CHAPTER 7: THE SPIRE’S SHADOW
The feather lay across Kael's palm, cold and brittle. The indigo light that had scorched the Echo Chamber was gone, leaving the etched rune dull—like a star collapsed into ash. Its power hadn't just faded; it felt *spent*. Silas' needle throbbed in his neck, a grim reminder of the leash still tightening. Valen's broken stare haunted him. Not hatred anymore. *Fear.*
***Knock. Knock. Knock.***
The sound was precise, brutal—striking the barracks door like hammer on anvil. No call for entry. The door swung open.
Two Assessor guards stood framed in the grey dawn light. Their armor wasn't Academy grey, but the matte black of deep space. No helmets. Faces like stone.
**"Thorn. The Spire. Now."**
No explanation. No resistance possible.
---
The Spire wasn't just tall. It was **dominance carved in obsidian**.
Kael followed the guards through corridors that swallowed sound. No rune-lights here—only cold witch-fire torches casting jumpy shadows. The air grew thinner, colder, tasting of static and something metallic. Blood? Ozone? Memory?
They stopped before a door seamless as the Black Gate. The guard pressed his palm to a rune-circle. It flared crimson.
Inside, the chamber was circular, windowless. Not stone—polished black glass reflecting distorted versions of Kael back at himself. Three figures sat on a raised dais, hooded in black so deep it hurt the eyes. The air hummed with restrained violence.
The central Assessor spoke. No voice box distortion this time. Just **cold, human malice**.
**"You broke Valen Thorne."**
Not a question. An accusation.
Kael kept his spine straight. **"The Echoes broke him."**
**"No."** The right-hand Assessor leaned forward. Hood shadows hid their face, but Kael felt their gaze like scalpels. **"You used an unregistered relic. *Again*."**
**"I used what I had to survive."**
The central Assessor's gloved hand tapped the armrest. Tap. Tap. Tap. Rhythmic. Threatening. **"Commander Rhys described the light. *Indigo*."** A pause. **"The feather's resonance, yes?"**
Kael's blood ran cold. *They knew. They'd always known.*
**"Where is it?"**
Kael didn't flinch. **"Gone. Shattered in the Chamber."**
A lie. The feather was hidden beneath a loose floorboard in Barracks Nine. Brittle. Silent. But *his*.
The left-hand Assessor—the one who'd demanded the feather before—made a soft, derisive sound. **"Convenient."**
**"What matters,"** the central Assessor cut in, **"is that you proved two things. One: your Voidborne instability makes you a liability."** Their hood tilted. **"Two: you're… resourceful. A dangerous combination."**
Silence stretched. The glass walls seemed to press closer.
**"Valen Thorne's House demands restitution,"** the right-hand Assessor hissed. **"His mind is fractured. His rune flickers."**
**"So you will take his place,"** the central Assessor said.
Kael blinked. **"What?"**
**"The Iron Rune House paid dearly for their son's spot in the Skyreach Expedition."** A gloved hand gestured dismissively. **"A deep-Gate dive. High risk. High reward. You will go in Valen's stead."**
Skyreach. The words slammed into Kael. Only veteran Hunters survived Skyreach. It was a death sentence wrapped in honor.
**"Why?"** The word tore from Kael's throat.
The central Assessor stood. Hooded shadows deepened. **"Because if the Gate eats you, the Thornes are appeased. If you survive…"** A cold chuckle. **"Well. We'll own the weapon that crawled back out."**
**"Refuse,"** the right-hand Assessor added softly, **"and Silas' needle won't just suppress your rune. It will liquefy your spine. Slowly."**
No choice. Again. *Always.*
**"When?"** Kael ground out.
**"Dawn tomorrow."** The central Assessor waved a hand. **"Dismissed. Try not to die before you're useful."**
---
Kael walked the polished halls like a ghost. The feather's absence against his skin felt like a fresh wound. He needed to see it. To know it was still there.
He slipped into Barracks Nine. Empty. Relief washed over him—
**"Looking for this, Void Rat?"**
Valen Thorne stood beside Kael's bunk. In his hand, held like a dead thing by its spine, was the black feather. Its rune was dark. Dormant. Brittle.
Valen's face was pale, his eyes fever-bright. A bandage covered half his neck where phantom claws had torn skin in the Echo Chamber. But his smile was pure venom. **"Shattered? Funny. It looks… intact."** He snapped the feather's shaft.
*Crack.*
**"No!"** Kael lunged.
Valen laughed—a broken, jagged sound. He dropped the two halves onto the filthy floor. **"You took my place in Skyreach? Good. I hope they *record* your screaming when the Gate tears you apart."** He stepped on the feather, grinding it under his heel into the ash-stained floorboards. **"But first? I'll make sure you go in broken."**
He raised his hand. His golden rune flickered—unstable, spitting sparks—but still bright enough.
The needle in Kael's neck ignited. Not a stab. A *slow burn*. Like molten lead poured down his vertebrae. He crashed to his knees, gasping. Vision blurring.
Valen loomed over him, breathing hard. **"Silas sends his regards."**
The pain climbed. Kael's hand scrabbled on the floor. Fingers brushed the snapped feather—
—and the world *shifted*.
Not pain. Not darkness.
**A vision:**
*The Spire's highest chamber. The three Assessors, hoods thrown back. Faces gaunt, eyes replaced by swirling vortexes of violet light. And standing beside them, clad in Assessor black but unhooded—a man with cold eyes and a needle-sharp smile.* ***Silas.*** *He held a shard of pulsating indigo crystal—a twin to the Resonance Shard from the Echo Chamber—and drove it into a map of New Avalon. Gates flared across the city like open wounds.*
**"The Void doesn't lie, Kael,"** Silas whispered, though his lips didn't move. **"It *hungers*."**
The vision snapped.
Kael lay gasping on the floor. Valen was gone. Only the shattered feather remained, its broken spine glinting with a final, dying pulse of indigo light.
The truth was worse than he'd imagined.
The Assessors weren't just using Silas.
***They were him.***
And Skyreach wasn't an execution.
It was a **sacrifice**.
End of chapter 6