The gold glimmer was gone.
Kael stayed still for a long moment, bone shard in hand, waiting for the thing in the dark to make another move. Nothing came, only the faint drip of water somewhere in the cavern's depths and the iron tang of blood still hanging in the air.
He let out a slow breath and finally lowered the shard. His hands were shaking now that the rush of movement had passed. The pain in his shoulder began to creep back in warm, sticky blood running down his arm.
A flicker of movement caught his eye. This time, it wasn't in the shadows.
A lantern.
Its light bobbed slowly through the black, followed by voices.
Kael's instincts flared. Light meant people. People meant questions. Questions meant… risk.
He backed toward the wall, but the beam found him before he could slip away.
"There!" a voice barked — male, sharp, used to giving orders.
The lantern's glow grew until it washed over the cavern, revealing a half-dozen figures in dark leather armor marked with the crest of the city guard. Spears tipped with polished steel caught the light.
Two of them froze at the sight of the bodies.
"What in the gods' breath…?" one muttered.
Kael didn't speak.
The captain, a lean man with a scar that split his lip stepped forward, lantern in one hand, short sword in the other. His eyes scanned the corpses, then locked on Kael.
"You're bleeding," he said flatly.
Kael nodded once.
"And unarmed." The captain's gaze drifted to the twisted metal frame still lying beside one of the dead monsters, then to the bone shard in Kael's grip.
Kael tightened his hold.
"You did this?"
The silence between them was heavy.
"I defended myself," Kael said finally.
One of the guards stepped closer, eyes narrowing. "With what, your bare hands? Look at them, captain — these things have armor plates. We've lost whole squads to a single pack."
The captain didn't answer. He was studying Kael not the way a soldier studies an enemy, but the way a hunter studies prey.
"Bind him," he ordered.
Kael's grip on the shard tightened, the urge to lash out flashing hot and sudden. But six spears leveled in his direction killed that thought quickly.
The bone shard clattered to the ground.
Cold iron cuffs bit into his wrists.
They led him back through the winding tunnels, the path lit by swinging lanterns. The shadows seemed to close in just behind the last guard, and more than once Kael thought he heard faint scraping somewhere out of sight.
When the air shifted from damp and stale to cold and sharp, he realized they were climbing.
Minutes later, they stepped into the light.
It stabbed at Kael's eyes, forcing them shut. The sudden roar of the city above was deafening after the silence below — shouts, hammers, the cry of gulls far overhead.
When he opened his eyes again, the world had changed.
The sky was a pale, brittle blue, cut by jagged towers of black stone and walls layered with steel plating. Bridges of chain and rope connected rooftops like spiderwebs. Every surface seemed armed with spikes, with battlements, with watchful eyes.
The guards marched him through narrow streets crowded with hawkers, beggars, and armored mercenaries. The smell of fish, smoke, and tar fought for dominance in the air.
People stopped to watch. Some stared at his bloodstained shirt. Others glanced at the cuffs, then quickly looked away.
The captain led them into a fortified building near the center of the city. Heavy gates shut behind them with a thud that seemed to swallow the outside noise.
They pushed him into a small stone chamber, a chair bolted to the floor, a single barred window, and nothing else.
The captain didn't sit.
"You're not a miner," he said simply.
Kael didn't answer.
"You fight like you've done it your whole life. And not like a brawler or pit dog... like someone trained. Precision. Efficiency." He stepped closer, leaning on the table between them. "And yet… no one's ever seen you before."
Kael's gaze stayed steady. "I told you. I defended myself."
The captain's mouth twitched not quite a smile. "And I'm telling you, men who can kill six tunnel-beasts without armor or a blade don't just defend themselves. They hunt."
The air between them thickened.
Finally, the captain straightened. "Until I know what you are… you don't leave this building."
He turned for the door.
And that's when Kael saw it, a flicker of gold in the shadow just behind the captain's shoulder, there and gone in an instant.