The plaza felt like a held breath.
Liam stepped into the broken circle of Skyhold's main square, black glass underfoot, old banners shivering on cracked arches. The air had weight here, not heat, not cold, just pressure, like the ruin itself was waiting to see who it belonged to.
Rena and Naia stood at the grating they had pried up. A faint pulse rolled out of the dark below, slow and steady, like a heart that refused to die.
> [System Update]
Sub core node, discovered
Relic potential, high
Requirement, Overlord sync at ninety or above
Requirement, active bond presence, three or more
Warning, rival anchor in proximity
"Three of us go down with you," Rena said, eyes on the stair. "The rest hold the ring."
"Aisha with me," Liam said. "Elyra with me. Rena on point."
He looked to the edge. "Kaelithra, take the north arch. Ice Queen, frost the south approach. Nysera, vanish and bite. Naia, if we do something stupid, do something smarter."
Kaelithra smiled, slow and sharp. "As you command."
Ice Queen's breath fogged the rim of the stair. "They will not pass."
Nysera was already gone.
They descended.
The stairs wound into a chamber that felt older than the stones above. Rings of metal, lines of light, a core in the center like a black flower, half shut, gleaming where the petals parted.
The system met him at the threshold, cool and bright, and very sure of itself.
> [System Alert]
Sub core claim, trial begins
Anchor test, triad focus
Condition, maintain cohesion, resist external control
Time, seven minutes
Interference, expected
"Hands," Elyra said, voice low, not soft. She put her palm to the rim. Aisha mirrored her on the other side. Rena set her hand next to Liam's.
Light moved. The floor shivered. The core opened a fraction and showed them its first trick.
Sound. It slid under the skin and under the ribs, a call to scatter, a call to go quiet, a call to choose yourself and nobody else.
"Together," Rena said, steady as stone.
Elyra's hum rose under the sound, an answer with teeth, and the pull broke like foam on rock. Aisha laughed, low. "Try harder," she told the room.
The second test was heat. The third was doubt. The fourth was memory that wanted to unmake the point of all of this.
Liam did not let go. He felt Rena like a grip at his shoulder, Elyra like a silver thread through his thoughts, Aisha like a band of iron around his ribs. The core opened another petal.
Footsteps at the top of the stair. Calm. Confident.
"Still a choice to go," a man's voice called down. "Walk now, save what you can."
Markus.
The chamber lights dimmed as if the ruin tilted a little toward him.
> [External Input]
Rival anchor, pressing
Bond pressure, hostile
Defense, increase triad sync
"Pressure is a trick," Elyra said, mouth curving. "He wants attention. Do not feed him."
"Hold," Rena said.
The fifth test rose, heavy and mean. Fear, but not yours, theirs. Faces you love, strain in their eyes, the feeling that you are failing them right now. The oldest knife.
Aisha bared her teeth at nothing. "He can watch. He does not choose."
They held. The sixth test faltered and died. The core opened again, almost there.
The first scream came down from the plaza. Not panic. Battle joy.
Kaelithra.
The floor jumped under their boots. Ice skittered across the rim and held. Ice Queen's voice rode the cold, calm as a winter river. "Continue."
Liam closed his eyes to the ruin and opened them to the bond. He felt the line to each of them, bright and tight, felt the way this place tried to cut one and then the other, could almost see the knife as it moved.
He put his hand on the knife and pushed.
The core flared.
> [System Update]
Sub core bound, ninety seven
Skyhold integrity, shifting toward you
Rival advantage, reduced
Territory control, contested, leaning in your favor
Boots on the last steps. Markus did not hurry. He arrived with two at his shoulder… the feathered one, eyes like storm birds, the silk one, moon pale, both watching like judges at a gate.
Markus took in the room, the open core, the lines in the floor, Liam's hand still on the rim. He smiled, small.
"So quick," he said. "So sure."
"Claim your last chance," Kaelithra called from above, bright and cruel. "Run."
Markus did not look up. "You collect, Overlord Voss. Have you learned to keep."
The silk woman's gaze slid to Liam. Not hunger, not fear. Reckoning. The recognition from before, that he was not using the same rules her master used.
"Choose," she said softly, to no one and to everyone.
A ripple ran through the core, a last test, sudden and sharp. Envy, fast and hot, late and ugly. A shove to make hands slip. A whisper that said do not share.
Rena's fingers tightened on the rim. "No," she said. Elyra laughed in Markus's face without looking at him. Aisha breathed out like she set a weight down and the room had to take it.
The core opened like an eye and stayed open.
> [System Alert]
Sub core, claimed
Skyhold, primary node attuned
Rival anchor, forced to outer ring
Territory status, yours with contest window active
Bond sync, ninety four
Above, the plaza cracked. Ice hissed. Feathers tore the air. Nysera stepped out of someone's shadow and someone fell without a sound. The ruin chose a side and became less neutral.
Markus watched the light crawl up the walls, watched it claim the ribs like vine.
"I will take this back later," he said, pleasant. "I like later. Later allows for art."
"Take your two and leave," Rena said, sword already coming clear.
He finally looked at her. He nodded, polite, and as he turned his head the silk woman glanced once more at Liam, then at the line of women around him, then down the stair's dark throat where the core still glowed.
Not yet, her eyes said. Not here.
They withdrew, quiet as dusk.
Silence moved in and settled.
Liam let go of the rim. The light in the floor steadied. He exhaled.
"Up," Rena said, not unkind.
They climbed. The plaza looked like a promise. Frost rimed the south arch. Blood blackened the north stones where Kaelithra had stood. Nysera sat on the edge of a broken cart and licked a cut from her knuckle like a cat after rain.
> [System Update]
Skyhold, secured pending sweep
Sub core, stable
Plaza relic, faint signal
New thread, latent bond detected
Origin, silk witness, status, disengaged by choice
Sarya jogged in from the outer ring, breath even. "Trip wires cut, scouts gone, no pursuit."
Ice Queen nodded once, eyes on the east where the desert began again. "Wind favors us."
Naia tapped Liam's ribs with two fingers, light, measuring. "You did not break yourself this time."
Aisha stood close, eyes on the core glow under the glass. "You took it. Good."
Elyra leaned in, smile small and satisfied. "And you did not feed his need to be seen. Better."
Kaelithra wiped her blade on a banner and tossed the cloth aside. "He will come back when it hurts most. We will make it hurt more for him."
Liam looked at the map bloom in his mind, new lines, new doors. He saw the faint pull of the plaza relic, the whisper of something folded under the glass. He saw the timer roll down on the far edge of his vision, patient and red.
> [System Alert]
Mall Fortress raid clock, sixteen hours
Summoning chamber, tuned for recall
Resource route, Spire to Skyhold, open
Relic under plaza, seal intact, compatible with core fragment
"Sweep," he said. "Secure. Then we go home and make the walls eat whatever comes."
Rena's hand found his shoulder and squeezed once. "We hold."
Nysera's tail flicked, slow. "We hunt again when the blood dries."
Aisha looked down at the glow and then up at him. "And when it is quiet, we open what is under this glass."
Elyra's eyes shone. "Together. Or not at all."
They moved through Skyhold like owners, not guests. They set marks. They burned what stank. They pulled their dead into shade and spoke over them. When the sun began its fall, they turned their faces to the Spire and the long line of sand between.
On the ridge, Liam looked back once. The ruin looked smaller from here and more his. He looked forward again, to the desert that did not care, to the fortress that did, to the throne he had refused to sit like a chair.
The bond hummed under his skin, warm and bright. The system whispered and waited. The empire stretched, not finished, not fragile, not slow.
"Home," he said.
They went.