Cassius’ head pounded, his vision blurred. For a moment, he struggled to understand where he was or what had happened.

Then, everything cleared. He shot upright with a sharp gasp, groaning as the world tilted around him. Reaching for the back of his head, his fingers came away wet and warm. Blood.

His sight adjusted, and he took in his surroundings. He was sprawled in the middle of the street outside the mansion.

“CASSIUS!”

Alice’s voice rang out. He turned, shock flashing across his face. No one had ever called out to him like that, so openly, so loudly. As the initial surprise faded, concern took its place. He looked around, scanning for any sign that someone else had heard.

Alice was already rushing toward him, and Dreu and Seraphis were close behind. They skidded to a stop at his side.

"Are you all right?" Alice asked, her face pale, eyes wide with unease. "Did you catch the man pursuing you?"

"What, man?" Cassius frowned, his mind struggling to keep up. His thoughts swam through molasses, sluggish and disoriented.

Alice hesitated, glancing at Dreu and Seraphis.

"There was someone following him," she said finally. "After we parted, I tried to follow him back once I was sure I wasn’t the one being followed. I barely caught a glimpse before both of them disappeared."

Ignoring the three pairs of eyes giving him an imploring look, he turned to face the mansion behind him.

In the distance, faint voices drifted from the lower streets, but there was only silence up here. The gate remained locked, the grounds just as eerily still as before. His pursuer was nowhere in sight; they had stopped following him when he entered the mansion.

A question arose: had they been tracking or steering him toward the mansion?

Cassius couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

He walked over to the tree he had used to scale the wall and climbed without hesitation, ignoring the pounding in his skull. The bark scraped against his palms, grounding him in the moment.

"Where are you heading?" Seraphis asked, following close behind.

Dreu and Alice hesitated briefly before scrambling up after them.

"I saw something in the basement before I was knocked out," Cassius said. "It might have been a hallucination, but I doubt it. I just need it to make sense."

"Someone attacked you?" Alice asked, her voice sharp with shock. "Inside the mansion?"

"Yes," Cassius confirmed.

He paused atop the wall, scanning the empty courtyard. The hallways beyond were dark and silent. Then he jumped inside. The air felt different now, heavier, more foreboding.

Cassius retraced his steps exactly, his eyes scanning every detail around him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Yet, whoever had pursued him should have left some trace, shouldn't they?

If even he couldn't find it, that meant one of two things: the person had already been in the basement, lying in wait, or they had appeared out of thin air.

The others followed Cassius, their footsteps silent. It seemed they didn’t want to break his focus, yet he could sense the questions simmering on their lips, especially Aliss’s.

Cassius stopped at the basement entrance. The heavy metal door stood ajar, just as before. Cautiously, he descended the stairs, straining to hear the strange sounds the creatures had made in the cells, but silence greeted him.

He froze on the last step, eyes widening.

The cells were empty.

Dreu’s light orb floated ahead of Cassius, illuminating each cell before drifting to the next.

"What are you looking for here?" Seraphis asked, sidestepping Cassius and moving forward to inspect the other cells. Aliss followed, but Dreu remained beside him.

Cassius didn’t answer. Instead, he peered into the cells. The heavy stench of decay, mingled with sulfur, clung to the air, the same stench that had led him here, all the way from Redglen. It was unbearable here, which meant that whatever he’d seen was anything but an illusion.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Aliss suddenly collapsed beside a cell before he could.

Seraphis let out an alarmed cry, catching her before she hit the ground. He eased her against the cell door, her hands gripping the cold metal bars.

Cassius and Dreu rushed toward them.

"Wait," Dreu said, stopping Seraphis as he reached to shake her shoulders. "She’s having a vision."

"What?" Cassius turned to him, frowning.

"She’s a seer, remember?" Dreu pointed out. "Since she’s untrained, she can’t control the visions. They can come anytime, anywhere, especially through touch and smell."

Cassius blinked, still processing this revelation. As if his being a spellblade wasn’t enough, Aliss was now thrown into the mix. He wondered how she was coping with these visions, which were her new reality now.

They knew the moment Aliss came out of the vision. She gasped sharply, straightening against the cold bars. Her eyes were red, tears streaking down her cheeks. Cassius saw it then: the fear, the sorrow.

"What is it?" Seraphis asked, ever impatient.

"They were here," Aliss whispered. "They were all here."

"Who?" Dreu asked.

"Inhabitants of this mansion. The dead. The dying. I don’t know." She shook her head, staring at her hands resting on her thighs. "There were so many before they were taken away through the portal."

"I know what she’s talking about," Cassius said, all eyes turning to him. "I saw them too. So many people. Dead but alive. Rotten flesh hanging from their bones, their clothes worn and torn. Their hair was a tangled mess, and some had raw bruises on their heads like they’d been pulling at it."

"I’m telling you, Zenior and Lard must be stopped before it’s too late," Seraphis said, his voice echoing like thunder in the confined space.

Cassius clenched his jaw, suppressing the surge of anger that flared within him.

"We’re already on our way to do just that, aren’t we?" he said. "I didn’t come here on purpose. Someone followed me, someone who might still be out there."

"Coming here was part of our journey," Dreu added from where he leaned against the bars on the other side. "So far, the town seems untouched by whatever Zenior is doing, but we cannot ignore the possibility that countless cities, towns, and even villages may have already fallen to his grand scheme."

Cassius exhaled, nodding. Dreu was right.

"In Redglen, Aliss’ father and a few others, possibly more we don’t know about, were his first test subjects. Then he moved to Lastmoor, targeting even more people. From there, the entire village of Crullfeld. Dreu intercepted him at Killfall, or that might’ve been his next target," Cassius explained.

Seraphis nodded thoughtfully, his cloud armor shifting almost imperceptibly. "What about this town? This manor?"

"Another test?" Dreu suggested. "So far, he has left no traces behind. Could he be moving the undead, assuming that is what we call his creations, through the portals to somewhere else? Cassius might have stumbled upon them during the transfer, which explains why he got knocked out, and there are no signs of the undead here."

Cassius nodded, seeing sense in the monk’s words.

"After everything we know, it seems he’s amassed close to a thousand undead," Seraphis said.

"Aliss’ visions showed her hundreds of thousands," Dreu pointed out.

Cassius whispered a curse under his breath, turning away, his hands gripping his head.

“We must stop them at all costs,” Seraphis said.

Cassius turned, seething. “I’m not going to,” he spat. “I’ll head back and meet with Marëchal Herman. I’m calling this off.”

Art above by Nelson Oga

The three stared at him, their expressions unreadable.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter, Cassius Perote Sadon,” Aliss said, her voice low and steady. “I know the contract you signed with the AoS. They’ll kill you the moment you show up on their doorstep without Zenior and Lard’s heads in your hands.”

Cassius clenched his fists, fury boiling inside him. She knew. Of course, she knew. She must have seen it all. But what bothered him more than her knowing about him was the truth in her words.

Whether Cassius liked it or not, he was meant to see this through. 

“Besides,” Seraphis said, stepping around Aliss and stopping before him. “You owe it to the people. Don’t you want to save them with your talents?”

It was the wrong thing to say.

Cassius lunged, his fist connecting squarely with Seraphis’ jaw. Before he could follow up with a kick, Seraphis’ cloud armor flared to life, its bright white light cutting through the dungeon’s darkness.

“STOP IT!” Dreu boomed. “BOTH OF YOU!”

Cassius had barely registered the words before an invisible force slammed into his midsection, sending him flying back. When he hit the ground, the impact forced the air from his lungs. He coughed, gasping for breath, as a crushing weight pressed down on his chest, pinning him in place.

Cassius’ rage reeled back, and a voice of reason echoed in his mind. 

Aliss was right, he thought. He’d signed the contract with the AoS, sealing his fate if he failed; they had every right to kill him. There was no turning back, not until Zenior and Lard were dead.

Aliss stepped beside him and looked down at him with a gaze full of sorrow. “You owe it to the people too, no?”

“I don’t owe them anything,” Cassius said quietly. “They took everything from me. The last thing I’d do is fight for them.”

“Fine.” Aliss raised a hand, stopping Seraphis or Dreu before they could speak. “Then do it for yourself. Your survival depends on seeing this through, no?”

Cassius clenched his jaw but said nothing. When Aliss offered her hand, he took it, letting her pull him to his feet.

“Let’s get moving,” Dreu said, brushing past Cassius toward the stairs. “We’ve already wasted enough sunlight.”

Stay tuned for Chapter 17 on 08/29/25