “Look, Mr. Omens, we’re in a bit of a rush. There’s a guy in a grey suit named Dorian who’s probably ten minutes away from blowing those doors down.”

“Dorian is a gnat,” Evander whispered, his eyes suddenly focusing on Cassian’s face with terrifying intensity. “The shadow is the mountain. It swallows the sun, boy. It swallows the sun and leaves only the hunger.”

“Right, right. Sun-swallowing. Hunger. Very dramatic,” Cassian said, turning away to scan the room. “Saph, ignoring the local color for a second, we need to find a way out. This place has to have a priest’s quarters or something. Priests always have the best snacks and the fastest exits.”

“Cassian, listen to him,” Saphielle said, her voice trembling. “If he’s seeing a shadow that swallows the sun, he’s talking about a total Void emergence. If that happens in the capital…”

“Then we’ll all be dead and I won't have to worry about my taxes! See? Silver linings!” Cassian started wandering toward the back of the temple, his hands skimming over the dusty walls. “Come on, there’s got to be a lever or a secret passage. Every temple has one. It’s like a building code requirement for the Divine.”

“You’re not listening!” Evander shrieked, his voice cracking. “The Aegis is a lie if the eye is blind! The Primal Eye must see the shadow, or the sun will never rise!”

“Yeah, yeah, Primal Eye, got it. Very catchy,” Cassian grumbled. He was no longer paying attention. His eyes had locked onto a small, rectangular alcove near the base of a massive, cracked statue of a forgotten deity.

“Is that…?” Cassian leaned in, sniffing. “Is that cinnamon? Saph, I think I found the stash!”

“Cassian, don't touch anything!” Saphielle shouted.

“It’s just a cupboard!” Cassian reached into the dark alcove. His hand didn't find a box of crackers. It found a cold, heavy piece of iron that felt like it was vibrating. “Wait, this isn't food. It feels like a handle. Maybe it’s a bread drawer?”

“Get away from there!”

Cassian, ever the creature of impulse, gave the iron handle a sharp tug. “Maybe if I just—oops.”

The handle didn't pull out. It snapped upward with a loud clack.

Deep within the floor, a sound like a hundred grinding millstones began to echo. The entire temple shuddered. Dust rained down from the ceiling, coating Cassian’s hair in white powder.

“Cassian! What did you do?” Saphielle cried, bracing herself against a pillar.

“I was looking for a biscuit!” Cassian yelled, stumbling back as the floor in front of the statue began to rotate. “I thought it was a pantry! Why would you put a doomsday lever in a pantry-sized hole?”

“It’s not a pantry, you idiot! It’s the mechanism for the central sanctum!”

The rotating floor clicked into place, and a pedestal rose from the ground, glowing with a soft, amber light. On top of the pedestal sat a heavy, bronze-bound cylinder. As it reached its full height, the cylinder hissed, and a spectral projection flared to life in the center of the room.

It was a map. But not a normal map of the city. It was a shimmering, three-dimensional grid of the entire kingdom, with lines of light pulsing like veins. One point on the map was burning with a fierce, crimson light.

“The Primal Eye,” Evander whispered, falling to his knees and pressing his forehead to the dusty floor. “The path is open. The blind man has found the light.”

Saphielle walked toward the projection, her face illuminated by the amber glow. Her eyes scanned the coordinates, her mouth dropping open. “This… Cassian, do you have any idea what you just did?”

Cassian brushed the dust off his sleeves, trying to look like he had intended this all along. “I, uh… I performed a localized resonance trigger. Obviously. I could see the, uh, structural vibrations were aligned with this specific point.”

“You were looking for a snack,” Saphielle flatly corrected.

“It was a multi-purpose search! A calculated risk!” Cassian’s bravado wavered as he looked at the map. “So, what are we looking at? Is that the way to the beach house?”

“That’s the Whispering Ravine,” Saphielle said, her voice hushed. “But not just the ravine. It’s a map to the Primal Eye. Lucien told us we were looking for the Aegis, but this… this is the relic that powers it. Without the Eye, the Aegis is just a hunk of dead metal.”

“So we found the missing piece?” Cassian asked.

“You found it,” she said, looking at him with a mix of genuine confusion and dawning respect. “By accident. Again.”

Cassian felt a twinge of something that wasn't quite hunger. It was a sharp, uncomfortable prick of guilt. He looked at the map, then at the rambling, broken man on the floor, and then at Saphielle’s amazed expression.

“I mean, it wasn't entirely an accident,” Cassian lied, though the Truth-Vine had mostly worn off, leaving only a bitter aftertaste. “I had a hunch. You know. The spirits. They like to hide things near the floor.”

“The spirits don't hide things in bread drawers, Cassian.”

“You don't know their lives, Saph!”

A sudden, violent explosion rocked the front doors of the temple. The bronze bolts sheared off like they were made of paper, and the doors flew inward, slamming against the marble walls with a deafening bang.

Standing in the doorway, framed by the swirling mist of the Iron Sink and the blue glow of his own magical aura, was Dorian Augur. He held a silver rod that was humming with lethal energy.

“Cassian Divinor,” Dorian said, his voice echoing through the chamber like a gavel hitting a block. “Saphielle Oracline. Your unauthorized excursion ends here. Step away from the relic.”

Cassian looked at the glowing map, then at the angry man with the glowing stick, and then back at the cupboard where he had hoped to find a cookie.

“You know, Dorian,” Cassian shouted, his voice cracking only slightly. “Your timing is really, really bad. We were just getting to the good part!”

“There is no good part for a fraud,” Dorian said, beginning to walk forward.

“Saph,” Cassian whispered, leaning toward her. “Tell me that map has a 'teleport' button. Or at least a 'deploy smoke screen' button.”

“It’s a map, Cassian! Not a carriage!”

“Well, then,” Cassian said, a wild, desperate grin appearing on his face as he reached out and grabbed the bronze cylinder. “I guess we’re taking the map to go!”

“Don’t you dare—!” Dorian started to shout.

Cassian yanked the cylinder off the pedestal. The spectral map flickered and vanished, and the temple plunged into darkness just as a bolt of blue lightning hissed through the air where Cassian’s head had been a second before.

“Run now, talk later?” Cassian yelled.

“Run now!” Saphielle agreed.

As they dived into the shadows behind the great statue, Evander Omens’ laughter echoed through the temple, high and wild.

“The shadow is coming!” the harbinger cried. “And the fool is leading the way!”