The Broken Halo

Silence remained inside Simon’s room after he finished reading the letter.

The alarm bells outside had stopped, but the noise in the streets had not. Demons were still discussing the destroyed district, while guards continued moving through Velmora in large groups.

Inside the room, however, nobody paid attention to them.

Sonya stared at the Murmur Bone resting beside the command seal.

"So..." She slowly straightened. "What do we do?"

She leaned toward the letter with both hands resting on the table. The interest in her pale eyes remained, but the earlier amusement had disappeared.

Akaza stood beside her with his arms folded and his eyes were on the letter.

"We should tell Korran about the plans of the rebels. But not everything."

Sonya turned toward him with raised brows.

"Why tell him anything?"

"Because we’re joining the first raid," Akaza replied. "If those hidden Nails damage the spatial formations while we’re inside the rift, we might be trapped with the demons they want to kill."

The thought removed some of the amusement from Sonya’s expression.

"That would actually be troublesome."

"And dangerous too," Simon added calmly.

Sonya glanced at him, then she looked back at the objects on the table.

"Fine. We tell Korran that Black Banner has demons inside the raid force."

"He already suspects that," Akaza said.

Sonya folded her arms with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Then we tell him about the Nails."

Akaza raised a brow.

"And what are the Nails?" He asked.

Sonya opened her mouth, but no words came out.

Simon rested one arm against the chair.

"We believe the Nails are infiltrators among the workers and recruits, but the letter never explained the code. Telling Korran that seven unknown Nails are hidden around the rift will only make him investigate everyone."

Akaza’s brows furrowed.

"And that might force them into hiding."

Simon nodded slightly.

"Or force Crownless Dawn to change before we understand it."

Sonya lightly tapped the table with one finger.

"So we keep quiet?"

"For now," Simon replied.

Akaza looked at him for a few seconds.

"If Korran discovers that we knew about the sabotage and said nothing, he won’t be pleased."

"Korran’s pleasure is not of any importance."

"It will be if the Black Horn Tablet decides that we endangered the first raid."

"The oath has not started," Simon said. "It begins only when we enter the rift."

Akaza’s expression relaxed slightly when he realized that Simon was right.

Before the first crossing into Earth, none of them owed Velmora obedience. Once the oath became active, things would be different. They would have to protect the raid force and obey orders connected to securing the foothold.

That limited what they could do after entering Earth, but it did not limit them now.

Sonya picked up the Murmur Bone and turned it in her hand.

"Even if we say we should tell Korran about the Nails, he’s going to ask where we got the information from. He’s not just going to trust us since he’s not a fool, and if we eventually show him the letter, command seal, and mumur’s bone, his trust in us is going to decrease the more since it means we witheld valuable pieces of information from him."

Akaza slowly nodded.

"You’re right. Telling him comes with its risks too."

Sonya nodded, then she looked at Simon.

"What if someone contacts this thing?"

"We listen," Simon said.

"And if they ask a question?" Sonya asked with slightly raised brows.

"We don’t answer."

This time around, it was Akaza that responded, and Sonya looked at him strangely.

"Then they’ll know the Third Warden is dead or captured."

Akaza frowned because she was right.

The letter ordered the Third Eastern Warden to wait for the Second Claw to speak first. It did not say he should remain silent afterward.

Sonya looked at Simon.

"We can pretend to be him."

"No," Simon replied immediately and Sonya frowned.

"Why not?"

"First of all, we don’t know how the Murmur Bone carries a message and if the receiver on the other end has measures in place to know if it’s truly the Third Warden that’s speaking. There are some demons who know how to change their voices, and it would not be surprising for them to protect themselves against something like that."

Akaza nodded slowly.

"Blackmoon is right. The ones I saw in the Shadowgrave Clan only transmitted the voices of those who spoke into it. Some also had recognition formations, but I don’t know about this one."

Sonya lowered the bone and looked at Simon and Akaza with a slight furrow of her brows.

"We could make somebody else speak."

"And what would they say?" Simon asked. "We don’t know how the Third Warden addressed the Second Claw. We don’t know his manner of speaking, what information he already sent, or which codes they use outside the letter."

Sonya clicked her tongue.

"You make everything sound difficult."

"Because it is."

Simon stretched out his hand, and Sonya reluctantly returned the Murmur Bone to the table.

Akaza looked toward the torn-banner seal.

"What about that? You said it might command ordinary cells."

"It might, but it’s just an assumption," Simon replied while shaking his head slightly.

Sonya’s smile returned.

"Then what we have to do is simple. We find one of the cells, order them to gather, and kill them."

Akaza immediately gave her a flat look.

"That would work once."

Sonya scoffed while folding her arms.

"Once can still be enjoyable."

Akaza immediately held the bridge of his nose and looked down.

"And afterward, every rebel connected to the seal and those who are not connected to the seal will know that something is wrong," Simon said.

The smile on Sonya’s face slowly faded because she knew that Simon was right. However, she just wanted to cause some chaos.

She loved causing chaos and having fun.

Simon and Akaza knew this, but they didn’t care about what she wanted.

The command seal was not a weapon. It was an entrance and an opportunity. Using it for a small and immediate gain could destroy its greater value before they understood what doors it could open.

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