ZEPHYR: Reborn With A God System

CHAPTER 14 - ASH ON THE LOCKET

“Renn!” someone shouted from the stairwell again, closer this time. Renn stood at the far end of the corridor, his shoulders tense as he looked towards the guards coming up the steps.

“Go,” I said to him.

He didn't move then he looked to me. “They'll ask why I came here.”

“Then tell them you heard the commotion.”

“And leave you to explain why you're standing beside a servant they were trying to question?”

Mira had pressed herself against the wall, her injured wrist held close to her chest. She looked from Renn to me, clearly wishing she could disappear before either of us made her part of another argument.

“Renn,” I whispered “if they find us together, they'll have another reason to question you. Go now.”

His let out a soft breath and he looked as though he wanted to argue, but the footsteps were almost at the turn. At last, he walked towards the stairwell, leaving me with Sable and Mira.

A guard appeared moments later. His gaze moved over us before settling on the servant.

“She's been summoned,” he said.

“She needs a healer,” I replied.

“She can see one after she's answered the elders.”

Mira flinched then I stepped between them, careful not to make the movement look like a challenge.

“She'll be taken to the healer first. Her wrist is bleeding.”

The guard's expression hardened. “You have already interfered once, my lord. Don't make this more difficult.”

I glanced at the blood running from Mira's sleeve. If I insisted, the guard might call for more men. That would bring attention to Sable, whose presence in the servants' wing was already difficult to explain. I could not protect Mira by turning the corridor into another confrontation.

“Take her to the healer,” I said. “I'll make sure the elders know why she's late.”

The guard hesitated, then gestured for Mira to follow then she looked at me as she passed.

“Don't tell them anything you aren't certain of,” I said quietly.

She nodded and went with him then sable waited until their footsteps faded. “You let him take her.”

“I got her away from the questioning for now.”

“For now,” she repeated. “And what about Renn?”

I looked towards the stairwell and turned to her. “I don't know.”

We returned to the room, but I didn't sit down… I was too worried to sit.

The locket beneath my shirt had begun to get warm again. At first, I thought the heat came from the tension in my body, but when I drew it out, the silver was noticeably warmer than my fingers.

Sable noticed immediately. “What is that?”

“The locket I found among my mother's things.”

“I know what it is. Why are you holding it like that?”

“It's warming up.”

I turned it over. The folded note remained tucked inside, its warning still clear in my mind: do not trust the house that feeds you. The locket had felt ordinary when I first found it. Now a faint heat travelled through the silver casing, gathering around the clasp.

“Put it away,” Sable said.

“It's reacting to something.”

“Or it's reacting to you. After what happened in the chamber, you shouldn't assume every strange thing is an invitation.”

I slipped the chain over my fingers and held the locket still. The warmth seemed stronger whenever I faced the western end of the wing.

“The old rooms,” I murmured.

Sable's expression changed. “What about them?”

“Sylene said they were clearing out my mother's belongings. This came from there. Perhaps there's something else.”

“Perhaps someone wants you to think that.”

I couldn't dismiss it. The locket had been among my mother's possessions, but that didn't prove she had left it there. The note could be a warning or bait.

“We shouldn't go anywhere until we know what happened to Renn,” Sable said.

“I agree.”

She gave me a doubtful look before continuing “You don't sound as though you agree.”

“I won't go looking for him. But we can find out whether the elders have finished questioning him.”

“And if they haven't?”

“Then we wait.”

The locket pulsed against my palm again but I resisted following its warmth immediately; patience mattered, especially when I knew so little about what waited ahead.

Sable lowered herself onto the edge of the bed staring at me “You keep saying you want answers. But you haven't considered what you'll do if you find something you can't understand.”

“Then I'll leave it alone.”

“You didn't leave the pillars alone.”

“I didn't know what they would do.”

“That's exactly my point.”

I looked at her, then down at the locket. She was right about one thing: I had no control over what happened in the chamber. I couldn't afford to treat another unexplained reaction as something I could command then a quiet knock interrupted us.

I put the locket beneath my shirt before opening the door. A young servant stood outside, carrying a folded cloth but she kept her eyes lowered.

“The healer sent this,” she said. “For the girl with the injured wrist.”

“Mira?”

The servant nodded stretching her hands forward “She's being kept in the infirmary until the elders decide what to do.”

“Was she questioned?”

“Not yet. They said she must wait.”

The servant held out the cloth. I took it, but before I could ask anything else, she turned and hurried down the passage.

Sable watched her leave. “At least Mira is with the healer.”

“For now.”

I placed the cloth on the table. As I moved, the locket warmed again, more sharply this time. I turned towards the western corridor. The sensation pulled in that direction, though it gave me no clear picture of what waited there.

Sable saw the way I looked in that direction and immediately shaked her head. “Don't.”

“I only want to see where it leads.”

“You said we'd wait.”

“We have waited. We know Mira is safe for the moment, and we don't know how long the elders will keep Renn.”

“You don't know that the locket has anything to do with your mother.”

“No. But I know it came from her belongings.”

Sable rose with a quiet wince and turned to me. “If we go, we go together. And if anything feels wrong, we turn back.”

I nodded and turned to her “We don't touch anything.”

We left through the servants' passage, keeping to the quieter side of the wing. Sable walked carefully, her injury slowing her. I matched her pace, though the warmth beneath my shirt kept growing.

The old wing was quieter than the rest of the fort. Several doors stood open, and the rooms beyond them had been stripped of furniture. Dust lay thick across the floor, except where someone had recently crossed it. A narrow trail of footprints led towards a storage room at the far end.

The locket grew hotter as we approached then Sable stopped outside the doorway. “Someone has been here.”

I followed her gaze and noticed a strip of cloth lay crumpled beside the threshold, and the dust around it had been disturbed.

“We can leave,” she said.

I looked at the locket. Its heat was now unmistakable. “We've come this far.”

“That isn't a reason to continue.”

“No,” I admitted. “It isn't.”

I listened. The pressure beneath my skin stirred faintly near the doorframe, but offered no warning I could understand.

“We look from the entrance,” I said. “If there's anyone inside, we leave.”

Sable held my gaze for a moment before stepping aside then I entered carefully. The room smelled of dust and old stone. Empty shelves lined one wall, and a cracked cabinet stood beneath a narrow window. Near the far side, a heavy cloth had fallen from a low stone structure and beneath it was a dark seal.

Its surface was almost black, and a circular design had been carved into its centre. Five narrow lines extended from the circle, dividing the outer edge into sections. I recognised the symbol from old records in the council chamber.

“Obsidius,” I whispered.

The locket burned against my palm as Sable moved closer, then stopped when she saw the ash scattered across the seal. “Don't go near it.”

“I didn't plan to”

The ash was grey and fine, gathered inside the carved lines as though something had been burned there recently. The locket's silver casing had begun to darken around its edges.

I held it up, keeping several steps between myself and the seal. The warmth increased until I could feel it through my fingers.

“Why would your mother's locket react to an Obsidius seal?” Sable asked.

“I don't know.”

“Could it have belonged to someone from that bloodline?”

“Maybe. Or perhaps it was placed with my mother's things for another reason.”

Neither possibility answered anything. I studied the seal without moving closer. A shallow impression sat in the centre, partly hidden beneath the ash. Its shape looked familiar, but I couldn't make sense of it from where I stood.

The locket gave a faint click and I lowered my eyes to it, the clasp had shifted slightly, though it had not opened. A thin line of ash drifted from the seal and settled on the silver surface.

Sable caught my wrist. “That's enough. We need to go.”

I wanted to examine the impression more closely. The locket had led us here, and for the first time since finding it, I had evidence that its reaction was connected to something outside me. But the fresh ash, the disturbed dust, and the footprints all suggested that someone had been in this room recently. We were not the first people to discover the seal then a footsteps came from the gallery.

I closed my fingers around the locket and backed away. Sable moved towards the doorway, favouring her injured side. We reached the corridor just as a voice sounded from the room behind us. “Who moved the cloth?”

Another voice answered, “It was covering the seal when I checked it.”

Sable looked at me. We had not touched the cloth, but our presence here was enough to make us part of whatever investigation was happening.

We hurried towards the servants' passage. I kept the locket beneath my shirt, but its warmth remained against my skin. At the corner, I glanced back and saw a figure enter the storage room. He stopped beside the seal and looked towards the open doorway but I couldn't make out his face.

We reached the passage and slipped inside. Only when the door was between us and the gallery did Sable stop.

“You said we wouldn't touch anything,” she whispered.

“We didn't.”

“Someone will still know someone came here.”

I looked down. A grey smear marked the front of my shirt where the locket had been. More ash clung to the chain, and a few grains had fallen onto the floor behind us immediately the seal marked us.

Before I could brush it away, footsteps sounded from the other side of the passage door, someone had followed the trail, they knew exactly which way we had gone.