Beneath the towering obsidian foundations of Mount Dread lay the Aetheric Veins—a labyrinth of vaulted subterranean canals that channeled pure, liquid celestial ether from the mountain’s molten core to the fountains and healing baths of the upper Citadel.
For five millennia, these glowing violet waterways had been the lifeblood of the Night Court, sustaining the eternal longevity of its citizens and powering the defensive barrier runes carved into the fortress walls.
Now, an unnatural, sickening darkness crept along the surface of the glowing channels.
Dozens of Shadow-Stalkers scuttled upside down along the damp vaulted ceilings, their chittering mandibles clicking in hypnotic unison. Behind them shambled the infected husk of Sentinel Captain Valen. His skin had withered to an ashen gray, his eyes hollow sockets burning with parasitic viridian light.
In his calloused hands, Valen carried theBlight of the Ashen Maw—an iron urn weeping oily, necrotic miasma that hissed when it touched the cool mountain air.
"Here," the telepathic hive-whisper rasped through Valen’s corrupted skull. "The confluence of the third reservoir. Pour the bile. Let their healing waters become their tomb."
Valen unlatched the heavy iron lid.
He tipped the vessel, emptying a thick, tar-like ichor directly into the roaring violet waterfall of the main aqueduct.
The reaction was catastrophic.
The moment the corrupted fluid struck the celestial ether, a violent, boiling froth erupted. The soft, luminous violet light curdled into a murky, toxic viridian slime that spread through the waterways with terrifying speed. Where the tainted water touched the stone conduits, the protective runes etched into the masonry blistered, cracked, and went cold.
A heavy, suffocating vapor rose from the canals—a scent of rotting swamp water, curdled milk, and burning sulfur that began wafting upward through the ventilation shafts of the Citadel.
Two leagues above, in the imperial bedchamber, Seraphina bolted upright in bed.
A sharp, searing spike of agony tore through the center of her chest, directly where the golden crescent mark pulsed at the base of her throat. She gasped for breath, her hands flying to her neck as her Sunblood flared violently in frantic, instinctive defense against a sudden psychic chill.
Beside her, Kaelen was awake in an instant.
His eighty-foot shadow-wings snapped open with a concussive crack that rustled the velvet draperies. He was off the mattress in a heartbeat, his bare feet hitting the floor as his silver eyes scanned the darkness, instinctively placing his massive body between Seraphina and the chamber doors.
"Seraphina," he growled, the rough sleep vanishing from his baritone as he reached down to steady her shaking shoulders. "What is it? What hurts?"
"The water..." she choked out, her amber eyes wide with panic as she gripped his forearms, her skin scorching with feverish golden heat. "The mountain's blood... it's turning black. It's choking, Kaelen! Something is poisoning the roots of the keep!"
Kaelen’s expression darkened into murderous fury. He tilted his head back, inhaling deeply through his nose.
The faint, unmistakable stench of necrotic sulfur hit his senses.
"Necrotic blight," he snarled, his jaw clenching with such force that a vein pulsed along his temple. His dragon-steel armor materialized over his chest and limbs in a flash of dark lightning, his broad sword Gloom-Weaver snapping into his palm. "The Iron Bulwark has fallen. The vermin are inside the walls."
He turned to look at Seraphina, who was already swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Her golden wings unfurled behind her in a glorious fan of starlight, burning away the creeping nausea in her chest.
"We don't have time to wait for the council," Seraphina said, reaching for her twin sunstone daggers from the nightstand, her eyes blazing with regal, untamed fire. "If that poison reaches the civilian reservoirs, half your city will die in their sleep."
Kaelen looked down at her, his silver eyes flashing with dark pride and lethal intent. He caught her face in his gauntleted hand, his thumb brushing her heated cheek.
"Then let us go hunting, my Queen," Kaelen purred darkly, leaning down to press a hard, fierce kiss to her lips. "And purge this mountain with fire."