Chapter 6: Escape & Betrayal

Rhea Kael's hideout smelt of oil and ozone, a stifling heat radiating from the countless half-assembled machines scattered across the space. Kieran quickly strode with the sound of his boots clanking against the floor. They really had no much time left, they had to go make haste while the sun shines, being caught leaving was easier than being caught preparing.

"You better be prepared Rhea, you better be," he said with a frustrated look as his voice was shaky from a heavily breathing "We're out of options."

Rhea Kael was stained with grease and she wore a scowl like a battle scar, lifting her gaze from the ragged contraption she'd been working on. The rogue engineer was a legend among the dissenters who was brilliant, volatile, and too reckless to be trusted by the Council. Kieran had no choice but to trust her now.

"I have more than 'something,'" Rhea shot back, wrenching a rusted panel open to reveal a swirling, unstable core of energy. "This—" she smacked the side of the humming device "—is the key to getting through that storm."

Elias Sorne, leaning heavily against the workbench, barely masked the strain of his injuries. His voice was rough as he studied the machine. "And how does it work, exactly? Because if you tell me we're just going to throw ourselves into the storm and pray, I'll save us the trouble and slit my own throat now."

Rhea grinned looking humorless. "No need for dramatics, old man. This disruptor pulse should weaken the barrier's magnetic pull long enough for us to pass through. We'll still be fighting the storm, but it won't rip us apart on impact."

Kieran's clenched his fists. "Should? That's not good enough."

Rhea moved around him with her eyes blazing. "You want a guarantee? Fine. I guarantee you that if you stay here, Strake and his lapdogs will rip you apart long before the storm does. Pick your fate."

Kieran ran a hand through his sweat-dampened hair looking stressed. She was right. There was no perfect answer—only risks, stacked on top of more risks. He turned to Elias, who was watching the exchange with faint eyes. "If we do this, we need to be quick and already on the run."

"This is going to be really disappointing if you all decide to turn back now, like I said, one of us could end up dead but no matter what we need to push through with the plan," said Elias with a strained voice.

Rhea's smirk faded. "Not unless you want your head mounted on the Council's wall."

Kieran inhaled, feeling the air burn in his lungs. They had no allies, no second chances. If the disruptor worked, they had a shot. If it didn't… well, the storm would erase their existence before they even knew they had failed.

The tunnels beneath the outer city groaned very loudly. Kieran leaned against the cold metal wall, listening for the distant echoes of pursuit. The acrid burn of machinery that was long forgotten consumed them. Somewhere above them, the Council's enforcers were searching for them. They had minutes—maybe less.

Rhea Kael knelt beside a rusted pipe, her fingers working over the exposed wires. Sparks flared in the slightly dark tunnel as she worked. "Almost there," she muttered, her voice measured with focus. "If I overload the substation, we get thirty seconds to breach before the failsafe kicks in. If we don't move fast enough—"

"We will," Kieran cut in, gripping the strap of his backpack. Inside, Elias Sorne leaned heavily against the wall, his face pale beneath the emergency lights. Blood seeped through the fabric of his coat, a grim reminder of Vaelen's earlier strike.

Elias sucked in an agonizing breath. "Even if we make it through the storm, you realize what we're risking?" His voice was rough, brought down by both pain and warning. "Vaelen wasn't lying. Beyond this storm—there are horrors you're not prepared for."

"And what's left here is worth holding onto?" Asked Kieran his mind fully fixed on leaving The Spire.

Elias let out a strained chuckle. "You think the unknown is better than the devil you know?"

Rhea interjected, securing a loose wire with a decisive motion. The overhead lights flickered erratically before finally stabilizing into a muted, reddish light. "Alright. The storm wall is fluctuating. We have one shot at this. Either we go now, or we die here."

A metallic clang echoed down the corridor of footsteps that were fast and unrelenting. The enforcers had found them.

Rhea yanked a lever, and a section of the tunnel wall ground opened, revealing a narrow maintenance shaft that led to the storm barrier's core. A deep, vibrating hum filled the atmosphere, and the tunnel trembled with the sheer force of the energy field beyond.

"Move!" Rhea shouted.

Kieran grabbed Elias, throwing the older man's arm over his shoulder as they stumbled forward. The moment they cleared the threshold, the enforcers appeared behind them, their weapons raised. A sharp whistle cut through the air as something heavy slammed into Rhea, sending her sprawling. She gasped, clutching her ribs as one of the enforcers advanced. She kicked the enforcer in his stomach making them falling on the other side of the tunnel section and with that, she slammed her fist against the emergency panel, and the door between them sealed shut with a deafening clang.

Kieran shifted on his position, lifting his dagger. Electrical threads flashed by him, narrowly avoiding his face. Rhea fought to regain her footing, her breaths coming in with rapid and shallow gasps. They had to quickly go to the ship they stole before they missed their chance to escape.

The storm raged like a living beast, sparks of lightning lashing out, the wind was very strong with voices of the damned. Kieran had a firm hold on the control panel of the stormpiercer, the engines humming beneath him as they advanced toward the edge of the barrier. Next to him, Elias grasped his injured side, his complexion pale, yet his eyes radiated immense determination. At the opposite end of the cockpit, Rhea continued to work on the switches her voice deep with worry.

"We don't have time, Kieran! The storm's is shifting—if we don't break through now, we never will!"

Kieran's gaze snapped to the viewport. Beyond the chaos, the edge of the known world trembled—revealing a line of reality where the storm thickened like a wall of living shadow. The threshold.

Then the cockpit door burst open.

Vaelen Strake stood there, drenched from the storm, his dark coat billowing with unnatural weight, his silvered blade gleaming within the very bright light of the raft.

"You're short-sighted to understand the implications of your actions." Vaelen's tone remained composed, yet he was not a figure to be relied upon.

"Turn this ship around, Kieran. There's nothing beyond that veil but ruin."

Kieran didn't budge. "Then why are you so desperate to stop us?"

Vaelen exhaled, stepping forward his sword lowered but ready. "Because I've seen what's on the other side." His gaze turned to Elias, then Rhea. "You think this storm is your enemy. You don't understand—it's the only thing keeping you safe."

Elias coughed, blood speckling his lips, but he still smirked. "Safe from what, Strake? Ghosts? Myths?"

Vaelen's grip on his sword tightened. "From what you will become."

"We don't have a choice." Said Kieran emotionless.

Vaelen sighed. "Then neither do I."

He moved faster than Kieran could react and with a blur of motion with his steel. Rhea barely ducked in time as the blade sliced through missing her by inches and progressively shattering the control panel beside her. Momentary sparks erupted, that caused electrical sparks to erupt bringing the warning klaxons to life.

The stormpiercer lurched violently.

Kieran threw himself at Vaelen, catching his arm before the blade could swing again. They crashed against the side of the cockpit, fighting for control. Vaelen was stronger, more experienced—Kieran barely deflected a sharp elbow that got his ribs.

Rhea scrambled to the backup controls, fingers flying. "I can still get us through!"

Vaelen snarled at her. "No, you won't."

His knee slammed into Kieran's stomach pushing him back on the floor of the craft The sword sliced toward him—

And then Elias thrust between them.

The blade buried itself in Elias's shoulder. He didn't cry out letting out a gasp with a painful sound. Vaelen's eyes widened in shock, as if he hadn't meant to receive the blow.

Elias grabbed Vaelen's arm, pulling him closer as he raged in anger. "You should have killed me the first time, Strake."

Then he slammed his palm into Vaelen's chest and unleashed a stroke of raw energy.

Vaelen was thrown backward, crashing against the console. Rhea screamed as the ship trembled beneath them, alarms blaring in protest.

The storm's wall emerged ahead, closer and closer—

Kieran forced himself up, gripping the flight stick. "Rhea!"

She was already there, stabilizing the stormpiercer. "Hold on!"

Vaelen groaned, trying to rise, but Elias shoved him back down. "Stay down, Strake. This is happening whether you like it or not."

And before the Storm swallowed them whole, Vaelen was thrown out of the raft, as he was almost consumed by the storm wall.

For a moment, there was nothing but darkness, weightlessness, the sound of the world breaking apart—

Then, silence.

And when the silence faded, what lay beyond was something none of them could have ever imagined.

Then—

Light.

A Blinding and searing light.

The ship tumbled forward, spat out from the storm's grasp like a rejected offering. The air was different with a thin, crisp that was untouched by the corruption of the city they had left behind. The sky above was vast with an endless stretch of stars that was not attached by an artificial glow.

And below them—

A city.

Not ruins. Not desolation. A city.

It sprawled beneath them, its architecture ancient yet untouched by decay with towers rising toward the heavens with an elegance unseen in the fractured world they had known. Rivers of luminescent blue coursed through its streets, and strange machines hovered, undisturbed, over great bridges of obsidian and gold.

Elias choked back disbelief. "Impossible."

Rhea exhaled a single word. "Beautiful."

Kieran's chest rose and fell with the sight of the revelation. They had been told there was nothing beyond. That the storm was the end of the world. That hope was a lie.

But hope had been real all along.

And now, they had found it.

Far behind them, the storm raged, an undying sentinel at the threshold. But it was no longer their cage.