The air in Silverveil Citadel hung thick with the cloying scent of jasmine and deceit. Eldrin adjusted his maska gilded monstrosity shaped like a raven's skullas he scanned the ballroom.
Crystal chandeliers cast fractured light over swirling silks and polished armor, their reflections warping in the mirrored walls. Across the room, Tira stood rigid in her emerald gown, the fabric shimmering with embedded source-shard dust. Her gloved hands trembled, though her face remained a mask of aristocratic boredom.
*She's fighting it*, Eldrin thought, his own left arm burning beneath layers of ceremonial lace. The shard grain had spread past his elbow since the rift, their blue veins glowing faintly through the fabric.
Every pulse mirrored the third shard embedded in Tira's chesta-cruel symbiosis.
Liora materializedbeside him, her own mask, a delicate lattice of crystallized chaos-energy. The chancellor's daughter just vomited peacock feathers in the privy,"she murmured, her breath fogging the raven's beak.
" Ophira's illusions are already taking root. Stick to the plan."
Eldrin gritted his teeth. *The plan*.
A waltz, a distraction, a dagger to the heart of Ophira's throne. Simple, if not for the way Tira's gaze flickered between terror and feral hunger.
He approached her, the crowd parting like smoke. Nobles whispered behind feathered fans*Chaos-kin, Titan's blight, Lady Ophira's lost lamb*but their words died as he bowed.
"May I have this dance, my lady?"
Tira's human eye widened. Her gloved hand, cold as winter steel, settled in his palm. "Youte burning me,"she whispered, her voice splitting.
The shard beneath her bodice flared,casting jagged shadows across her collarbone.
The orchestra struck a dissonant chord.
---
They moved through the stepse- stately pavane twisted into something predatory. Eldrin's grain seared with every turn, his chaos-fire clawing at the fragile seal Liora had woven into his sleeve. Tira's breath hitched as the shard's light seeped through her gloves, etching scorch marks into his skin. She's here,
"Tira hissed, her corrupted eye flicking toward the balcony. Cant you *feel* it?"
The chandeliers dimmed.
A figure descended the grand staircase, her gown a living tapestry of shadow and starlight. Ophira's mask was no disguiseher raven hair cascaded freely, her lips painted the crimson of fresh arterial spray. The crowd stilled, then knelt as one, their movements puppet-smooth.
Ah, little brother." Ophira's voice slithered through the hall, sweet as poisoned wine. Youve dressed for the occasion."
Eldrin's grain *screamed*. The third shard in Tira's chest flared in response, its light piercing the ballroom's gloom. Nobles began to twitch, their eyes glazing over as Ophira's illusion tightened its grip. A duke drew his ornamental dagger and plunged it into his neighbor's throat.
Now!"Liora's voice cut through the chaos.
Eldrin tore the raven mask from his face and slammed his palm against Tira's shard. The lines ignited,chaos-fire fusing with the shard's energy. Light erupted from Tira's chestasearing beam that shattered Ophira's illusion like glass.
The crowd awoke screaming.
---
Ophira laughed sound that cracked the marble floors. Clever *rat*.
" Her shadow stretched, elongating into a monstrous parody of her form. But parlor tricks wont save you tonight."
She snapped her fingers.
The floor collapsed.
Eldrin plummeted into darkness, Tira's scream echoing beside him. They landed in a cavernous underground chamber, its walls lined with fossilized Titan bones. Above, the ballroom's ruins rained downshattered crystal, splintered wood, and the occasional severed limb.
Ophira stood atop a dais of fused source-shards, her shadow coalescing into a towering Titan wraitha-skeletal giant wreathed in dying starlight. You' ve collected three shards, brother," she purred, extending a hand. Give them to me, and Ill let your *pet* live."
Tira convulsed at Eldrin's feet, the shard in her chest tearing through fabric and flesh. D-dont"she choked, blood flecking her lips.
Eldrin's grain blazed. Three shardsthe Spire's core, the swamp's corruption, the rift's stolen powersurged through him. Liquid shadow pooled in his palms, then *solidified* into a blade of pure chaos.
"You talk too much,"he snarled.
The wraith struck.
--.
Eldrin moved on instinct. His blade met starlight claws in a shower of sparks, the force cratering the ground beneath him. The wraith's maw gaped, vomiting a beam of concentrated entropy.
Eldrin *dug deeper*, channeling the third shard'sresonance. The lines on his arm split open, tendrils of blue fire lashing out to intercept the attack.
*Too slow.*
The beam grazed his shoulder. Flesh and bone *unraveled*,disintegrating into ash. Eldrin screamednot in pain, but in rage. The grain retaliated, knitting his body back together with threads of stolen shard-energy.
Eldrin, *the heart!*"Liora's voice echoed from the shadows. She dueled a pack of shadow-eaters, her crystalline dagger leaving trails of molten stone. The wraith's core is its"
A clawed hand silenced her.
Eldrin lunged. The wraith's chest cavity pulsed with Ophira's stolen sharda fourth fragment, jagged and weeping black ichor. He drove his blade into the light.
The explosion blinded him.
---
When the aftershocks faded, Eldrin knelt amidst the ruins of the dais. The wraith's remnants swirled around himash and dying starlight. Ophira stood unscathed, her gown smoldering at the hem.
*Delightful*,"she crooned, clapping slowly. But look around, brother. Was it worth it?"
The cavern groaned. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ceiling, swallowing chunks of the citadel above. Tira crawled toward him, her shard dimmed but still embedded in raw, weeping flesh. ft's... collapsing"
Ophira's laughter followed them as they fled through crumbling tunnels. Run, little lambs! The fifth shard awaits... in your *bones*."
---
They emerged into a sulfurous dawn, the citadels western spire collapsing behind them in a roar of dust and screams. Liora staggered, her left arm mangled. Nim's spider-mech lay in pieces, its core sparking feebly.
Tira pressed a shaking hand to Eldrin's grain. Your arm... it's *cold*."
He looked down. The blue veins had spread to his shoulder, their light dimmed to corpse-flesh gray. Somewhere in the ruins, Ophira's whisper lingered:
*You cant outrun what you are.*
The grain pulseda-dying heartbeat.
The game was far from over.