Chapter Nineteen: Whispers in the Smoke

The Forge had collapsed two days ago.

Since then, the palace had been quiet too quiet.

Servants whispered in clipped tones. Imperial guards rotated more often than usual. And the Seers, once ever-present, had vanished from the halls, their silk-draped chambers sealed shut.

Ren stood on the southern balcony, overlooking the moonlit courtyards.

“We cut off the head,” he murmured, “but something worse grew in its place.”

Kaede joined him, her expression grim. “The cult’s retaliating. I’ve seen it.”

She tossed a bundle of crimson cloth onto the stone railing.

Ren unfolded it carefully.

A cultist’s robe scorched, torn, and covered in ash lotus petals.

Kaede nodded. “I found it hidden in the root tunnels near the koi ponds. Someone’s been using the maintenance routes to move freely between the palace and the city.”

Ren’s eyes narrowed. “They’ve infiltrated the grounds.”

Kaede drew a silver hairpin from her sleeve a weapon, but also a tool of precision. “They weren’t just sneaking in. They’re staging something. Building toward the next Trial.”

She hesitated.

“There’s more.”

Later, in the Hall of Echoes

The twins entered one of the oldest wings of the palace, a long-abandoned training hall used by imperial swordmasters. The air was thick with dust and incense.

Kaede knelt by a shattered training dummy.

“Instructor Moru’s body was found this morning.”

Ren’s stomach twisted. “He was loyal.”

Kaede nodded. “And vocal. He was warning the Emperor about the cult’s growing presence.”

She lifted a torn ribbon of parchment from beneath the dummy.

Ren read aloud: The Fifth Trial will burn more than the weak. It will baptize the chosen in flame. The vessel still breathes.

He looked up. “They’re moving the ritual forward.”

Kaede stood, voice cold. “And they’re tying it to the Fifth Trial.”

Ren turned, scanning the hall. “We need proof. Something the Emperor can’t ignore.”

Just then a hiss.

Both twins spun, weapons drawn.

From a wall panel near the training hall altar, a hidden door swung open.

Inside stood a bloodied palace guard, barely conscious, bound at the wrists and marked with a red crescent carved into his forehead.

He looked at Ren and gasped, “They’re already inside… The Grand Atrium… they plan to”

 An arrow struck him in the throat.

The wall behind the twins exploded inward cultists in black and red pouring through the breach like hornets.

Kaede blocked the first blade. Ren parried the next. The fight erupted fast, furious, and bloody. The cultists fought without hesitation, without fear.

 They weren’t trying to kill the twins.

 They were trying to capture them.

Kaede shouted, “Retreatback to the roof!”

Ren nodded, slicing a path through the chaos. The twins vaulted onto pillars, using the training hall’s crumbling framework to escape up through a collapsed ceiling shaft.

As they emerged into moonlight, Ren’s heart thundered.

They had just barely survived.

But it was no longer a game of secrecy.

 The cult had declared war.

And the Fifth Trial was their battlefield.