The soot-rain fell in grey sheets across the industrial perimeter, and Alucent could feel the ash settling on his shoulders and hair as he walked. The air smelled of burnt oil and copper, and each breath left a faint metallic taste on his tongue.
He leaned against Gryan's shoulder, his left arm draped over the mechanic's back. His legs moved, but the strength behind them was borrowed, and he was aware of how much of his weight the older man was carrying. The ink-bleed had not stopped after the workshop fight. Thin black lines traced from the corners of his eyes down his cheeks, and his vision flickered occasionally at the edges, as if the world itself was struggling to hold its shape.
The Journal floated at his right shoulder. Cyan and gold light glowed faintly from the closed cover, and Alucent noticed that the artifact felt heavier than before. Not in physical weight, but in presence. He could sense it reacting to the Voidshard in his pack, the proximity seeming to agitate whatever intelligence resided within the pages.
At that moment, the cover opened on its own. Cyan and gold light glowed faintly, and fresh script appeared in elegant handwriting:
"You run toward the light, child. As if the Gilded Tier could scrub the ink from your soul. Documentation required: Why seek sanctuary in a cage of gold?"
Alucent didn't respond. He focused on the cold weight of the bone-carved ring on his right hand, the Valerius crest etched into its surface, and on placing one foot in front of the other without stumbling.
Raya walked on his other side, her hand resting on her sword hilt as she scanned the empty streets around them. After a few seconds, she glanced at him.
"How much further?" she asked.
"Two blocks to the Cloud-Line Gate," Gryan said, adjusting Alucent's weight across his shoulders. "The Grand Steam-Lift runs every fifteen minutes. If we miss the next one, we're standing in the open for a quarter hour."
Alucent said nothing. He concentrated on walking.
They reached the Cloud-Line Gate without incident. The structure rose before them, a massive brass frame embedded in the district wall, and the elevator platform beyond was large enough to carry cargo wagons. Alucent could feel the hum of the machinery through the soles of his boots, a low, constant vibration that traveled up through his legs and settled somewhere behind his temples.
Two figures stood before the entrance.
Alucent studied them as they approached. The Rune-Armored Sentinels were Thread 3 constructs, humanoid frames of interlocking brass plates with stabilization glyphs inscribed at every joint. The glyphs pulsed with amber light. The constructs had no faces, only smooth visors that reflected the grey sky, and they held polearms that crackled faintly with stored Runeforce.
The Sentinels stepped forward in unison as the group drew near, their movements synchronized.
"Halt," the one on the left said. The voice was flat and mechanical, produced by a speaker embedded in its chest. "Corruption detected. Unauthorized artifacts detected. Passage denied."
Gryan stopped walking. Beside Alucent, Raya's fingers tightened around her sword hilt, and he could hear the leather of her glove creaking slightly.
Alucent straightened and pulled his arm from Gryan's shoulder. His legs were unsteady beneath him, and he could feel the tremor in his knees, but he remained upright.
He looked at the bone ring on his right hand.
"The Valerius Signet," Elara had said when she handed it to him. "It will grant you access to certain restricted districts and resources. Use it wisely.
He hadn't tested it yet. He didn't know if she had been telling the truth or simply offering him a trinket to ensure his silence. For all he knew, the ring was nothing more than carved bone and empty promises.
There's only one way to find out, he thought.
He raised his right hand with the palm facing outward and let the artificial light from the gate-lamps fall across the Valerius Signet. The bone ring caught the light, and the crest was clearly visible, a quill crossed with a key and enclosed by a serpent eating its own tail.
The Sentinels paused. Their visors pulsed once, then twice, and Alucent waited. His heart was beating faster than he would have liked, and he kept his expression neutral while his mind ran through contingencies.
If this doesn't work, Raya draws first. Gryan flanks left. I load a Thread 2 casing and aim for the joint seals.
The Sentinel on the left lowered its polearm. The one on the right stepped aside.
"Passage granted," the first Sentinel said. "Valerius authority recognized. Warning logged. Corruption signature will be reported to Tier Command."
Alucent exhaled slowly through his nose.
She wasn't lying, he thought. At least not about this.
"Understood," he said.
He walked past them, and Raya and Gryan followed close behind. Alucent could feel the Sentinels' visors tracking them as they boarded the elevator platform, the red warning light pulsing in his peripheral vision, but the constructs did not move to stop them.
The brass gates closed behind them with a heavy sound, and the machinery engaged. The platform shuddered once, then began to rise.
Alucent leaned against the brass railing and watched the industrial district shrink below. The soot-rain thinned as they ascended, and the air grew colder and cleaner against his skin. He wiped the ink-blood from his cheek with the back of his hand and looked at the dark smear on his glove.
Raya stood at the edge of the platform with her back to him, watching the receding streets.
"The higher we go, the more eyes will be on us," she said without turning around. She adjusted the strap of her sword belt as she spoke. "This signet is a shield, but it's also a target. Everyone in the Gilded Tier will know a Valerius affiliate passed through the Gate carrying corruption signatures."
"I know," Alucent said.
Gryan crossed his arms and leaned against the railing beside him. "You have a plan for that?"
"I have a destination," Alucent said. He looked up at the clouds parting above them, revealing the pale sky of the upper districts. "The Grand Scriptorium of Eryndral. The Archives of the First Scribes are housed there. If I can access the original source-codes, I can stabilize my perception and advance to Thread 4."
Gryan raised an eyebrow at that. "Goldscribe? You're trying to advance in the middle of a hunt?"
"I don't have a choice," Alucent said. He could feel the pressure building behind his eyes again, the familiar ache of the semantic migraine. "The ability from the journal Record of All is burning through my baseline cognition faster than I can compensate. If I don't stabilize soon, the next time I use it, the ink-bleed won't stop at my eyes."
Gryan was quiet for a moment, then he nodded slowly and looked away.
The platform continued to rise. After a few more seconds, the clouds parted completely, and the Gilded Tier came into view.
White stone towers rose against the pale sky, their surfaces clean and unmarked by soot. Glass walkways connected the upper levels, and the streets below were paved with polished granite rather than iron grating. Alucent breathed in and noticed immediately that the air smelled of incense and old paper instead of oil and ash.
The Grand Scriptorium stood at the center of the Tier. It was a cathedral of white stone and floating glass, its spires reaching higher than any other structure in view. Light seemed to emanate from within its walls rather than reflecting off them, and Alucent found himself staring at it as the platform slowed.
They stepped off the elevator and into the Gilded Tier. Alucent's boots made almost no sound on the polished granite, and he became aware of how loud their breathing seemed in the quiet streets.
The Journal's cover opened. Cyan and gold light glowed faintly from the pages, and the ink shifted, forming overlapping diagrams and floor plans that Alucent recognized as the internal layout of the Scriptorium. Fresh script appeared over the blueprints:
"The records here are incomplete, a feast of half-truths. But for a starving mind like yours, even crumbs are a banquet. Prepare for the 'Stabilization,' Scion. It will hurt."
Alucent closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and kept walking.
The residents of the Gilded Tier paused to stare as they passed. Scholars in white robes, merchants in fine cloth, and functionaries in grey uniforms all stopped their conversations and turned to look. Alucent was aware of how they must appear, three figures from the lower districts, one visibly bleeding dark fluid from his eyes, carrying the smell of ozone and violence on their clothes.
He ignored the stares and focused on the Scriptorium ahead.
The entrance was a set of bronze doors three stories tall, inscribed with founding texts of the Scribe Order in languages Alucent could only partially read. Two attendants in white robes stood at the threshold, their postures straight and their expressions neutral.
Alucent raised his hand and showed the Valerius Signet. The attendants bowed and opened the doors without speaking.
The interior was vast. The main atrium stretched upward for at least five floors, and its walls were lined with shelves holding thousands of bound volumes and scroll cases. Floating platforms carried scholars between levels, their movements smooth and silent, and the air hummed with the quiet energy of concentrated Runeforce. Alucent could feel it pressing against his skin, a faint tingling sensation that made his ink-stained eyes itch.
He took a step forward and stopped.
Something pressed against his chest. It was invisible but tangible, a barrier that resisted his movement. He looked down and saw a line of silver runes embedded in the floor, marking the boundary between the public atrium and the inner halls.
"Commoner restriction," one of the attendants said, gesturing toward Raya and Gryan behind him. "Non-Scribes may not pass beyond the atrium threshold. Scribe Valerius and registered affiliates may proceed to the Inner Sanctum."
Raya's jaw tightened. Alucent could see the tension in her shoulders as she stepped up beside him.
Gryan moved closer and spoke in a low voice. "We're blind out here, Alucent. If the Weaver follows us into this ivory tower, we won't be there to swing for you."
Alucent turned to face them. He could see the concern in Gryan's expression and the barely concealed frustration in Raya's posture.
"I know," he said. "Stay in the atrium and watch the doors. If I'm not back in two hours, leave without me."
Raya's eyes narrowed. "That's not acceptable."
"That's the plan," Alucent said. He held her gaze. "If I fail the stabilization, I won't be coming back regardless. And if Veyris finds you here, you need to be able to run."
Raya stared at him for a long moment. Her hand twitched toward her sword hilt, then relaxed. She exhaled slowly through her nose and stepped back.
"Two hours," she said.
Alucent nodded. He turned and walked across the silver threshold, and the barrier parted around him as the Signet pulsed faintly on his finger.
The Journal floated ahead of him, its cyan and gold light flickering as it drifted toward the inner doors. Alucent could sense the artifact's eagerness, its hunger for the concentrated Runeforce of the archives beyond.
A figure stepped into his path.
The woman was tall and thin, with grey hair pulled back severely from a narrow face. She wore the white and gold robes of a Thread 4 Goldscribe, and her eyes were pale blue, almost colorless. She studied Alucent with an expression of clinical assessment, her gaze lingering on the black lines beneath his eyes.
"Scribe Alucent," she said. Her voice was cool and precise. "Valerius affiliate. Thread 3, Bloodmark specialization. Currently exhibiting signs of VMO contamination and cognitive bleed."
Alucent didn't deny it. "I need access to the Level 4 Codices. The Archives of the First Scribes."
The Archivist tilted her head slightly as she continued to study him. "I can see what you need. The question is whether you are stable enough to receive it without contaminating the source material."
"I can demonstrate control," Alucent said.
"Can you?" The Archivist gestured toward a small alcove to the left, where a wooden lectern held a square of blank vellum. "Show me. Inscribe a Bloodmark glyph. Thread 3 complexity. Without succumbing to whatever shadow rides your cognition."
Alucent walked to the lectern. The vellum was clean and expensive, prepared with stabilizing compounds that would amplify any error in his inscription. He could smell the faint chemical scent of the treatment as he leaned closer.
He raised his left hand and pressed his thumbnail into the pad of his index finger until blood welled up. The pain was sharp and familiar.
As he began to trace the first line of the glyph, the Journal drifted closer. Cyan and gold light glowed faintly from the open page, and Alucent felt the artifact's attention pressing against his mind.
Images surfaced without his permission.
Verdant Hollow. The village square. Bodies arranged in neat rows, their faces covered with white cloth. Mira's voice, asking why he hadn't come sooner. The smell of smoke and wet earth.
The Shadowcage Taboo, Alucent realized. It's testing whether I'll break under guilt.
His hand trembled. A drop of blood fell onto the vellum and spread slightly before he could control it.
The Journal's presence pressed harder. Alucent understood what it wanted. It wanted to see if he would reach for the Caster in his holster. It wanted to see if he would take the shortcut. It wanted to see if his soul would crack under the weight of memory.
No, Alucent thought.
He didn't reach for the weapon. He didn't look at the Journal. He looked at the blood on the vellum and continued the inscription.
The glyph was not elegant. The lines were jagged where his hand had shaken, and the curves lacked the precision of a master's work. But the structure was correct, and the syntax was valid. The Runeforce flowed through the channels he had created and stabilized at the center of the design.
The vellum glowed faintly with amber light, then settled.
Alucent lowered his hand. His finger was still bleeding, and his head was pounding, but the glyph held.
The Archivist stepped forward and examined the inscription for a long moment. She did not touch it, only studied the lines and the flow of energy within them. Then she straightened.
"Crude," she said. "Painful to look at. But true."
She turned and walked toward the massive stone doors at the back of the hall. Alucent followed, and the Journal floated beside him, its pages rustling softly.
The stone doors were inscribed with glyphs that Alucent did not recognize. They were older than anything in his training, older perhaps than the Scriptorium itself. The Archivist placed her palm against the central seal, and the doors began to open outward, revealing a vault of polished obsidian and pale light.
The Journal's cover opened fully. Cyan and gold light glowed faintly from the page, and fresh script appeared in a heavier hand than before:
"Welcome to the "source-code" , child. Let us see if you can read the sun without going blind."
Alucent stepped through the threshold, and the doors closed behind him.