The fissure yawned open like a wound in the stone. Eis slid in first—shoulder angled, breath steady—her movements controlled even in the tight squeeze.

  Ronan followed immediately, jaw set, hand on his blade.

  Kael came next, bow held sideways to fit through the gap.

  Lira last, whispering a soft spell of light that hovered faintly behind them like a firefly.

  The rough stone scraped their armor as they pushed through. Dust fell in thin sheets. The air was colder on the other side—raw, damp, and close.

  A narrow tunnel sloped sharply downward.

  They moved quickly.

  Footprints stamped into mud. Drag marks. Blood smears.

  Signs of a struggle—recent.

  The faint clinking of metal echoed ahead, mixed with breathing that did not belong to any of them.

  Kael tapped Eis’s shoulder lightly.

  “Voices. Around the bend.”

  They pressed on.

  The corridor widened into a hollow lit by a single flickering lantern.

  Eis took the far edge. Ronan mirrored her from the opposite side. Kael took the center rear, bow raised. Lira stayed tucked behind them, her staff pulsing faintly.

  And there she was—

  The girl.

  Chained again to a metal ring in the wall, bruised, barely conscious.

  Kneeling beside her:

  A man—not one they had seen before—tall, wiry, wrapped in a dark coat like the buyer's.

  Your spellcards lay scattered before him in a loose circle on the floor, their runes faintly glowing.

  He picked up one—fire burst—turned it over with interest.

  “Craftsmanship like this…” he murmured, tone clinical.

  “She said an adventurer gave them.”

  Ronan stiffened. Kael’s jaw clenched. Lira’s breath caught.

  The man tried activating the card.

  It flared red—then sputtered violently.

  He dropped it before it detonated weakly.

  The girl flinched.

  He stood, dusting off his coat.

  “No need to panic,” he told the captive lightly. “You’re leverage. That adventurer—she’ll come back. They always do.”

  His voice was calm.

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  Too calm.

  He turned toward the darkness—toward them—though he clearly couldn’t see.

  “And she’s punctual.”

  Ronan’s eyes widened.

  “He knows we're—”

  Eis moved.

  Eis vaulted from cover in a blur.

  Her crossbow whispered only once.

  The bolt hissed across the chamber and buried itself in the man’s shoulder.

  He staggered—but his mana flared in response, crimson and unnatural.

  Kael fired instantly, arrow meeting mana and bursting in sparks.

  Ronan charged, sword raised.

  The man’s eyes flashed—runes embedded in the iris, artificial and cold.

  He swung out a hand, a burst of red spiraling toward them.

  Lira caught it with a barrier spell, teeth clenched.

  “That’s not human magic!”

  Eis was already on him.

  Her knife slashed upward—sparking against his bracer as he redirected the blow.

  He was stronger than his build suggested—fast, too fast.

  “You’re efficient,” he rasped, grabbing her wrist.

  “Vauren will—”

  Eis twisted—bone and tendons pushed to their limit beneath her technique—slammed a knee into his stomach, and drove the blade under his jaw.

  His spell fizzled.

  His legs buckled.

  Ronan arrived a heartbeat later, steel flashing, but Eis had already finished it.

  The man collapsed, lifeless.

  His blood glowed faintly red as it pooled—crawling toward runes carved into the floor.

  Lira shivered.

  “That mark…”

  Silence returned—broken only by the crackling of burnt parchment.

  Several of Eis’s cards lay scorched on the ground.

  Kael checked the tunnel.

  “No reinforcements. Not yet.”

  Ronan knelt by the dead man, inspecting the glowing runes.

  “He wasn’t a simple slaver. Whoever Vauren is… he’s using enhanced agents.”

  Lira went to the girl.

  “Oh gods—she’s burning with fever.”

  Eis reached her first, slicing the manacles cleanly.

  The girl sagged into her arms.

  “You…” she whispered, barely audible.

  “You’re safe now,” Eis said, voice steady.

  She gathered the surviving spellcards—damaged, drained, but salvageable—and slid them back into her pouch.

  Then—

  A tremor.

  A faint hum rising through the stone.

  Ronan snapped to attention.

  “They’re coming.”

  Kael nodded sharply.

  “Multiple steps. Fast.”

  Lira helped the girl stand.

  Eis rose, cloak settling behind her like a shadow.

  “We move,” Ronan said.

  Eis adjusted her grip on the girl.

  “No,” she corrected quietly.

  “We run.”

  Team Argent fell in around her—

  Kael drawing another arrow,

  Lira holding a healing glyph ready,

  Ronan guarding the rear.

  And together—

  They left the hollow behind, the mana trail glowing ahead like a path cut into the dark.