Corrupted blood lord

The lower mine was almost empty when Teclos and Serenna emerged from the rift.

They landed inside a timber-reinforced tunnel where rusted rails vanished into the dark. One surviving lantern revealed wagon tracks and a broad smear of blood across the nearest rail.

Serenna crouched beside it and touched two fingers to the stain.

She looked back at Teclos. "It’s still fresh."

"How fresh?"

"They must have passed through here less than half an hour ago. Perhaps only a few minutes."

Teclos expanded Dark Sense.

The mine opened around him in uneven layers: narrow shafts, storage rooms, flooded passages, and a cluster of weak heartbeats farther below.

Only one powerful presence remained. It waited at the bottom of the mine without moving.

Teclos felt the weight of its mana and lowered his hand.

Serenna rose. "You found someone."

"One vampire. He’s much stronger than the ones in the tax office."

"Only one?"

"The rest are either gone or hiding beyond my range."

She glanced toward the tunnel ahead. "If Selrik stayed behind while everyone else fled, he probably expects us to follow."

"I know."

"And you still intend to walk straight toward him."

Teclos formed a blade of darkness in his right hand.

"You came all this way. It would be rude to disappoint him."

Serenna gave him a tired look and followed.

They moved deeper past split crates and burning papers.

The last chamber before the main shaft held four coffins.

Three stood open and empty.

Lady Mereth lay inside the fourth.

Her throat had been cut to the spine, and most of her blood had been channelled through grooves in the floor.

Serenna stopped beside the coffin.

"He drained her to power something."

Teclos followed the blood channels toward the next tunnel.

"Would she have agreed to this?"

"No. Selrik decided she was worth more dead than alive."

"Then House Drennar finally learned what Vael’thorr loyalty buys them."

"They should have learned years ago."

Red light pulsed beyond the final passage, and Teclos continued.

The tunnel opened into an old loading hall. At the far end, a circular gate floated above the floor, its surface showing rooftops and narrow streets.

Teclos recognised Veyron’s southern district.

Two wagons stood beside the gate, both loaded with sealed coffins. Several unconscious prisoners had been laid across the floor between them.

Selrik waited in front of the portal.

He wore a black coat clasped with silver, and crimson lightning moved slowly around his arms.

His eyes moved between them.

"You took longer than I expected."

Teclos glanced at Mereth’s blood flowing into the runes around the gate.

"You killed your own people so you could escape faster."

"Mereth was never one of my people. She was a useful servant who had reached the end of her usefulness."

Serenna’s expression cooled.

"That is always the excuse with Vael’thorr, isn’t it? Someone serves you for decades, and the moment they become inconvenient, you decide they never mattered."

Selrik looked at her more carefully.

"You speak as though your own house treats its servants with kindness."

"I didn’t say that. I said we don’t pretend betrayal is loyalty."

Crimson lightning brightened around Selrik’s hands.

"Serenna, spread out."

They separated.

A bolt tore through the loading hall and struck between them. Stone exploded upward, and one branch caught Teclos across the thigh, locking his leg and throwing him into a pillar.

Serenna escaped the first strike, but Selrik was already in front of her.

She raised one arm to block.

His fist struck her forearm with a burst of crimson light. Selrik caught her other wrist and twisted it behind her back. Lightning poured into her shoulder, making the illusion around her face flicker.

Serenna drove the back of her head into his nose.

Selrik’s grip loosened just enough.

She turned, struck him beneath the ribs, and tore herself free.

Teclos pushed away from the pillar and sent dark tendrils racing across the floor.

Selrik turned toward them and released another bolt.

Lightning met darkness halfway across the chamber.

The first tendrils vanished immediately. Teclos kept feeding shadow into the clash, slowing the spell one strand at a time.

Selrik walked forward behind the lightning.

"So you really survived Luther. I had hoped the reports were exaggerating."

Teclos braced both feet.

"You sound disappointed."

"I expected more."

The crimson bolt widened.

Teclos’s darkness peeled away faster than he could replace it. Pain climbed through both arms as the spell pressed him backward.

Then Serenna struck Selrik from the side.

Her shoulder hit his ribs and carried him across the chamber. They crashed through one of the wagons, splitting it apart and throwing a coffin onto the floor.

The lid broke open.

The creature inside began screaming. It had once been human, but both legs and one arm were gone, and tubes carried bottled blood into its chest.

Serenna looked down for less than a second.

Selrik caught her by the throat.

"You still hesitate when you see what your kind has made," he said.

He lifted her from the floor.

Serenna grabbed his wrist. "Put me down."

"No."

She bit into the base of his thumb.

Selrik swore and threw her away.

She landed in a crouch with blood across her lips.

The wound in Selrik’s hand did not close.

Black veins spread from the bite and crawled beneath his skin.

Teclos saw the blood rise from Serenna’s mouth.

Instead of falling, it gathered along her cheek and coiled around her fingers. Thin crimson threads formed between her hands.

Darkness moved inside them.

The darkness was part of the blood spell itself, carrying the same cold pressure as his own mana.

Selrik noticed his reaction. "She never told you."

Teclos looked at Serenna. "You have a darkness affinity."

She kept her eyes on Selrik. "This is not the best time to discuss it."

"You could have mentioned it."

"I was planning to. Eventually."

Selrik disappeared in a flash of crimson light.

Serenna closed one hand.

The dark marks beneath his skin tightened.

He reappeared halfway through his movement, one leg dragging behind him.

Teclos attacked before Selrik recovered. His blade cut across the vampire’s chest, and Serenna’s palm struck beneath the ribs. Selrik blocked both, but their timing forced him back.

Teclos opened a rift beneath Selrik’s rear foot.

The vampire tried to step away.

Serenna pulled on the blood marks again.

His knee buckled.

A tendril yanked him sideways, and Serenna turned with the motion to drive her elbow into his temple. Selrik crashed through a timber support.

He rose with blood covering one side of his face. The damage healed quickly, but Serenna’s marks remained.

Selrik looked between them. "How long have you been fighting together?"

"We haven’t," Teclos said.

"That makes this more irritating."

Crimson lightning gathered around his entire body.

Loose stones rolled away from his feet.

Serenna stepped nearer. "He has enough mana to bring this chamber down."

"Can you stop him?"

"Only for a few seconds."

Teclos looked past Selrik toward the blood gate.

"A few seconds will be enough."

"You say that very confidently."

"I’m trying not to worry you."

"That isn’t working."

Selrik threw both arms outward.

Lightning filled the mine.

Serenna pulled on every mark at once.

Selrik’s arms jerked inward, narrowing the blast before it fully formed.

Teclos met it head-on.

Darkness rose in a black wave and crashed against the crimson lightning, melting the stone where they met.

Teclos planted his feet.

Every layer burned away almost immediately. Teclos replaced it with shadow pulled from the wagons, coffins, pillars, and Selrik himself.

The lightning kept coming. Selrik had far more mana to spend, and Teclos slid backward until his boots smoked against the floor.

Serenna moved along the edge of the clash. Blood ran from her nose and joined the darkness gathering around her hand, shaping itself into a narrow blade.

Selrik saw her approaching and turned.

Teclos released his barrier.

The remaining lightning surged forward.

He disappeared into his own shadow a heartbeat before it struck.

The full blast slammed into the blood gate.

Its surface twisted.

The rooftops inside the portal twisted apart.

The gate collapsed, and the loading hall vanished in crimson light.

—

Teclos fell through a roof and landed among shattered furniture.

Outside, Selrik crashed into the street hard enough to leave a crater.

Serenna struck a neighbouring building, pushed away, and landed before the wall collapsed.

The broken portal detonated above the southern district. Three houses vanished beneath the blast, and burning timber rained across the street.

People ran from their homes, screaming and dragging children behind them.

Selrik rose from the crater in black armour, crimson lightning flickering unevenly over his body.

Serenna landed beside Teclos as he climbed from the ruined house.

She looked toward the collapsing portal.

"The prisoners were still beside it."

Teclos followed her gaze.

Dark shapes fell through the red light before it closed. The wagons crashed into the street around the prisoners and coffins.

"Most of them survived."

Serenna looked at him. "Most?"

"We can count after Selrik is dead."

Selrik attacked before she could answer, crossing the street in a flash and striking Teclos across the chest.

Teclos flew through the front wall of another house.

Serenna caught Selrik’s arm, but he drove a knee into her stomach and threw her into a burning cart.

Lightning spread across the road.

Teclos emerged from the shadow beneath a fallen door.

His blade struck Selrik’s back.

The black armour cracked.

Selrik caught the next attack on his forearm, but Teclos opened a rift beside the blade. Its point reappeared inside the crack in Selrik’s armour and drove beneath his ribs.

Selrik’s eyes widened.

He released a blast at point-blank range.

Teclos was thrown across the street. Selrik tore the blade free and crushed it.

Serenna rose from the flames. The ends of her hair had caught fire, forcing her to tear away the burning section.

She cut her palm with one claw.

Blood spread around both forearms with darkness flowing inside it.

Teclos looked at the spell again.

Serenna noticed.

"Stop staring and watch him."

"I’m watching both."

"Then watch faster."

Selrik came through the smoke.

Teclos blocked the first punch with a dark gauntlet.

Two fingers broke beneath the impact, and he dropped to one knee.

Serenna caught Selrik’s other arm with blood threads.

He pulled her toward him.

She did not resist.

The moment she came within reach, she drove her blood-covered hand into the wound beneath his ribs.

Every black mark across Selrik’s body flared.

His lightning failed for one heartbeat.

Teclos stepped behind him.

Dark tendrils wrapped around both ankles.

Serenna pulled upward.

Teclos pulled down.

Selrik’s balance broke.

They moved together. Teclos struck the back of one knee while Serenna drove her elbow into his throat. Selrik fell forward.

Teclos opened a rift beneath his chest.

Serenna understood before he said anything.

She plunged both blood-covered hands into the darkness. They emerged from Selrik’s shadow beneath him, piercing the gaps in his armour and locking around his ribs.

Selrik roared and tried to release another blast.

Teclos wrapped shadow around his head, arms, and throat.

"Hold him there."

"I am holding him."

"Then pull."

Serenna tore backward, breaking Selrik’s ribs outward. Teclos drove one final blade through the opening and into the vampire’s heart.

The lightning stopped.

Selrik remained on his knees for several seconds.

Then his body collapsed into the crater.

They stood still for a moment while fire spread through the nearby houses.

Teclos looked at the blood and darkness covering Serenna’s hands.

"You really do have the same affinity as me."

"Not exactly the same."

"It looked the same."

"It isn’t. My blood magic carries the darkness. Yours creates it directly."

"You could have explained that before now."

Serenna wiped one hand across Selrik’s ruined coat.

"You never told me every spell you could use."

"I didn’t know we were keeping count."

Armoured men entered the district from the northern road.

They carried Veyron’s banner.

The patrol captain reined in when he recognised Teclos. His gaze moved from the burning houses to Selrik’s body, then to Serenna.

"What in the name of every god happened here?"

Teclos pointed toward the corpse.

"That vampire opened a gate beneath Sorn. We damaged it during the fight, and it collapsed over the city."

The captain stared at him.

"You expect me to believe a vampire gate appeared above three houses and exploded?"

"I don’t need you to believe it. The prisoners who fell out of it can explain the same thing once they wake."

The captain looked toward the broken wagons, where his men were already pulling prisoners from the wreckage.

"And the houses?"

"They were beneath the gate."

"That does not make them less destroyed."

"No, but it explains why."

The captain rubbed at his forehead.

"Count Veyron is going to demand a full account."

"He can have one."

"From you. In person."

Teclos nodded. "After the fires are under control."

The captain looked at Serenna.

Her hood covered most of her face, though blood still coated her hands.

"Who is she?"

"A mercenary I hired in Sorn."

Serenna turned her head slightly toward Teclos.

The captain noticed.

"You hired her?"

"She was expensive, but she helped kill him."

The man looked at Selrik’s body again. "Does this mercenary have a name?"

"Seren."

Serenna wisely said nothing.

The patrol captain dismounted.

"You’re staying in the city until the count hears this from you."

"I wasn’t planning to leave."

"I’m glad we agree."

Teclos looked toward the houses.

"You have people trapped beneath the eastern roof."

The captain followed his gaze and immediately shouted for soldiers to move.

When he was out of hearing, Serenna leaned closer.

"You hired me?"

"It was the simplest answer I could give him."

"You could have said we were working together."

"That would have led to more questions."

"And calling me expensive would not?"

"He believed that part."

Serenna glanced at his broken fingers.

Without warning, she caught his hand and pulled the worst finger straight.

Pain shot through his arm.

Teclos looked at her.

"You could have warned me."

"You would have moved."

"That was the idea."

She released him.

"You’ll heal."

Behind them, Selrik’s body began to crumble beneath Teclos’s darkness. Serenna glanced back at it.

"You should stop before you take too much."

Teclos remembered the foreign memories that had entered him at the bridge.

He eased his grip on the mana.

"You noticed."

"I was watching."

Another roof collapsed, filling the street with sparks.

Teclos looked toward it.

"We should help."

Serenna studied him, then moved toward the fire.

Teclos followed.