Chapter 100: Chapter 100 – The Old Gate Opens
The voice from the loudspeaker did not echo through the forest and disappear. It clung to the tree trunks, to the old lines beneath the moss, and to the broken ring on Elara’s wrist. Kael Blackthorn, if you want to see Darian’s body, bring the vessel to the Root Facility. The sentence was not only a threat. It was a blade placed deliberately inside Kael’s deepest wound.
Kael’s face froze, then changed. Anger did not come immediately. First, something quieter and more dangerous passed through him. The darkness that opened in Kael’s eyes at Darian’s name seemed, for one instant, as if it could swallow the entire forest. Elara thought he would move, but Kael stayed where he was. This time, he was holding himself back not so he would not attack, but so he would not fall apart.
Rowan was looking toward the direction of the gray road. The loudspeaker’s final sentence had struck a different place inside him. Rowan Ashford, thank you for opening your old doors. It had been shaped like an accusation. But its real purpose was worse. The World Government wanted Rowan to doubt even himself.
Talon was the first to break the silence. "We officially set the trap ourselves."
Erynd’s face was pale, but his eyes were still on the half-ring mark carved into the old oak tree. "If we stay without opening the intermediate gate, they will trap us here. If we open it, they will feel us."
Kael’s voice came low. "Then let them feel us."
Elara turned to him. "Kael."
His gaze came to her. It was hard, but not blind. "They used Darian’s name."
"I know."
"No," Kael said, his voice dropping even further. "You don’t know. I lost him once. Now they are saying his body is still somewhere. I know this could be a lie. But there is also a chance it is true. And that chance is enough to take me there."
Elara looked at him for a few seconds. This time, she did not want to give him a logical answer. Because logic sometimes became very useless in the middle of grief. She stepped closer. Kael’s body tensed, but he did not touch her. Elara could now read the way he held himself back.
"We are going," Elara said. "If they are trying to break you by using Darian’s body, we will break that together."
Kael’s gaze dropped to her lips. This time, it was not like hunger. It was more like looking at the last warmth he leaned on to survive. "Will you be able to stop me?"
Elara’s voice lowered. "If I have to, yes."
A dark expression appeared at the corner of Kael’s mouth. "I believe you can."
"You have to believe it."
Kael moved a little closer. Very little distance remained between them. "Sometimes believing in you is easier than believing in myself."
Elara’s breath faltered for a moment. The warmth of that sentence was dangerous. Because there was no surrender inside it, but there was a naked truth. The thing more dangerous than the moments when Kael tried to possess her was that he was now showing her his weakness.
Rowan’s voice came from behind. "We need to open the intermediate gate."
When Elara turned her head, she saw that Rowan’s gaze did not avoid hers. There was jealousy on his face, but it had not turned into something poisonous like in the old cycle. It was quieter. More controlled. A jealousy that did not deny itself, but was trying not to block Elara’s way.
Erynd approached the trunk of the oak tree. "The three lines and the half-ring are here. But because the World Government symbol was carved into the center, the gate may be corrupted."
Talon looked over his shoulder toward the gray road. "Is a corrupted gate worse than the army of metal bugs coming this way?"
Erynd thought for a brief moment. "Depending on the situation, yes."
Talon sighed.
Rowan touched the mark on the tree bark. Pale blue lines awakened beneath his fingers. But immediately after, the white metallic symbol also lit up and pressed down over the lines like a hard light. Rowan’s hand tensed.
"The gate recognizes me," he said. "But it does not only want Ashford blood to open."
Elara felt the mark on her wrist warm. "It wants me too."
Kael’s face hardened. "We are not using Elara."
Rowan lifted his head. "Using someone and understanding what the gate wants are not the same thing."
Kael took one step. "Do not play word games right now."
Elara’s voice stopped them both. "Both of you, be quiet."
They looked at her at the same time.
Elara lifted her wrist. "If the gate wants me, I will do it. If Rowan is going to open it, he will do it. If Kael is going to hold it with his fire, he will do that too. No one will decide for anyone else."
The sentence stood in the forest like a sharp line. Kael’s jaw tightened, but he lowered his head. Rowan slowly drew his hand back from the tree as well.
Erynd spoke carefully. "The old notes mentioned three things for intermediate gates. The line holder, the one who will pass, and the power that keeps the gate alive."
Talon looked at him. "Shouldn’t you have said that earlier?"
Erynd’s face tightened with shame. "Most of the notes were incomplete, and some parts were encoded."
Rowan spoke in a low voice. "I am the line holder."
Elara looked at the broken ring on her wrist. "I am the one who will pass."
Kael fixed his eyes on the darkness of the gray road. The hum had begun again. It was closer. "And the power that keeps the gate alive is my fire."
The Moon Spirit stirred inside Elara. "This gate is old. If you pass through it, the line will recognize you."
Elara answered inwardly, "Enough people are already trying to recognize me."
"This is different."
"How is it different?"
The Moon Spirit was silent for a moment. "Old gates do not smell the body. They smell intention."
Elara went cold inside. "Then everyone will watch their intentions."
Kael had not heard that, but he noticed the change in Elara’s face. "What did it say?"
"Elara?" Rowan asked too.
Elara looked at them both. "The gate reads intention."
Talon immediately lifted his head. "Wonderful. My intentions are very rude right now."
Erynd almost looked as if he might smile, but then he grew serious. "If we enter the gate with a lie, it may throw us to the wrong place."
Rowan’s gaze returned to Elara. "Then let us be clear."
Kael released a short breath. "I want to find Darian."
Rowan’s voice followed. "I want to learn how my family opened this gate to the World Government."
Erynd spoke more quietly. "I want to learn why Lucien banned the old notes."
Talon rolled his shoulders. "I want to survive. And, if possible, I would like to face a normal problem one day."
Then everyone looked at Elara.
Elara approached the half-ring on the oak tree. "I do not want to wait for the Root Facility to come to me. I want to go there with my own steps. Because if they think I am the key, then I will decide from which side the door opens."
For an instant, the mark on her wrist warmed.
Rowan placed his hand on the tree. "Then let us begin."
Elara brought her wrist closer to the center of the half-ring. The white metallic symbol trembled. Kael placed his right hand on the other side of the tree. His warmth immediately changed the air. The border lines glowed blue, Elara’s mark black, and the place Kael touched red. The three colors did not merge. They only began to circle around the same ring.
The gate did not open.
Instead, the tree breathed.
The bark parted. What appeared inside was not darkness, but a narrow and crooked passage. The path was not made of stone. It was made of roots, old seals, and hardened shadows. As if all the forgotten lines beneath the forest had gathered together and created a spine.
Kael’s hand tensed on the tree. "Quick."
Blood began to seep from Rowan’s fingers. The Ashford line recognized him, but it wanted a price. When Elara saw it, she wanted to pull her hand back. Rowan shook his head. "Do not stop."
"It is taking your blood."
"I gave permission."
Elara looked at him. "Do not use that against me."
Rowan’s gaze did not soften, but it deepened. "I am not using it. I am only keeping the gate open."
Kael’s voice hardened. "For how long?"
Erynd looked at the passage. "It has to hold until everyone passes through."
Talon grunted. "Of course. A fast and bloody option."
The first light appeared from the direction of the gray road. Not vehicle lights, but the white eyes of scanning devices. Their time was running out.
Rowan pushed Erynd toward the passage. "You first."
Erynd did not object. Talon followed after him. The passage did not swallow them, but took them into the shadows. Kael turned to Elara. "You."
Elara shook her head. "Rowan is losing blood."
Rowan’s voice was strained, but clear. "Elara, go."
This time, Kael did not hold her. He only looked at her. "Go. I will bring him after you."
The line inside Elara tightened. "If either of you stays behind, I will come back."
Kael’s eyes burned. "I know."
Rowan spoke very low. "That is why we will not stay behind."
Elara stepped into the passage. It was cold. Roots reached toward the mark around her wrist, but Kael’s fire rose from behind and kept them away. Rowan’s path fixed the direction inside the passage. For an instant, Elara felt both of them in her body. Fire did not push from behind. It protected. The path did not pull from ahead. It opened.
In the middle of the passage, the Moon Spirit suddenly spoke. "The gate smelled your intention."
Elara asked inwardly, "What did it find?"
Before the Moon Spirit answered, two separate warmths appeared inside the darkness of the passage. Kael’s fire left behind and the path Rowan had drawn with blood. Both of them reached toward Elara. But this time, not to take her. To catch up to her.
The Moon Spirit spoke very low. "Chosen closeness."
Elara did not answer. Because the passage opened at once.
She found herself inside a stone room. Erynd and Talon stood a few steps away. The room was not small, but its air was heavy like a chest that had not been opened in a very long time. There were Ashford seals on the walls. Some had been scraped away, some half-erased. In the center stood an old table, with rusted metal rings and broken glass tubes on it.
Then Kael stepped out of the passage. Rowan came immediately after him. Rowan’s hand was covered in blood. Kael was holding him by the shoulder. Seeing the two of them come out together released the tension inside Elara for a moment.
Elara immediately approached Rowan. "Show me your hand."
Rowan looked as if he might object, but when he saw Elara’s expression, he stopped. Elara took his hand. This time, she did not remain at the border. She closed her fingers around Rowan’s bloody palm. Rowan’s breathing changed.
Kael saw it, but he did not speak. He only turned to the door and checked outside. That silence opened a strange place inside Elara’s heart. Kael was jealous. She could feel it. But he was not throwing his jealousy onto her.
Rowan spoke in a low voice. "You do not have to do this."
Elara looked at Rowan’s bleeding hand. "I know."
"And yet you are doing it."
"You gave your hand to the gate. I can at least stop the bleeding."
Rowan’s gaze stayed on her face. "Sometimes you come too close to me."
Elara lifted her head. "Sometimes you stay too far away."
Rowan did not answer. But something remained open in his eyes. Before Elara let go of his hand, she pressed her thumb against the edge of his palm. The small pressure could have looked like a medical gesture. But both of them knew it was not.
Kael’s voice cut through the room. "There is something here."
Elara slowly released Rowan’s hand. Kael was looking at the wall beside the table. On the wall, there was a thin line of writing that looked newly carved. It had been etched beneath the Ashford seal. The letters were not old. They were fresh.
Rowan approached. When he saw the writing, his face closed completely.
Elara read it too.
If the intermediate gate activates, the vessel is directed to the Root Facility. The Ashford line is blamed. The Blackthorn fire is provoked.
Talon’s voice darkened. "This is an instruction."
Erynd’s voice trembled. "Written for whom?"
Kael picked up one of the broken glass tubes on the table. There was still a very thin red trace inside it. "Not for us."
Rowan looked beneath the writing on the wall. There was a smaller line there. This time, it looked like a single signature.
L.A.
Rowan’s breath stopped. "Lucien Ashford."
The mark on Elara’s wrist burned at once.
At that moment, an old device in the corner of the room started on its own. The rusted screen flickered. First came static. Then a voice was heard. Lucien’s voice.
"Rowan," the recording said. "If you are hearing this, it means the gate has now been opened by the wrong person."
Rowan’s face turned white.
The recording continued.
"Do not take the vessel to the Root Facility. Because the thing waking inside Darian’s body is not Darian."
