Kaizen didn't sleep that night.
None of them did.
The chamber beneath Bastion Theta remained sealed once more, the Revenant's corpse untouched—but its whispers lingered in the squad's minds like ash clinging to burnt lungs.
Riven hadn't spoken a word since. He sat in a corner, trembling, clutching a dull shard he claimed was humming.
Kaizen paced near the fire, hands wrapped in bandages, faint embers seeping between the threads. His breathing was shallow, his thoughts fractured. The vision of Nerovar holding Ayaka's corpse replayed like a curse behind his eyes.
Ayaka watched him closely. Her eyes, once soft, now sharp. Alert. Almost suspicious.
"You saw something down there," she said quietly. "Something you haven't told me."
Kaizen looked up. "If I tell you, it becomes real."
"Kaizen—"
"I saw you die."
The words landed like a blade across the room. Vorn stiffened, Deyra turned sharply. Even Riven looked up.
Ayaka's voice barely cracked. "When?"
"Not long from now. Nerovar was there. He—he used you to break me." Kaizen's fists shook. "And I let it happen. I became something else."
Silence.
Then Ayaka walked to him and placed her hand on his chest. "Then we don't let it happen."
But it already had.
Because betrayal was blooming like rot inside their ranks.
---
Twelve hours later, Deyra disappeared.
She was last seen entering the southern hall to retrieve supplies.
No one saw her leave.
They searched every inch of the outpost, finding only one thing in the supply room—a trail of thick, tar-like fluid that shimmered when touched by light.
Bist ichor.
Kaizen crouched beside the trail, fingers running along the smear. It hissed against his skin.
"They got inside," Vorn growled. "Or someone let them in."
That's when Riven screamed.
They found him in the war chamber, kneeling by the old Vein maps.
His chest was slashed open—but not by claws.
By veins.
They'd erupted from his body, snaking out like tendrils, wrapping around the walls, pulsating as if feeding off the fortress.
Kaizen rushed to him. "Riven! Stay with me—!"
Riven grabbed his wrist, his voice broken, barely human. "It's… Deyra… she's not… she's not ours anymore…"
Then his eyes rolled back, and the veins turned to ash.
He was gone.
---
Panic set in.
Ayaka stood still, breathing hard. "We need to assume Deyra's been taken or turned. If she's alive, she's compromised."
"No," Kaizen whispered. "She was chosen."
Everyone looked at him.
He stared at the ichor trail again, then at the map Riven was pointing at. The lines etched into the wall weren't natural.
They weren't maps at all.
They were veins.
A message in blood and decay.
One word burned at the center, carved in Bist tongue and human letters both:
"Return."
Vorn slammed his fist against the wall. "This is madness. Are you saying she let herself be taken? That one of us betrayed—"
"No," Kaizen said quietly. "She didn't betray us."
He turned around, eyes hard.
"She's trying to lead us… somewhere."
---
They followed the trail.
It led beyond the fortress walls, into the frost-choked forest where mist never lifted.
The trees bent unnaturally here. Snowflakes fell upward. The wind didn't howl—it breathed.
At the heart of the forest stood a tree darker than night. Its trunk split like cracked bone. And at its base knelt Deyra.
She was naked, body covered in glyphs carved with claws. Her eyes were rolled white, lips moving in silent prayer.
As they approached, she lifted her face.
"He showed me," she said. "He unlocked me."
Kaizen raised a hand. "Deyra, listen—"
But she screamed—and something else answered.
The ground exploded in veins. A figure rose behind her, cloaked in void—Nerovar, only half-formed, his body flickering between matter and shadow.
Ayaka charged instantly, but her blade passed through him.
He didn't flinch.
He merely looked at Kaizen.
"You're late," Nerovar said, voice as soft as snowfall.
"Why her?" Kaizen asked, trembling.
Nerovar grinned. "Because she listened. Because she bled willingly."
Deyra began to float, her skin cracking, light pouring from her mouth and eyes. "I see it… the beginning… the marrow gates… the old gods stirring…"
Kaizen took a step forward. "Let her go!"
"You want truth?" Nerovar whispered. "Then follow her veins."
He snapped his fingers.
Deyra's body shattered.
No blood. No bone. Just ashes that melted into the bark of the black tree.
Kaizen screamed—and the flames inside him roared.
But when he lunged forward—
Nerovar was already gone.
---
Back at the fortress, Kaizen didn't speak for hours.
Ayaka sat beside him silently.
Then, from within Deyra's belongings, Kaizen found a note. Not written—but carved by claw into stone.
One word:
"Mirehold."
Ayaka leaned closer. "A ruin. Abandoned during the Marrow Wars. It was the place the Veinborn once called sacred ground…"
Kaizen's eyes burned with realization.
"Then that's where he wants me to go."
"Or where he'll be waiting."
"Good," Kaizen said, eyes dark with fire. "Because I'm done running."