The cliffs rose like broken fangs, mist coiling between their teeth. What passed for a road had long since been devoured by time.. only gouged stone and slanted shale remained, slick with dew and the memory of avalanches.
They moved in silence.
Sevi limped from the last march, her breath sharp behind clenched teeth. Torren watched their flanks, one blade drawn, the other hand brushing the hilt of a hidden knife. Zee walked last, quiet, eyes on the path ahead.
Vile was already waiting.
She stood beneath a broken arch at the edge of the ruins, her form still, green hair pulled back tight. She didn't speak. She didn't need to.
Mira had sent her ahead. That had been clear.
"I mapped a path," Vile said as they approached. "Watched the outer guard shifts. If we move now, we'll reach the wall before the next rotation."
Zee gave a single nod. No questions.
They followed.
The ruins were old, ivy-choked and half-eaten by time. Traps littered the path. Hooks behind stones. Threaded runes hidden beneath moss. Bone charms wired to collapse.
Vile found them all. Disarmed them with ghostlike ease.
The final ridge flattened into a narrow ledge. Four feet across, and slick with dew. At its end: the fortress wall. Half-carved from the cliff. Lanterns flickered within the stone.
Then.. movement.
Zee saw them first. Six sentries emerging from the mist. Blackened steel. Blades drawn. Eyes like flint.
Marshal's elite.
Sevi tensed, voice low. "They know someone's coming. Or they were told."
She glanced sideways at Vile.
"You sure she didn't lead them to us?"
But Vile was already moving.
She flowed into the dark, daggers sliding free with a soft hiss.
Then the clash began.
Zee met his opponent with steel on steel. Sparks flew. Sevi bent light into illusion, but one knight broke through, slashing her shoulder. She reeled, bleeding.
Torren felled one with a flicker-fast strike, but the next filled his place immediately.
Vile was a bladestorm. She struck without waste. Daggers sliced behind helmets, slid into exposed joints, dosed with paralytic poison. Two collapsed mid-swing.
"Let me do this," she said. "Proceed with the mission."
Zee's voice was steady. "No. We fight together."
But the Marshal's blades weren't green. They adapted. Tightened. Pressed.
Zee was driven back by a two-handed sweep. Locked blades. Gritted teeth.
Then Vile slipped behind the knight, and opened his throat.
Two remained. One stepped back. The other turned, and fled.
Zee cursed. "He's alerting the gate.."
Too late.
The stone groaned. The outer gate shuddered open.
Inside, the fortress stirred.
Sevi gripped the wall, pale. Blood slipping through her fingers.
"I can stand," she said.
She couldn't.
Vile crouched, scanning the wound. Then looked to the gate.
"You don't need me for the Marshal. I'll hold them here."
Zee's gaze didn't shift. "Then do it right."
Vile didn't nod. But she didn't argue.
She rose, took up a fallen blade, and stood beside Sevi.
Zee and Torren moved on.
The last torch behind them flickered.
Ahead, the gate opened wide.
And the fortress waited.