Fangs in the Dark

Before the Blood Crescent waned that night, six more bodies hit the stone floors of the Shadow Court.

Selira wasted no time.

She invoked Sanction Protocol – XIII, an ancient rite etched into the Codex archives—a legal purge.

> "Until the Codex is safe, all blood suspected of corruption shall be judged. No glyph, no oath, no title shall stay the blade."

The halls echoed with a tension thicker than death.

And Jace?

He was no longer a student.

He was now a hunter.

---

Selira led him through the restricted sectors of the Inner Court—the Lower Fangs—a twisting sprawl of arcane catacombs used to house traitors, unfinished glyphs, and forbidden vaults. The air tasted of old ash and blood that had never dried.

Jace moved silently beside her, now clad in a newly forged combat weave, reinforced with living inscription thread. His glaive remained locked across his back, but the Shadowblood Carapace was only a thought away.

"Three members of Circle IV," Selira muttered. "Confirmed Codex tampering. One fled to the Outer Hollow. The others… are here."

"And they know we're coming?"

She gave a tight smile.

"They will."

---

Their first target was Marthas Vire, the Court's former Keeper of Inks—a thin, soft-spoken man who once managed the glyph registry and secretly altered archival entries to hide Daemir's incursions.

They found him in a meditation cell—its walls crawling with half-formed runes and worming script.

He tried to flee.

Selira didn't let him.

She pinned him to the wall with a blood-forged blade, then nodded to Jace.

"Write the sentence."

Jace hesitated. "I've never…"

"It's not just combat," she said softly. "This is what the Codex is for. Judgment. Truth. Rewrite what he is."

The Codex flared in response to his resolve.

> [Inscription Mode – Court Justice Active]

– New Command: Glyph of Null Identity

– Effect: Erase target's name, title, and Codex permissions

– Consequence: Total memory disintegration

Confirm Execution?

[Y]

Jace pressed his palm to Marthas's forehead.

His fingers burned red.

And then—Marthas simply… faded.

Like he'd never existed.

---

The second target fought.

Harka Ven, once a bloodscribe, now turned rogue.

She attacked with venom glyphs that bloomed mid-air, attempting to rewrite Selira's internal organs.

Jace stepped between them.

Severed Echo.

His glaive slashed through her arm—then echoed back to decapitate her.

Clean.

Cold.

Silent.

---

As the night bled on, word of the cleansing spread through the Court.

Some stood down.

Others fled.

One left behind a letter—sealed in gold ink.

Selira opened it.

Read it.

Then stiffened.

"Someone opened Vault 9."

Jace raised an eyebrow. "What's in Vault 9?"

She met his gaze.

"Prophecies."

---

They moved fast.

Downward.

Deeper.

Into the Founding Chambers—the oldest part of the Shadow Court, predating even Selira's ancestors.

Vault 9 was protected not by locks, but by glyph riddles—each one requiring bloodline access and Codex sync above 40%.

Jace met that threshold now.

He pressed his palm to the gate.

It opened with a hiss.

And inside… floated a single scroll.

Wrapped in crimson silk.

Burned with Veyra's seal.

---

> [Codex Sync Triggered – Bloodline Prophecy Detected]

Playing Fragment: The Scribe's Final Warning

"He will rise from no house.

He will bear the blood of none.

But the Codex will write him into truth.

And when gods fall again…

The price shall be his name."

Selira whispered, "That's you."

Jace stared at the scroll as it faded into his Codex interface, burning into memory.

> Prophecy Unlocked – Trait Added: Written Destiny

– Unknown long-term effects

Codex Integration: 43% → 45%

Then the air shifted.

From the back of the vault… a voice.

"Your prophecy has reached the wrong ears."

They turned.

And saw a figure stepping from the shadows—not a Court assassin.

A woman clad in ragged black, eyes glowing crimson.

Jace froze.

"…Violet?"

She smiled.

"No more games, Jace."

And then she vanished—leaving behind a trail of ash and a single word carved into the vault wall:

"Soon."

"Ashes of the Familiar"

The ashes Violet left behind didn't cool.

They pulsed.

The runes she carved into the wall with a single word—"Soon"—bled like open wounds in the vault stone. Not metaphorically. They bled, black and slow, dripping onto the marble floor with a foul hiss.

Selira traced a finger across the blood glyph, face grim.

"This isn't normal Codex writing. It's… corrupted."

Jace stepped closer, his pulse steady but heavy.

"I don't understand. She was dead."

"She should be," Selira murmured. "You saw the aftermath. Her Codex was shattered during the trial. Her bloodline voided. There was no signature, no residue."

"But that was her," Jace said. "Her voice. Her stance. Even the way she smiled."

He paused.

Then added, more quietly, "Only she ever called me by name like that."

Selira turned to him.

"There's only one way a Codex bearer returns after death."

Jace's gaze sharpened. "Which is?"

She hesitated.

Then answered in a whisper.

"They made a Blood Oath Reversal."

---

Back in the Shadow Court's upper chambers, the remaining members of Circle Prime debated in hushed, alarmed tones.

"Vault 9 opened…"

"The prophecy is real…"

"And the corrupted daughter walks again."

"She was declared Null. How can a Null return?"

"No Null has ever returned," another rasped. "Unless…"

Selira entered the chamber without knocking.

"Unless someone bound her Codex to another's life," she said aloud. "And we all know who the only viable candidate is."

All eyes turned to Jace.

---

Back in her private study, Selira laid out the ancient rite.

It wasn't just rare.

It was forbidden.

> Blood Oath Reversal: A ritual from the Age of the First Scribes, used only in desperation. A dying bearer binds their fractured Codex to the bloodline of another—an unknowing host. If the host achieves Codex integration high enough, the dead Codex revives—in their presence.

> Side effect: The revived may retain fragments of self… but not soul. Unless the bond is completed in full.

Jace stared at the text.

"…She used me."

"She trusted you," Selira corrected. "Maybe even loved you."

Jace didn't respond.

But something in his Codex pulsed then.

A memory not his.

> [Codex Trigger – Echo Memory Detected]

Playback: Violet, Final Moments – Trial Collapse]

She knelt in the ruins, bleeding from a collapsed lung, hand shaking as she etched a single glyph into her skin.

> "If I die… let me wake where he walks."

She smiled through the blood.

> "Let me find him again."

> Codex Fragment Transference: Initiated.

---

Jace opened his eyes, stunned.

Selira gave him a moment.

But only a moment.

"She's alive through you now. That means two things."

"One," she continued, "she can be saved."

"Two…"

"…if she falls into the wrong hands, they can use you to kill yourself."

---

The next day, the Shadow Court's scrying glyphs pulsed in alarm.

Another Codex fragment had been detected.

Violet had resurfaced.

But this time, she wasn't alone.

She was leading a group of Nullborn—broken Codex users, half-dead, with inverted glyphs across their skin. All of them marked with the same sigil:

The Eye of Daemir.

Jace clenched his fists.

"If she's corrupted, we bring her back."

Selira hesitated.

"And if she's too far gone?"

Jace didn't answer at first.

But then his Codex shimmered.

> [New Questline Unlocked: The Broken Bond]

– Objective: Locate and confront Violet

– Condition: Determine integrity of Codex link

– Optional: Restore or Sever

Reward: Unknown | Failure Consequence: Codex Degradation

"I'll decide when I see her," Jace said quietly.

"No one else."

"Echoes of the Null Wastes"

The Null Wastes stretched across the southernmost scar of the continent—an expanse of broken ground, inverted glyphs, and lingering death where Codex magic had once torn the world in half.

No one lived here.

Not for long.

Even the Shadow Court rarely ventured this far.

But Jace did.

And he didn't come alone.

---

Selira had sent him with a scout unit, elite operatives known as the Veiled Scribes—each bound to stealth glyphs that let them move through death-soaked terrain without disturbing the lingering inscriptions buried in the soil.

There were three of them: Kira, a half-Null with one dead eye that still read hidden glyphs; Vren, a brute with glyph-chains around his arms that glowed when monsters were near; and Mavien, the only one who didn't speak at all—but wrote everything in a floating script beside her head.

They reached the outskirts of the Cradle of Reversal by dusk.

A ruined city, suspended above the ground on broken gravity wells—its towers looped in mid-air, half-crumbled, held aloft by forgotten Codex laws that still refused to die.

"Codex signature: Confirmed," Kira muttered, her eye twitching. "She's here."

Jace could feel it too.

That tug.

Not just through the Codex.

Through his blood.

---

The team moved silently.

They passed corpses—some beast, some human.

Some were in between.

All had the Eye of Daemir burned somewhere onto their bodies.

"Nullborn," Vren spat. "Half-broken. Half-dead. Fully cursed."

They reached a shattered amphitheater in the city's center.

At the center stood a black spire.

And atop it…

Violet.

---

She hadn't changed much on the surface—same midnight hair, same sharp cheekbones—but her eyes were glassy with the shimmer of broken script. Her skin was pale, and her Codex floated behind her like a ghost chained by blood.

"Jace," she said softly.

Even that hurt to hear.

He stepped forward.

"You don't have to keep going down this path."

"I already did."

"You chose to save me."

"I chose to find you," she corrected. "But now… I've found something else."

She gestured around.

"The world doesn't want us. Daemir offered me a place. Power. Purpose. He showed me how to rebuild my Codex without your bloodline. Without waiting."

Jace's jaw clenched. "And what did it cost?"

She hesitated.

Then smiled.

"Everything."

---

Behind her, Nullborn warriors began to rise.

Veiled Scribes readied their weapons.

Jace raised a hand.

"No."

He stepped forward.

And activated Glyph of Severed Echo.

"I'm not leaving without you."

Violet's eyes flickered.

"Then don't."

She launched at him.

---

The fight was fast.

Brutal.

Their glyphs collided—his clean, refined, practiced. Hers jagged, brutal, instinctual. Her Codex was warped but powerful, pulling fragments from both Daemir's style and Jace's bond. It mirrored his moves with twisted reflections.

> Codex Conflict Detected – Sibling Link Activated

– Blood Echo Resistance: Reduced by 20%

– Emotional Vulnerability Present

– Fatal Strikes Inhibited

Jace couldn't kill her.

And she knew it.

---

In the end, she pinned him down—blade at his throat.

"I win."

He didn't resist.

"Then end it."

Her blade trembled.

But didn't fall.

---

From her broken Codex, a single glyph cracked apart.

And a memory leaked through.

One she hadn't meant to share.

> "If I die… let me wake where he walks."

Her own words.

Her eyes widened.

And for a second—just a second—the corruption broke.

She stepped back, gasping.

Jace rose.

"You remember."

"I… I didn't want to. But now I do."

Tears welled.

He held out a hand.

"I can help you rebuild it. Together."

She hesitated.

Then reached forward—

And vanished.

---

Left in her place was a shard.

A single fragment of her Codex.

> Codex Fragment Acquired: Violet's Spark

– Usage: Unknown

– Sentiment: Heavy

> Codex Integration: 45% → 47%

Kira approached. "What happened?"

"She's still in there," Jace said quietly.

"And we're going to get her back."