The Broken Halo

The first useful thing Simon learned was that the question spoken through the Murmur Bone had never been literal.

When the seventh road drowned, which of the Second Claw’s fingers remained above the blood?

The correct response was...

None. The Second Claw never walked the seventh road.

It was a question built around an event that had never happened. Anyone who guessed a finger, number, or name exposed themselves immediately.

Simon stored the answer in his mind.

The vice-leader also confirmed that the three lines beneath the torn-banner symbol represented the Third Eastern Warden’s level of authority. A Warden with three lines could command ordinary nests inside his assigned region, verify emergency orders, and request limited support from nearby cells.

He could not command another Warden or overrule a Claw.

The dead Warden had possessed direct authority over two other nests around Velmora. One operated among warehouse workers and transport crews in the eastern district. The other used abandoned stone quarries outside the city to hide weapons, demonic beasts, and stolen supplies.

The vice-leader knew the names used for both nests, their first contact phrases, and the locations where messages were usually left.

That information alone increased the value of the command seal greatly.

However, there were limits.

The cells changed meeting points regularly, and the seal did not magically force obedience. A suspicious cell leader could delay an order, demand another verification phrase, or disappear completely.

However, Simon knew that he could not use the seal to act as the dead Third Eastern Warden since it was already known that the Warden was dead.

Simon also learned more about the Voice.

She was not the Second Claw, and the vice-leader had never seen her real face. He had only heard her through different Murmur Bones. She passed orders, judged failed cells, and controlled the Needles who erased compromised demons.

The Fifth Needle had been one of those executioners.

Sorn’s position was different. He belonged to the network responsible for records, movement, false identities, and hidden routes. Demons like him opened doors.

Needles made sure nothing dangerous followed them through.

The vice-leader did not know whether the Voice was one demon or a title passed between several demons.

Simon considered that possibility important.

A voice could be replaced more easily than a commander.

The information concerning Crownless Dawn was more fragmented.

The White Crown was not the name of one specific demon. It was the title Black Banner used for a member of the Two-Horned Winged royal family were expected to send once Velmora’s repeated failures became too expensive to ignore.

The Seven Seats represented the most important eastern commanders and clan representatives whose presence was required for the first major crossing into earth.

Crownless Dawn needed all of them gathered in Velmora.

The delays, attacks, stolen materials, and murdered formation masters were all meant to make that gathering happen.

The vice-leader knew nothing about the identities of the Seven Nails.

Even the Third Warden had been forbidden from contacting them.

He also did not know where the Chrysalis was hidden. The eastern faction had divided its construction between several groups, and every cell handled only one part.

What he did know was the meaning of the road’s bones.

They were two spatial anchor ribs and a secondary stabilisation core among the materials the cell intended to steal from the convoy. The Chrysalis required them to hold the copied road together after learning Velmora’s coordinates.

If the first convoy attack failed, the Third Warden’s cell was meant to strike the replacement shipment.

Anything they successfully stole would enter the seventh ash route.

That route was not one road.

It was a chain of seven handovers.

The Third Warden knew only the first. The stolen materials were to be hidden inside a ruined ash-processing yard east of Velmora. Another cell would collect them and move them to the second point without revealing where they were going.

The vice-leader had never travelled beyond the first handover.

As for the Sleeping Commander, his knowledge was even poorer.

He knew the title belonged to someone powerful within the Old Banner’s side. He knew the Sleeping Commander had begun placing eyes inside important eastern organisations after noticing unusual movements among the Eastern Hand’s cells.

He did not know the demon’s real identity.

Damar also knew there was unrest in the east, but according to what the Third Warden once told him, Damar did not know the true plans of Crownless Dawn.

The eastern faction intended to keep it that way until the stolen road was complete.

Simon did not accept every answer immediately.

Some came after pain.

Others came through Hollow Sky Eye.

He made the vice-leader believe he had been questioned several times by different demons, then repeated the same subjects in a different order. Whenever an answer changed, Simon returned to it.

He also mixed facts he already knew with false claims.

The vice-leader corrected several of those lies without realising that he was confirming other pieces at the same time.

By the end, Simon possessed more information than the demon had intended to give, but not enough to control Crownless Dawn.

That did not disappoint him.

The rebellion had survived for more than two centuries because its secrets were divided. A vice-leader beneath one Warden should not know the identity of every important demon or the location of the Chrysalis.

If he had, Simon would have suspected that the information was false.

The vice-leader’s corpse now rested against the base of the spatial platform.

A thin line crossed his throat. Blood covered his chest and gathered beneath his body, slowly joining the larger stains left by the shelter’s defenders.

Before dying, he had begged.

He offered to guide Simon to the two nests.

He promised to help him use the command seal.

He swore that he could convince the eastern faction that Simon had rescued him from Black Horn.

At the end, he even offered loyalty.

Simon refused everything.

The vice-leader had seen too much. Black Horn wanted him and the eastern faction would definitely prefer him dead.

Keeping him alive would mean he would have to constantly watch his back since his loyalty would definitely be fake.

His remaining usefulness was not worth that trouble.

Simon had placed the Chaos Blade against his throat while he was still begging.

One movement ended the sound.

Now, the demon’s face held the disbelief and regret of every decision he made in his life.

Simon crouched and transferred the corpse to his spatial ring.

He had completed the Voice’s mission, and in the process, he had gained something far more valuable than the eastern faction expected him to obtain.

Two hidden nests.

The correct response to the Murmur Bone.

The first handover point of the seventh ash route.

And a clearer view of the board surrounding Crownless Dawn.

Simon’s eyes flashed with a cold and calculating glint.

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