Free Web NovelChapter 87: Chapter 87: Taken
Chapter 87: Taken freewebnøvel.coɱ
For a single, horrifying moment after Aelith disappeared, the entire corridor fell silent.
The damaged corridor stood frozen beneath drifting clouds of dust and shattered mana.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the stone walls. Fine debris continued raining from the ceiling where the prince’s overwhelming power had torn through the estate’s defenses as though they had never existed in the first place. The chandeliers above swayed violently, their crystal ornaments clinking together with soft metallic chimes that sounded disturbingly loud against the sudden silence.
Yet none of the men noticed any of it.
Their eyes remained fixed on the empty space where Aria had been standing only moments ago.
Moments ago, she had been there arguing with them, rolling her eyes.
Being infuriating, alive, and theirs to protect.
Now there was nothing.
The realization struck with a force far greater than Aelith’s mana ever could.
Ren was the first to say something.
"No."
The word escaped him as little more than a whisper, yet somehow it carried through the corridor more clearly than a scream.
His entire body jerked forward before thought could catch up. Every lesson about composure, every ounce of discipline he had spent years cultivating, shattered instantly beneath the weight of panic.
He reached the place where Aria had vanished and immediately dropped to one knee, his hands searching the empty air as though he could somehow pull her back through sheer desperation alone.
"No..."
His breathing became uneven.
The floor beneath him was cold.
Ren clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white. The reality of the situation refused to settle properly inside his mind.
Just an hour ago he had been holding her. She had been smiling at him. Kissing him. Looking at him in a way that had made him believe, for the first time in years, that perhaps happiness was finally within reach.
Now she was gone.
And he had done absolutely nothing to stop it.
The guilt hit him with such brutality that it nearly made him sick.
Meanwhile, several feet away, Ezekiel stood unnaturally still.
At first glance, he appeared calmer than the others. More composed. More rational.
But those who know him could immediately recognize the truth.
Golden mana suddenly exploded around the archmage.
Ancient runes flooded the corridor so quickly that even Matthias visibly tensed. Intricate formations spread across the floor, walls, ceiling, and windows in expanding circles of glowing symbols.
Thousands of calculations began unfolding simultaneously as Ezekiel forced his senses outward, pushing his magic through every corner of the estate, beyond the estate grounds, beyond the capital itself.
Aria’s mana should have been easy to find.
Painfully easy.
The woman practically leaked mana everywhere she went.
Ezekiel knew her magical signature better than he knew his own.
He searched once.
Twice.
Ten times.
But still there was nothing.
His brows furrowed.
The formations accelerated and more mana were poured into the search.
Still nothing.
The corridor temperature dropped noticeably.
Matthias felt his stomach twist.
Because he had never seen Ezekiel fail at something like this.
The archmage searched again, this time tearing through every magical barrier within miles. His golden eyes glowed brighter and brighter with each attempt until the surrounding walls became illuminated by the intensity of his power.
Yet the result remained unchanged.
Nothing.
As though Aria had simply ceased to exist.
A violent crack echoed through the corridor.
The search formation shattered.
Golden fragments scattered through the air like broken glass.
Ezekiel staggered slightly.
"I can’t find her..."
His golden mana, which had been surging moments ago in frantic, desperate waves, flickered violently before collapsing inward.
The intricate runic formations dissolved into nothing more than fading embers of light.
For someone like him, failure was not just unfamiliar, it was unthinkable, and yet that was exactly what he was standing in now.
His throat tightened as he forced the words out again.
"I... can’t find her."
The admission sounded almost foreign coming from him, stripped of confidence, stripped of certainty, stripped of the arrogance that usually accompanied his intellect.
It was quieter than anything he had said all night.
Matthias stared at him first, unmoving, the hand that had instinctively gone to his sword falling slowly back to his side.
Sebastian followed a heartbeat later, his expression tightening in disbelief, his usual composure cracking just enough to show that even he had not prepared for this outcome.
Even Ren, who had been kneeling moments before where Aria had vanished, slowly lifted his head, his eyes sharpening in panic as the words finally sank in.
No one wanted to believe it.
Not Matthias, whose entire existence was built on control and battlefield certainty. Not Sebastian, who treated unpredictability like a personal insult to his intelligence. Not Ren, who had just begun to understand what it meant to hope again. And certainly not Ezekiel, who had never once failed to trace a magical signature in his life.
Yet here they were.
"What do you mean you can’t find her?" Matthias asked quietly, his voice carefully measured, though there was a strain beneath it that betrayed how tightly he was holding himself together.
Ezekiel let out a short, bitter laugh, the sound hollow and wrong in the wreckage of the corridor. He turned slightly, one hand dragging through his hair as if the gesture could somehow reset his thoughts, but there was nothing to reset.
Only absence.
"What part of that sentence was difficult to understand?" Ezekiel replied flatly. "I searched everything. Every mana trace within the estate. Every residual spell signature. Every spatial ripple. Every possible anchor point she could have been dragged through."
His gaze flickered briefly toward the shattered space where Aria had disappeared, and for a fraction of a second, something raw passed through his expression.
"And there is nothing," he continued, more quietly now. "Nothing at all. It is as if she was erased from this world the moment he took her."
Ren’s fists tightened so violently his knuckles cracked.
"Erased..." he repeated, as if testing whether the word made sense when applied to her.
It did not.
Sebastian exhaled slowly, the sound controlled but thin, like glass under pressure. "You’re telling me an elven prince just walked into the heart of the capital, breached Valen estate defenses, and removed Aria without leaving a trace even you can follow?"
Ezekiel gave a small, humorless shrug. "That is exactly what I am telling you."
Matthias immediately moved, stepping closer to Ezekiel, his voice lower.
"There has to be something," he said. "A residual signature. A portal anchor. Anything. Even if it is unstable—"
"There is nothing," Ezekiel cut in sharply as the first real crack of frustration began breaking through his composure. "Do you think I have not tried? I have torn through every magical layer within miles. I pushed my senses beyond the capital’s barrier. I even forced a resonance sweep through the ley lines. There is no echo. No trail. No residual imprint."
His hands clenched slightly.
"It is not that I am unable to find her," he continued more quietly. "It is that there is nothing to find."
The implication of that statement made even Matthias pause.
Ren suddenly stood, the motion abrupt enough to draw all attention back to him.
"We are wasting time," he said, his voice low. "If she cannot be traced magically, then we use physical routes. Borders. Gate records. Airship manifests. Any movement outside the capital—"
"Already considered," Ezekiel interrupted again, though this time his tone had lost its edge, replaced instead by something closer to exhaustion. "If she was taken by spatial displacement, there will be no physical trail. If she was taken through high-order teleportation, even imperial surveillance arrays would struggle to register it in time."
Sebastian’s jaw tightened. "So what are you saying? That we just wait?"
The question hung there like a threat.
Ezekiel did not answer immediately. For a moment, he looked almost... defeated. And when he finally spoke, his voice was quieter than before.
"I am saying we are out of options we can execute alone."
That sentence changed everything and Matthias understood it first.
"You’re suggesting the Emperor," he said slowly.
Ezekiel did not deny it.
Sebastian’s expression darkened instantly.
"That is not a suggestion," he corrected sharply. "That is a last resort."
"It is the only remaining resource we have access to," Ezekiel replied bluntly. "The imperial tracking network. The royal mage division. The surveillance relics housed beneath the capital. If anyone can widen the search beyond magical limitations, it is him."
"And you think he will agree?" Sebastian asked, his tone turning bitter.
The silence that followed answered for them.
Because they all knew the Emperor.
The emperor is a man who measured value in political leverage, not emotional consequence. A man who saw the empire as an extension of his will, not as something bound by compassion.
And Aria, in his eyes, might not be a strategic asset.
She was a noblewoman.
A single noblewoman.
She was not enough to justify mobilizing imperial forces.
Not enough to justify risk.
Not enough to justify inconvenience.
Matthias exhaled slowly. "He will ask why."
Sebastian gave a dry laugh. "He will not just ask. He will refuse."
Suddenly, Ren took a step forward again, his voice quieter but firmer.
"Take me to him."
