Chapter 13: Belloq
Dante moved beneath the sickly sky, his black coat clinging to his skin, boots slogging through a mixture of mud, blood, and human filth.
Tucked under his arm was a bundle of envelopes and bloodstained pages torn from the Chrysalide archives—documents taken after he slit the throats of the scribes who kept them.
One name kept surfacing at the bottom of each page : Caledron.
"Curse approved : Annabelle Edwin.
Status : blind. Vital signs declining."
The meaning was clear. His mother hadn’t fallen ill by accident. Nor by misfortune.
She had been sold.
Dante stepped into a dive bar—The Extinguished Throat.
Inside, the air stank of beer. Blurred, gaunt faces barely turned toward him before returning to their drunk.