Chapter 40 – The Silence Before Collapse
Part 1: The Sound of a Cracking Seal
The morning of the twenty-ninth day arrived with no fanfare.
The bells of Ziraka rang at dawn, calling for prayer. Merchants shouted across dry plazas. Guild runners raced past dusty alleys.
Nothing felt different.
Nothing looked broken.
But Ashern knew better.
He stood in the cellar beneath the tavern, where old wine barrels leaned against the stone wall like sleeping animals. The air was cool. Still. Undisturbed.
He sat in the dark, eyes closed, blades floating beside him—silent, steady.
Waiting.
[System Notification: Vault Integrity – 12%]➤ Glyph Deterioration Reached Terminal Threshold➤ Containment Collapse Projected: Within 36 Hours➤ Current Trace Risk: 0%
"The silence is not peace.It is a countdown."
He had done everything already.
Signed the false requisitions under Seréya's name.Swapped the purification gem.Rewired the outer detection wards to ping only when her divine signature entered.
All evidence, all blame, all guilt—pointed to her.
She would never know when the vault began to fail.
And when the cathedral collapsed from the inside out, there would be no corpse.
No proof she died.
Only questions.
And in Ziraka, questions were the same as guilt.
That afternoon, she walked past the tavern again.
This time, she came inside.
She didn't speak. Just sat at the end of the bar.
Ashern served her wine without comment.
She took it. Drank once. Watched him the whole time.
"I've been reassigned," she said.
He didn't respond.
"I'll be gone by the end of the week. New directives. Cathedral work."
Still, he said nothing.
Then: "You're a strange one."
He paused in the middle of wiping a mug. "How so?"
"You don't react to anything. I can't tell if you're patient… or hiding something."
Ashern smiled faintly.
"I'm a barback."
"Sure."
She stared at him another second, then stood.
"No one's ever really what they pretend to be," she said. "But some of us… play the part too well."
She left.
And didn't look back.
That night, the first flicker of failure reached the lowest chamber of the cathedral.
In the reliquary beneath the chapel, one of the ward-lights along the sealed wall dimmed and sputtered.
A priest assigned to glyph maintenance saw it. Logged it. Reported it.
Nothing came of it.
Because Seréya had signed the last inspection.
[System Notice: Vault Failure – Initiated]➤ Secondary Alarm: Disabled➤ Root Blame Signature: Seréya Lux
"She lit the fuse.She just doesn't know who handed her the match."
By dawn, the first minor breach would begin.
And Ashern?
He'd be behind the bar, cleaning mugs, listening to footsteps and rumors that didn't yet know they were about to become fire.