CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Church of Black Roots

The Church loomed like a forgotten god in the woods — silent, overgrown, and cracked by time. Once a place of worship, now it was little more than stone and shadow.

But Jayden felt it the moment they crossed the threshold:

Power. Ancient and watching.

Veyna hesitated. "This place was sealed after the Purge of Hollowborn. No one's stepped inside since the uprising."

Jayden looked at her. "Then why is my mother here?"

---

The Truth Beneath the Pews

Inside, the church smelled of old myrrh, blood, and moss. Stained-glass windows were shattered, and the altar was cracked in half. But something glowed behind it — a single lantern, burning violet-blue flame.

Then came the voice.

> "You're late."

Jayden spun.

Joyce.

She stepped out from behind the altar, cloaked in a black shawl threaded with silver runes. Her face was older, thinner — but her eyes burned with clarity.

> "You've changed," she said softly.

Jayden ran into her arms. For a moment, the world stopped.

> "I thought you were dead."

> "I had to be," Joyce whispered. "For them not to find me."

Veyna stepped forward, cautious. "You know what he is."

Joyce nodded. "And what he's not."

---

Revelations of Blood and Fire

Joyce led them into the underground crypt below the church. There, carved into the stone walls, were sigils and maps — drawings of the Hollow, of the Hunter, and of Jayden himself.

> "You were born of two covenants," she explained.

"Your father was an Outsider. I was Court-blooded. That union was forbidden."

Veyna narrowed her eyes. "But the Bloodstone only chooses—"

> "Hybrids," Joyce said. "Children with one foot in light and one in night."

Jayden stepped back. "That's why the Council wants me. And why the Outsiders want me free."

> "No," Joyce said. "They want to use you."

She placed her hand on his chest.

> "But I want you armed."

She opened an ancient chest — inside was a blade wrapped in roots, pulsing faintly like the Bloodstone.

Jayden reached for it — and felt a pull, like it recognized him.

Joyce whispered:

> "This is Blackroot. Forged in the last Reaping War. It drinks the magic of anything it wounds."

> "Including the Hunter?" he asked.

> "Especially the Hunter."

---

The Church Is Not Empty

Suddenly, the flames in the lanterns flickered.

Joyce froze. "They found us."

The windows shattered inward. Figures dropped down — cloaked, fast, and silent.

Bloodshadows.

Elite Hollow assassins.

One stepped forward, removing her hood. It was Morrienna.

> "The boy belongs to the Council," she said coolly. "Stand aside, Joyce."

> "You'll have to kill me," Joyce said, drawing a silver-edged staff.

Morrienna's eyes flashed. "That can be arranged."

And the church erupted into chaos.

---

Battle in the Sanctuary

Jayden ignited the Blackroot blade — it sizzled with white fire. Veyna darted into the fray, her twin daggers a blur. Joyce chanted old words, summoning chains of spirit light that wrapped around one Bloodshadow.

But Morrienna was relentless — she and Jayden clashed beneath the broken crossbeam, power against fury.

> "You don't understand what's inside you!" she hissed.

> "Maybe not," Jayden said, blade crackling, "but I know I'm done being controlled."

He struck — and for the first time, Morrienna staggered.

Veyna drove a dagger into her side. Joyce bound her with a seal.

> "Go," Joyce shouted. "They'll call for reinforcements."

> "Come with us!" Jayden yelled.

She shook her head. "I have to delay them. You have to survive."

With no time to argue, Jayden and Veyna ran — out the crypt tunnels, through the wild woods, into the cold wind of night.

---

Onward to the Vault

As they caught their breath under the stars, Jayden held the blade tightly. "What's next?"

Veyna pulled out a scroll — sealed in dark wax. "Your mother slipped this to me. It's the map to the Vault of Origins."

Jayden opened it. In the center was a mountain drawn in blood, surrounded by ancient glyphs.

And across it, written in old tongue:

> "Only the bleeding flame shall open the vault."

Jayden looked down at his hands — one still faintly glowing from the Bloodstone, the other gripping a blade of Blackroot.

> "Then I guess we keep bleeding."