THE SEVEN FOLD CONVENANT

The Burning Archive

Kaldren was still burning when they arrived.

The eastern gate had been smashed open. The walls were scorched black. Smoke rose from a dozen buildings inside the town, thick and dark. Bodies lay in the streets. Not soldiers. Clerks. Archivists. People who had been unlucky enough to be working late.

Kaelen stepped over a man in a gray robe. His throat had been cut. A ledger lay beside him, pages scattered in the mud.

"Voss didn't just burn the records," Aldric said. "He killed everyone who knew where they were."

Dorn's hand tightened on his sword. "We should have been here."

"We couldn't have stopped this."

"We could have tried."

Kaelen did not answer. He was looking at the bodies. Counting them. Twelve so far. Maybe more inside the archive.

The archive itself was a stone building near the center of town. Three stories tall. The roof had collapsed. Smoke poured from the windows. The doors had been forced open and left hanging on their hinges.

"Fen. Dorn. Check the perimeter. Make sure no one's waiting for us."

The dwarves moved without argument. They had seen enough death for one night.

Kaelen approached the archive with Aldric beside him. The heat from the building pushed against his face. He could hear the fire inside, crackling and roaring.

"Your father's records," Aldric said. "If they were here, they're gone."

"Maybe not." Kaelen pulled his coat over his mouth and stepped through the doorway.

The interior was a maze of fallen shelves and burning papers. The fire had started in the east wing and spread outward. The western shelves were still standing, though smoke had damaged most of the documents.

Kaelen moved fast. He scanned the shelves, looking for anything that had survived. Most of it was useless. Tax records. Land deeds. Old census reports.

Then he found it. A section in the back, behind a collapsed bookcase. The shelves here were stone, built into the wall. Fire could not burn stone.

He pulled the bookcase aside. Behind it was a small alcove, sealed with a metal door. The door was hot to the touch, but not burning. Kaelen grabbed the handle with his coat and pulled.

The door opened. Inside was a single cabinet. Three drawers. All locked.

"Pick the lock," he said to Aldric.

"I'm a diplomat, not a thief."

"Then find me a key."

Aldric looked around the room. His eyes landed on a desk near the window. The desk was burned, but the drawers were metal. He tried them. The bottom drawer was locked.

He smashed it open with a chair leg. Inside was a ring of keys.

"Try these."

Kaelen grabbed the keys and tried them on the cabinet. The third one worked.

The top drawer was empty. So was the second. The third held a single folder. Thick. Bound in leather. Marked with the serpent and crown.

Kaelen opened it.

Inside were his father's records. The missing pages from the original file. The names of the soldiers who had been with him the night he died. The location of the ambush. A sketch of the second representative. The one his father had described as not human. Not any race he knew.

And a letter. Addressed to Kaelen.

He recognized the handwriting immediately. His father's.

He did not open it. Not yet.

"We need to leave," he said. "The fire is spreading."

They made it out just as the second floor collapsed. Dorn and Fen were waiting by the gate.

"Anything?" Kaelen asked.

"Two soldiers. Dead. Looked like they were killed by their own side." Dorn spat. "Voss doesn't like loose ends."

"No, he doesn't." Kaelen tucked the folder under his arm. "We need to find somewhere safe to read this."

"The town is gone," Fen said. "There's nothing safe here."

"Then we go back to the tunnel. The library."

Aldric shook his head. "Moran knows about the library. He'll have men watching the entrance."

"Not the entrance we used. The one in the gorge."

They walked back through the burning town. Kaelen kept his eyes forward. He did not want to see the bodies anymore.

The tunnel entrance was still hidden. They climbed down to the ledge and slipped inside. The blue symbols on the walls glowed faintly in the dark.

Kaelen found a dry spot near the door and sat down. He opened the folder.

The letter was on top. He unfolded it carefully.

Kaelen,

If you're reading this, I'm dead. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you the truth while I was alive. I wanted to. But the people I was investigating have eyes everywhere. If I had told you, they would have killed you too.

The man I was following is called Severin Voss. He's a Covenant representative. But he's not working for the Covenant. He's working for something older. Something that was here before the seven races. Something that wants to wake up.

I don't know what it is. I only know what I've seen. The symbols in the tunnels. The old writing. The map in the library. It all leads to one place. A place called the Black Vault.

If you want to finish what I started, you need to find the vault. But don't go alone. Find allies you can trust. The dwarves are honorable. The werewolves know the old roads. The elves have records that predate the Covenant.

And whatever you do, don't trust the vampires. Voss has at least one of them in his pocket.

I love you, son. I'm sorry I wasn't there to say it in person.

Your father,

Corvin Veyr

Kaelen read the letter twice. Then he folded it and put it back in the folder.

Aldric was watching him. "What did he say?"

"He said Voss is working for something older than the Covenant. Something that wants to wake up."

"The first civilization."

"Maybe." Kaelen stood. "He also said there's a place called the Black Vault. That's where the answers are."

Aldric's face changed. "I've heard of the Black Vault. It's a myth. A story told by dwarven miners. They say it's a door that leads to the underworld."

"Then we need to find it."

Fen stepped forward. "The Black Vault is real. My grandfather worked the eastern mines. He said his crew found a sealed door in the deepest tunnel. They couldn't open it. They tried for weeks. Then one night, a man in a gray coat came to the mine. He paid the foreman to seal the tunnel and forget what they found."

Voss. Again.

"Where is this tunnel?" Kaelen asked.

"Under the eastern mountains. Near a dwarven settlement called Ironhold. It's a week's walk from here."

Dorn spoke up. "Ironhold is my home. My uncle is the mine foreman. If anyone knows about the sealed tunnel, it's him."

Kaelen looked at the map in his hands. At the letter from his father. At the three men standing around him.

He had a choice. Go after Voss directly. Or go to Ironhold and find the vault first.

Voss was expecting him to chase. He had said so himself. He had men in Kaldren. He would have men everywhere between here and the capital.

But Ironhold was north. Off the main roads. Away from Voss's spies.

"We go to Ironhold," Kaelen said. "We find the vault. We find out what's inside. Then we decide how to kill Voss."

Aldric nodded. "That's a sound plan."

"It's the only plan we have." Kaelen tucked the folder into his coat. "Let's move. We've wasted enough time."

They started walking north. The tunnel was dark and cold, but the symbols on the walls glowed brighter as they went. Almost like they were leading the way.

Kaelen did not know if that was a good sign or a bad one.

Behind them, hidden in the shadows of the gorge, a figure watched them go. It was not Moran. It was not a soldier.

It was tall. Too tall. Its arms were too long. Its hands had too many fingers.

It waited until they were out of sight. Then it turned and walked east, toward the burning town, moving faster than any human could run.