The surface world had collapsed decades ago, but its corpse still walked. The cities were still standing, but they were nothing more than ruins disguised as civilization. Governments, laws, justice... everything was an illusion held together by invisible threads tangled in the deepest shadows.
It was Salen who opened his eyes.
-Did you think that kings ruled, that armies defended peace? -he asked, as he led Kael down a passage hidden beneath a ruined church. No, child. This world belongs to those who understand the rules of the underworld.
What he found there was not a refuge. It was an invisible realm.
Underground, among tunnels of ancient stone and chambers lit by blue torches, was a network as complex as it was lethal. The Societies of the Underworld, heirs to lost lineages, pacts with forbidden forces and secrets that defied reason, dominated what was left of the planet.
There were clans that controlled the economy of chaos, trafficking in cursed weapons, magical relics and blood contracts. Orders that trained assassins as if they were artists. Cults that worshipped forgotten gods, offering sacrifices in exchange for forbidden knowledge. And ancient families that still retained powers given to them by the gods themselves... or worse.
Kael was introduced as just another apprentice, but his presence did not go unnoticed.
Some looked at him with suspicion. Others, with interest. There were rumors, whispers that his lineage was uncommon, that he had survived trials that would have destroyed any other child.
-There is no innocence down here," Salen warned him, as he pointed to a large mural carved in stone. It showed a battle between masked creatures, humans transformed by blood, and a multi-eyed god watching from the shadows.
-What is that? -asked Kael.
-Balance," replied Salen. Upstairs, people pretend there is order. Here, we know there's only strength, cunning... and rules. Break one, and you disappear.
The rules were clear:
Blood rules. Your lineage determines your value... or your price. Secrecy is sacred. To speak of what you must not is to invoke your own execution. Covenant is law. To break an oath sealed with blood means eternal death. The weak serve or disappear. There is no room for mercy.
And though Kael was just beginning to understand the magnitude of that unseen world, he already felt something inside him resonate with those rules. Not because he shared them... but because he sensed that, one day, he would break them all.
That night, as he rested in a silent chamber, he dreamed of her again.
The woman with starry eyes and a voice like an ancient river. Ixchel. But this time, she did not speak to him. She only watched him, while behind her, a new mural was formed in blood: Kael on a throne of thorns, surrounded by ashes.
And she awoke with a burning thought: to understand the game of the underworld, she had to learn how to play it... better than anyone else.