The Eternal Dragon’s Call

Chapter 3: Infiltration of the Ash Vault

"If you die in here, I am not dragging your corpse back out to the surface."

Xavier adjusted the heavy imperial helmet, his fingers trembling as he felt the jagged edges of the scales beneath his collar. The armor was too tight. It smelled like stale sweat and dead men. Every step he took on the metal grating of the Sunken Citadel felt like a drumbeat echoing his own funeral.

"I am not dying today, Lyra," Xavier hissed. He kept his head down, his gaze fixed on the boots of the guard patrolling twenty yards ahead. "But if you keep talking, you are going to get us both gutted."

Lyra moved beside him, her own armor clanking rhythmically. She didn't look at him. She stared straight ahead, her face a mask of cold, professional indifference.

"You are sweating," she whispered. "Stop it. They can smell fear, Xavier. You know that."

"I am not afraid," Xavier snapped. He turned into the shadow of a supply crate, his chest heaving. "I am burning. This place, the air here, it is thick with processed Aether. My blood is boiling. Can't you feel it?"

"I don't feel anything but the mission," Lyra lied. She reached out, gripping his armored forearm. Her fingers were tight enough to bruise. "You need to pull it together. We are at the threshold of the lower vault."

Xavier leaned against the cold bulkhead, his breath coming in sharp, ragged hitches. He could feel the dragon-side of his soul thrashing, hungry and wild. It wanted to tear through the metal, to roar, to reclaim the sanctuary that the Empire had turned into a slaughterhouse.

"I can't," he muttered. He reached up, tearing at the seal of his helmet. "It is too loud. Every guard in this hallway feels like a target."

"Stop," Lyra commanded. She shoved him back against the wall, her eyes flashing with a desperate, hidden fear. "Listen to me. Do you want to find Ignis? Do you want to see him again?"

"Don't," Xavier warned. He grabbed her wrists. His skin was burning beneath the gauntlets. "Do not use his name here. Not in this place."

"We are here," she persisted, ignoring his warning. "We are inches away from the lock. You are the only one who can bypass the blood-seal. If you don't do this, you are just a dying man in a cage. You are nothing."

"Nothing?" Xavier let out a wet, jagged laugh. He leaned into her space, his eyes glowing with an unstable, violet light. "I am the monster they built. And if I open that door, the scent of my blood will bring every hound in this facility down on us in seconds. They will hunt us like dogs."

"Then we kill them," Lyra said. She pulled a dagger from her belt. She held it out to him, her hand steady as rock. "We are already ghosts, Xavier. Do you really think they will let us walk out of here alive even if we succeed? The only way out is through."

Xavier looked at the dagger, then at her. He could see the exhaustion in her eyes, the thin, fraying edge of her resolve. He knew she was terrified. He knew she was just as trapped as he was.

"You are going to get us killed," he whispered.

"We are already dying," Lyra countered. She stepped aside, pointing toward the heavy stone door that guarded the inner vault. It was carved with ancient, faded runes that pulsed with a faint, dying light. "Do it. Now."

Xavier stepped forward. He felt the pull of the stone, the ancient magnetic draw of the blood-seal. He hesitated, his hand hovering over the cold, unyielding surface.

"If this goes wrong," Xavier began, his voice dropping, "run. Do not look back. Just run."

"I am not leaving you," Lyra said. She sounded angry, but there was a tremor in her voice that told him everything he needed to know. "Open the door."

Xavier pressed his hand against the stone. He focused on the pain, on the jagged, burning itch of the scales beneath his skin. He pushed his own essence into the seal, feeling the wall drink his blood. It was a sickening sensation, like being drained dry by a thousand tiny needles.

"It is opening," Xavier groaned. He leaned his weight against the stone, his eyes rolling back as the vault groaned in protest.

"Keep going," Lyra urged, her head snapping toward the corridor behind them. "I hear guards."

"I am trying," Xavier spat. He felt the seal give way. A surge of raw, untamed Aether rushed out from the gap, knocking him backward.

The door began to slide open, grinding against the floor with a sound like a dying beast. Xavier fell, his armor clattering against the deck, his vision fading to black.

"Finally," Lyra said. She stepped toward the opening, her hand reaching for her weapon.

But there was no silence. There was no victory.

The moment the door cleared the threshold, a high, piercing wail erupted from the walls. It wasn't a human alarm. It was a mechanical, screeching sound that vibrated through Xavier's very marrow.

"That is not a guard," Xavier shouted. He tried to scramble to his feet, but his legs felt like jelly.

The floor beneath them shivered. A deep, tectonic rumble tore through the citadel, shaking the heavy machinery and the crates in the hallway.

"What did you do?" Lyra screamed. She lunged toward him, grabbing his arm.

"I didn't," Xavier stammered. He looked at the floor. The metal grating was beginning to warp, splitting apart at the seams. "The sanctuary—it wasn't a vault, Lyra. It was a seal."

"A seal for what?" she demanded. She tried to pull him toward the door, but the floor dropped three feet in a violent, sickening lurch.

"For this," Xavier whispered.

The entire center of the floor collapsed.

The world turned into a dizzying rush of falling debris and screaming metal. Xavier felt the air leave his lungs as he plunged into the dark. He reached out, his fingers grazing Lyra’s coat, but the gravity was too strong.

He fell into the abyss, his eyes locked on the ceiling above, watching as the light of the corridor shrank into a tiny, distant pinprick.

He didn't scream. He just waited for the impact, his heart slowing, the roar of the dragon in his mind growing deafeningly loud.

*Welcome home,* the voice whispered from the deep.

The darkness swallowed him whole.