Strongest Incubus System

Damon woke many hours later in an improvised room near the entrance to the mines, lying on a narrow bed that had probably belonged to the workers’ old medical station. The first thing he noticed was the pain in his left arm. The dark blue lines remained beneath the skin, but they had receded from his neck and now ended just above the elbow. The second thing was Ester sleeping while seated in a chair beside him, arms crossed and head tilted against the wall.

He remained still for several seconds, evaluating his own body before trying to rise. The root was silent, the Heart maintained a distant and spaced rhythm, and no memory of Xue Lian tried to cross his consciousness. The Heavenly Ice Body remained cold, but the circulation of Qi was stable. Damon moved his fingers, slowly bent the arm, and confirmed that he could still feel every part of his hand.

"If you try to leave without waking me, I will break your other leg," Ester said without opening her eyes.

Damon turned his face toward her.

"You were awake."

"I have been awake since before you started pretending you were not evaluating an escape."

"I was evaluating my body."

"With your feet already outside the blanket."

He looked at his own legs and realized he had indeed moved one toward the edge of the bed. Ester opened her eyes, stood, and approached with the expression of someone who had spent hours controlling the urge to commit murder.

"How long was I unconscious?" Damon asked, allowing her to examine his wrist without resistance.

"Seven hours. It was not a coma, but you had glacial fever, spasms in the meridians, and tried to open your eyes twice without recognizing where you were."

"Then it was a considerable improvement."

Ester squeezed his wrist hard enough to cause pain.

"Do not turn barely surviving into medical progress."

Damon exhaled and observed the thicker band around his arm. Ester had drawn small symbols over it, separated into three layers, each blocking a different path. She had truly begun building the containment she had promised, although she had done most of the work while he was unconscious.

"Is Vorn alive?" Damon asked.

"Unfortunately for him."

"Edran?"

"Also alive. He is weak, but he has not lost consciousness again. The miners recognized him as Edran Sorn, former supervisor of the eastern galleries. He disappeared almost four years ago."

Damon remembered the crystalline marks behind the old man’s ears.

"Family of ancient miners."

"Yes. Vorn kept him hidden inside that chamber for months, perhaps longer. We are still trying to discover how he entered and left without being noticed."

"He used the passage erased from the maps."

"Probably."

Damon moved the blanket aside and placed his feet on the floor. Ester did not immediately push him back, which meant she considered the situation less serious than she pretended.

"I need to speak with Vorn."

"You need to eat."

"I can speak while eating."

"He is imprisoned at the mansion."

"Then I can eat in the carriage."

Ester stared at him for several seconds, evaluating whether the argument was worth the effort. Damon held the most neutral expression he could manage. She finally stepped away and took the medical case.

"You are not going to use Qi, touch any mark, or try to enter the memory during the journey."

"Reasonable conditions."

"You are also not going to interrogate Vorn alone."

"That condition sounds personal."

"It is medical. He knows how to activate the thing inside your arm."

Damon stood slowly. His legs responded better than expected, although a deep weakness remained in the muscles. He disliked the sensation, but he did not intend to ignore it. For the first time since the coma, he was beginning to understand that recognizing a limit did not mean accepting that it controlled him.

When he left the room, he found Ingrivid waiting in the corridor. The knight had a fresh bandage around her forearm and dust still trapped in her hair. Even so, she maintained an upright posture and looked ready to return to the mine if someone ordered it.

"How much of the structure has been dismantled?" Damon asked.

"All fragments near the chamber were removed. The miners sealed the eastern passage after we left, but maintained an opening for inspection. The Heart has not accelerated again."

"I want guards at the entrance and no attempt to descend without my presence or Ester’s."

Ingrivid glanced quickly toward Ester.

"Did she authorize your presence?"

"Do not encourage him," Ester replied.

Damon continued before the argument could grow.

"The threads and mechanism need to be removed gradually. Vorn built that thing to use the conductor’s resistance. If we dismantle everything at once, we may release energy accumulated in the walls."

"The miners suspected the same. They are only marking the connections."

"Good. And the traitor?"

"His name was Pell Ordan. He worked in the mines for eleven years. He said Vorn cured his daughter of a lung disease and later demanded services in return."

Damon showed no surprise. Seraphine purchased necessities before buying loyalty. Vorn did the same, offering healing and transforming gratitude into permanent debt.

"Do not put him with the other agents," Damon said. "He knows the tunnels and may have different instructions. I want to know how many people Vorn treated in Arven during the last few years."

Ingrivid nodded.

"Morgana has already begun reviewing the medical records."

The carriage was ready outside. Damon entered with Ester and Ingrivid and received a bowl of broth he decided not to argue about. While he ate, Ingrivid reported everything that had happened during the seven hours he remained unconscious.

Mael and Sella had reached the mansion without being seen. Orven continued under surveillance on the western road and still did not know the message had been intercepted. The children had left the territory through three different routes. Nera had gone to a secure estate under Elizabeth’s protection. Iris remained at the mansion, hidden inside a windowless room and guarded by people who had never served the former Duchess.

The most important part, however, involved the Council.

"Halder Mays sent a message during the early hours," Ingrivid explained. "He used Mael’s seal to ask whether the inspection had found enough evidence against Morgana."

Damon lowered the bowl.

"He does not know Mael was captured."

"No."

"Did anyone answer?"

"We waited for you."

Damon leaned his head against the wood and thought. Mael’s capture offered more than a prisoner. As the official inspector, he possessed the authority to recognize documents, issue temporary conclusions, and request measures from the Council. Seraphine had expected to use that position to pressure Morgana. Now the same authority could be turned against her network.

"We will answer that the evidence against Morgana is inconclusive, but we found signs of embezzlement involving Havelock and outside administrators," Damon decided. "Mael will request Halder’s immediate appearance with every record from the previous inspection."

Ingrivid understood.

"You want to bring him back to Arven."

"I want him carrying the documents Seraphine believes are safe. If he becomes suspicious, he runs. If he believes Mael needs him, he will come personally."

"And if Seraphine sends another scribe?"

"Then we will know she discovered the capture."

Ester watched Damon for several seconds.

"You woke less than an hour ago and are already using one captured inspector to summon another agent."

"I am sitting, eating, and following your conditions."

"That does not make what happens inside your head healthy."

"That problem did not begin today."

When they reached the mansion, Damon found the courtyard quieter than normal. The wagons carrying the children had already departed, and only trusted guards remained near the entrances. Morgana waited inside the strategy hall with Aria and Elizabeth. The map of Arven remained open over the table, now covered with new notes. Mael, Sella, Orven, and Halder each had their own pieces. Caelis Vorn was represented in the center by a black piece surrounded by wood.

Damon approached and touched Vorn’s piece.

"Where is he?"

"In the old interrogation room," Morgana replied. "No metal, no ink, no needles, and his hands are trapped inside stone gloves."

"Has he spoken?"

"He said he will only speak with you."

Aria closed a document.

"It seems all our prisoners have developed that unpleasant preference."

"Perhaps I am more charming."

No one agreed.

Damon explained the message he wanted sent to Halder. Aria adjusted the language to imitate Mael’s style, while Elizabeth selected the official terms they would use. Iris confirmed the code used for situations in which an investigation needed to be prolonged. The message left less than fifteen minutes later, carried through the same channel Halder believed was still secure.

Only then did Damon go to the interrogation.

Vorn sat in the center of an empty room, his arms restrained to the chair and his hands covered by stone structures that prevented any movement of his fingers. His gray coat had been removed, revealing a body thinner than it had appeared. Without the gloves, green marks covered his entire forearms, forming layers of symbols so complex that Ester needed several seconds merely to identify where they began.

Vorn raised his eyes when Damon entered.

"You survived."

Damon pulled a chair closer and sat in front of him.

"So did you. Neither of us had the night we planned."

"I planned to be captured."

"You did not plan to lose the mechanism."

"It was disposable."

"Nor did you plan for Edran to survive."

Vorn maintained a controlled expression. Damon realized that the man preferred to treat every failure as part of something greater. Admitting surprise would mean admitting he did not control every variable.

"Iris is alive," Damon said.

The reaction was nearly imperceptible, but it was there. Vorn looked at Damon’s marked arm before returning to his face.

"Then she failed even at dying."

Damon felt the cold increase inside his body, but did not allow it to reach the room.

"You were the one who failed to kill her."

"You believe you saved a girl. I see a broken tool."

"And that is why she will begin talking."

Vorn smiled.

"Iris does not know anything important."

"She knew the name Halder Mays, Orven Tal, Sella, and the function of the broken coin. She also knew your marks use artificial cold to block memories."

The smile diminished. Damon placed his left arm on the table and pulled back the sleeve, revealing the dark blue lines.

"This mark found Xue Lian’s door."

Vorn became still.

"I saw the guardian," Damon continued. "Then I used the original pattern to distribute the Heart’s beat. Your mechanism was an inverted copy of the symbol in front of the fortress."

This time, the physician could not completely hide his surprise. His eyes lowered to the mark and remained there too long.

"You saw the complete symbol?"

"I saw enough to correct your mistake."

Vorn breathed deeply.

"You corrected nothing. You merely opened another layer of the inheritance."

"Good. Then explain which one."

"Why would I?"

Damon leaned back in the chair.

"Because Seraphine will discover that Mael and Sella disappeared. Orven remains under surveillance. Halder is coming to Arven with the documents she did not want to lose. The children are outside the territory. Nera too. The map opened without the Heart, and Iris is free from your mark."

Each piece of information removed a layer of Vorn’s security. He tried to maintain his posture, but the muscles in his neck became tighter.

"You are lying about the map."

"The first door opened when I rejected the inheritance. The second when I refused to sacrifice Edran."

Vorn leaned forward, limited by the chains.

"The second door appeared?"

"Yes."

"What words?"

Damon did not answer.

The silence changed sides.

Now Vorn was the one who needed information.

Damon watched the physician realize it and try to recover his neutrality. It took several seconds longer than it should have.

"Seraphine does not know all the phrases," Damon concluded.

Vorn’s expression closed.

"She knows the records, the map, and the existence of the doors, but she does not know which decisions open each one. That is why she needed to observe me. You were not only trying to find the fortress. You were trying to discover how to cross it."

"You think a few phrases will protect you from what exists there?"

"No. I think your need to know them can make you talk."

Vorn released a low laugh.

"You learned to interrogate very quickly."

"I learned to notice when someone looks at an answer as though they need it."

Damon moved the chair closer.

"How many doors are there?"

The physician remained silent.

"Three parts of the inheritance. Memory, root, and body. I imagine there are three doors."

Vorn did not react.

"But the guardian stood before a single gate. So perhaps the doors are not physical. They are conditions inside the memory."

Still nothing.

Damon continued organizing his conclusions aloud.

"The first opened when I refused to be defined as an heir. The second when I refused to use Edran as a sacrifice. Both choices break Seraphine’s logic."

Vorn’s jaw tightened.

Damon saw it.

"The third requires me to reject control of the root."

Vorn raised his eyes too quickly.

Damon smiled slightly.

"Thank you."

The physician realized the mistake, but it was already too late.

Ester, Elizabeth, and Morgana remained behind the open door, listening to everything. Aria recorded every reaction in a notebook.

"Seraphine wants the original core because she believes it allows control over roots," Damon said. "But the Tomb of the First Snow does not accept someone seeking command. The third door only opens for someone who refuses to possess the cold."

Vorn closed his eyes.

"Xue Lian built the fortress to prevent people like Seraphine from entering," Damon concluded. "The map is not searching for a powerful successor. It is eliminating anyone who treats the inheritance as property."

"You do not understand Xue Lian."

"Perhaps not. But I understand Seraphine."

Vorn opened his eyes again.

"Seraphine will find a way to turn your refusals into tools. She always does."

"Then I need to finish with her before reaching the third door."

The sentence came simply, without the need for exaggerated threats. Damon no longer thought of Seraphine as someone distant, protected by agents and titles. Her network in Arven was breaking. The Council would begin losing control of the narrative when Halder arrived. Vorn was imprisoned. Mael would be used to expose the political connections. The Heart had returned to its natural rhythm.

All that remained was forcing Seraphine to appear without choosing the field.

Damon stood.

"You are going to write a message to her."

Vorn released a tired laugh.

"No."

"You do not need to cooperate. Aria can imitate handwriting, Elizabeth knows political language, and Iris knows your codes. I only need Seraphine to believe the message came from you."

"What do you intend to say?"

Damon pulled the sleeve over the mark and walked toward the door.

"That the mechanism worked."

Vorn fell silent.

"That my root has begun merging with the Heart, the memory is unstable, and the third part of the inheritance will awaken inside the mines in three days."

The physician finally showed real concern.

"She will know it is a lie."

"She will not. Because you just confirmed that the third door involves the root."

Damon looked toward Aria.

"Include details about the mechanism, the symbol, and the lines in my arm. Enough to make it appear Vorn observed the process before escaping."

Elizabeth understood the objective.

"Seraphine will come personally. She will not entrust this stage to another agent."

"She has already lost too many pieces and believes the core is close. If there is a chance I reach the third door without her, she will abandon the distance."

Morgana approached.

"Where do you intend to receive her?"

Damon looked toward the map of Arven on the wall. He did not want Seraphine inside the mansion, near the servants or documents. Nor would he lead her to the real Heart.

His finger stopped over the ventilation entrance they had prepared as a trap.

"In the false mine."

Vorn began laughing again, but the reaction carried no humor.

"She will not enter a trap that simple."

"She does not need to believe it is safe."

Damon looked directly at him.

"She only needs to believe she cannot arrive late."

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