Free Web NovelThe line of energy that crossed the sky above the Forge Cave was visible from every corner of the vampire capital.
A thin red thread that rose from the mountain and vanished into the clouds for an instant before disappearing.
The guards on the walls saw it.
The nobles in their mansions saw it.
The servants in the palace corridors saw it.
And everyone knew what it meant.
Someone had come out of the cave.
The only person inside the cave was the queen's daughter.
The one no one mentioned.
The one everyone assumed was dead.
Because that was what happened when someone entered the Forge Cave and didn't come out within the expected time.
The cave had its rules. Its deadlines. Its limits.
And the queen's daughter had exceeded all of those limits long ago.
Almost three years.
Nobody kept the exact count because nobody expected her to come out.
The rumors had started circulating from the first year.
Whispers in the corridors. Hushed conversations among the nobles of the six houses. Exchanged glances during council meetings.
"The younger daughter isn't coming out."
"The cave consumed her."
"She was weak from the beginning."
"The queen made a mistake sending her."
Nobody said it aloud, of course.
Nobody was stupid enough to openly question Elyra Nivea's decisions.
But everyone thought it.
And everyone acted accordingly.
The six noble houses of the vampire kingdom had spent months repositioning themselves.
Not because of the lost daughter.
Because of Iris.
Iris Nivea, the heir. The one who had spent years doing the queen's dirty work without complaint, without failure, without stopping.
The one who had cleansed the elvish kingdom in the name of the crown.
The one who had Eleonora — one of the most powerful ego weapons in the kingdom — as her partner.
Iris was competent.
Iris was loyal.
But she was predictable.
And for the six houses, predictable meant controllable.
An heir who obeyed without questioning was an heir who could be surrounded, pressured, and influenced.
If the Nivea line were reduced to Iris alone, with no other heir competing for the throne, then the houses could start moving pieces.
Kassandra Ardent was the first to act.
The matriarch of House Ardent was not a patient woman.
A general before a noble, she believed the kingdom was rotting because the queen had closed herself off too much.
For Kassandra, a queen who lost her daughter in a cave for three years was not a strong queen.
She was an incompetent one.
And mistakes were meant to be exploited.
Kassandra had begun speaking with Cordelia Grisel, the matriarch of House Grisel, about the possibility of invoking an ancient kingdom clause.
A clause that allowed the Council of Houses to question the line of succession if the royal house could not maintain at least two valid heirs in case the queen fell.
House Nivea only had Iris and a missing daughter who was probably dead.
Cordelia, a legalist to her bones, had reviewed the documents.
The clause existed.
It was old, yes — never used — but it existed. And if invoked, the houses could propose their own candidates to compete for the throne.
Selene Azura, the matriarch of House Azura, had kept herself at a distance from those conversations.
Not because she wasn't interested. She was far too interested, but Selene didn't act without data. And the data she had on the queen's missing daughter was insufficient.
She wanted to know more. She wanted to study the case. She wanted to understand what had happened inside that cave before taking a position.
The matriarch of House Noctra had listened to Kassandra's proposals but left without committing to anything.
Ophelia Lucent, the matriarch of House Lucent, offered her support to whoever needed it.
To Kassandra she offered funding to mobilize troops if necessary.
To Cordelia she offered access to her commercial archives to back the legal clause.
To Selene she offered laboratories for any research she might want to conduct.
But with Morrigan she couldn't do much because she knew Morrigan didn't like owing favors.
Medea Verdant, the matriarch of House Verdant, attended none of the meetings. She only sent a short message to the other five houses saying her position would depend on the health of the lost daughter, if she ever came out of the cave. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
Those were the plans.
Months of secret meetings. Exchanged documents. Everything carefully built on the premise that the lost daughter was dead and that Iris, sooner or later, was going to stumble.
And then the lost daughter came out of the cave.
With two weapons.
The information reached all six houses within hours.
Not through official channels — through spies.
Every house had eyes in the palace. And those eyes saw the same thing Iris saw.
A naked girl, asleep in the queen's arms, holding two crystalline weapons nobody had ever seen before.
Kassandra Ardent received the report in her study. She read it twice. Then she set it on the table and stared at the wall for a full minute without saying anything.
Two ego weapons.
If it was true, the succession clause was useless. You couldn't challenge the line of a house that had just produced an heir with two ego weapons. That wasn't weakness.
That was the opposite of weakness.
Kassandra sent a message to her daughter Kaela.
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"Observe and analyze. Do not act."
Cordelia Grisel received the same report and reached the same conclusion.
The legal clause she'd been preparing for months became irrelevant the moment the lost daughter set foot outside the cave.
You couldn't argue that House Nivea was incapable of producing valid heirs when one of them had just done something that hadn't been seen in generations.
Cordelia sent a message to her daughter Rosalind. freewёbnoνel.com
"Verify the legitimacy of the weapons."
Selene Azura smiled when she received the report.
Two ego weapons in a single bearer was a phenomenon that deserved study.
A great deal of study.
Questions piled up in her head before she'd finished reading the first paragraph.
Selene sent a message to her daughter Celia.
"I want data. Everything you can observe without raising suspicion."
Morrigan Noctra sent no message.
She didn't need to.
Eris, her daughter, already knew what to do.
Morrigan had trained her for exactly this type of situation. When something unexpected happened, Eris observed. When something didn't make sense, Eris smiled. And when someone had a secret, Eris found it.
Ophelia Lucent sent a message to her daughter Lisette.
"Get close. Make yourself useful. Make yourself necessary."
Medea Verdant sent a message to her daughter Virelle.
"Speak with her when you can. I want to know what that cave did to her."
The plans weren't cancelled.
They were paused.
Because two ego weapons changed the board, but they didn't eliminate the game.
The houses needed time to understand what this meant.
They needed to see the lost daughter in person.
They needed to evaluate whether she was a real threat or simply an anomaly.
And above all, they needed to know what the queen was going to do now.
Because Elyra Nivea hadn't said a word.
Not a statement.
Not a celebration.
Not a single word.
Only silence.
◇◆◇
Noxx was on the floor of the mental world, face down, arms spread out to her sides and cheek pressed against the grass surface.
Her body was trembling.
Not from cold, not from fear, but from something she couldn't describe — something running through every part of her existence with an intensity that was driving her mad.
She could feel it.
The queen's blood entering Matt's body.
Every drop.
Every last drop.
The bond she shared with Matt transmitted everything the physical body experienced.
When Matt ate, Noxx tasted it.
When Matt was hurt, Noxx felt the pain.
When Matt slept, Noxx felt the rest.
And when the queen's blood entered Matt's body, Noxx felt the power.
A power that was absurd and completely disproportionate.
The queen's blood was not normal blood. It was pure energy condensed into liquid form. Each drop contained more power than Noxx had felt in her entire existence combined.
And now that blood was flowing through Matt's body, moving through every vein, every artery, every cell, filling everything with a force that had nowhere to go.
"Ngh…"
A moan escaped her mouth.
She couldn't help it.
Her body arched against the floor. Her fingers dug into the grass surface. Her legs tensed and her back curved upward before dropping again.
"Ah…"
Another moan, longer and deeper.
Noxx clenched her teeth and pressed her face against the floor harder, trying to muffle the sounds coming out of her throat without permission.
It didn't work.
"Mmh… ngh…"
The energy kept coming in.
Wave after wave, without stopping, without pausing.
"Noxx?"
The voice came from above.
Noxx didn't lift her face from the floor.
"Noxx, what's wrong with you?"
The blonde girl was standing a few meters away, looking at her with both eyes wide open. The red and the blue fixed on Noxx's trembling body.
"Are you okay? What's happening to you? Does something hurt? Why are you on the—?"
"Shut up for a moment… ugh…"
Noxx's voice came out muffled against the floor.
The blonde closed her mouth.
Noxx turned her head to the side. Just enough for one eye to be visible. The eye was red-rimmed and wet.
"I can feel… how Matt's body… is receiving blood."
The blonde blinked.
"Blood?"
"Yes… from the queen."
The blonde went still.
"Is that good or bad?"
Noxx closed her eye.
Another tremor ran through her entire body.
"Ah…"
She breathed.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Noxx tried to recover some composure between the waves of energy shaking her body.
"I don't have… a clear answer for that…"
The blonde frowned.
"What do you mean you don't have a clear answer?"
Noxx opened her eye again and looked at her.
"Because I don't. The queen's blood is… it's too much. It's like someone is filling a glass with an entire river… Matt's body isn't breaking. It just absorbs. And absorbs. And keeps absorbing. And I can feel every drop that comes in… agh… it's so good…"
Noxx shut her eye tight.
"I feel like I'm going to lose my mind…"
The blonde sat down on the floor beside Noxx.
She said nothing for a few seconds.
Then she spoke, in a quieter tone than usual.
"Where is Master?"
Noxx didn't respond right away because she started shaking harder and another moan that she had to bite down to keep from coming out fully.
"Noxx?"
"I don't know…"
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"I don't know where he is… he's not moving. He's not speaking. He's not thinking. It's like he's not here…"
"But he's alive."
"Yes… he's alive… I can feel his body… I can feel the blood coming in. I can feel everything that's happening to him physically. But his consciousness… it's not there… I can't find it…"
"Did you look for him?"
"Yes…"
"And?"
"He's not there. No matter how much I look, I can't find him. It's like he's asleep somewhere I can't reach… ugh…"
The blonde went quiet, her fingers playing with a strand of blonde hair.
Both eyes looked at the grass floor of the mental world.
Then at Noxx.
Then at the floor again.
The blonde was worried about Noxx, yes, but she was more worried about Matt.
For the blonde, Matt was her master. The one who awakened her. The one who modified her. The one who gave her form. The one who made her exist the way she existed now.
The soul bond they shared was direct, deep, absolute.
Noxx was something else.
Noxx was the girl who lived inside her master's head. The one who shared his body. The one who fused with him. Important, yes. But she wasn't her owner.
Matt was.
The blonde closed her eyes and concentrated.
Noxx watched her from the floor.
"Ugh… what are you doing…?"
The blonde didn't answer.
Her body went still. Her breathing slowed. The features of her face relaxed.
It was the expression of someone searching for something with their complete attention.
Noxx understood.
"You're trying to see the outside…"
The blonde didn't open her eyes.
"Through Master's hand," she murmured.
Noxx said nothing more.
The blonde concentrated harder.
Her consciousness shifted from the mental world to the soul bond. She followed the path connecting her existence to Matt's. She passed through the layers of energy separating the mental space from the physical body and arrived at Matt's hand, where her compressed form rested as a tiny silver ball in the center of the palm.
She tried to see.
She tried to open her perception toward the outside world, using the surface of Matt's palm as a window.
And she couldn't.
Her vision was blocked.
Something was covering the palm.
Something hard. Crystalline. Cold.
The gun.
Matt was holding one of the guns in the same hand where she was hidden, and the weapon's body completely covered the surface of the palm, blocking any perception outward.
The blonde opened her eyes in the mental world.
"I can't see anything."
Noxx looked at her from the floor.
"Why not?"
"Because the gun is on top of me! It's covering me! I can't see anything with that thing there!"
The blonde clenched her fists.
"Those useless things are blocking my view!"
Noxx didn't respond. Another tremor ran through her body and she had to clench her teeth to hold back a moan.
The blonde looked at her for a moment.
Then she closed her eyes again.
'If I can't see from the palm, I'll have to move…'
Her consciousness returned to the bond.
Returned to Matt's hand.
And this time, instead of trying to see from the palm, she moved.
The tiny silver ball shifted.
Slowly.
Carefully.
From the center of the palm toward the edge.
Then along the side of the thumb.
Then to the wrist.
The blonde stopped at the wrist.
And opened her perception.
The outside world appeared before her.
Blurry at first. Then clearer. Colors defined themselves. Shapes made sense.
And what she saw left her motionless.
A large, dark room with thick curtains blocking the light from outside.
And in the center of that room, the queen.
Elyra Nivea.
The blonde saw her and knew who she was before processing the details.
Not from her appearance. From her presence. The energy radiating from that woman was so dense, so heavy, so utterly disproportionate that the blonde felt her own consciousness shrink on instinct.
It was the same feeling a small animal would have upon realizing it was standing in front of something that could crush it without effort.
The queen held Matt's sleeping body in her arms.
They were on a large bed with dark sheets. The queen was sitting against the headboard, with Matt lying against her chest and his head resting on her shoulder.
The queen had her nose buried in Matt's hair.
She was inhaling his scent with her eyes closed.
Breathing in the smell of his hair with a slowness that made something inside the blonde twist.
And there was something else.
The queen had a finger inside Matt's mouth.
The index finger of her right hand, slipped between Matt's lips. And from the tip of that finger, something was dripping.
Blood.
The queen's blood, which Matt was swallowing.
Matt was asleep, but the swallowing reflex kept working. Every time a drop of blood fell onto his tongue, his throat moved. The muscles of his neck contracted and the blood went down.
The queen was smiling as she felt him swallow.
The blonde watched everything from Matt's wrist.
She didn't move.
She didn't breathe.
She just watched.
The queen withdrew her finger from Matt's mouth. A thin thread of dark blood connected the tip of her finger to his lips for an instant before breaking.
The queen wiped her finger against the sheet without looking away from Matt's sleeping face.
Then she leaned down and kissed his forehead.
And then her eyes moved.
Not toward the blonde.
Not directly.
But they shifted. They left Matt's sleeping face and moved down along the arm in the direction of the wrist.
Toward where the blonde was.
The blonde felt those eyes.
They weren't looking at her — not yet.
But they were close.
Too close.
Moving in her direction with a slowness that could be casual or could be deliberate.
The blonde didn't wait to find out.
She pulled back.
The tiny silver ball slid from the wrist back to the palm in a fraction of a second, hiding behind the gun Matt was holding, using the crystalline body of the weapon as a shield.
In the mental world, the blonde opened her eyes.
She was breathing fast.
Very fast.
Her chest rose and fell with short, rapid inhales.
Both eyes — the red and the blue — were completely open and her pupils dilated.
"Ha."
A nervous laugh came out of her mouth.
"Ha. Ha ha."
She pressed her hands to her face and pushed them against her cheeks.
"Ha ha ha."
The laugh wouldn't stop.
It wasn't a laugh of joy.
It was a laugh of nerves, of adrenaline.
"Ha ha ha ha."
Behind her, Noxx let out another moan.
"Mmh… ngh…"
The blonde didn't turn her head.
She didn't look at Noxx.
She sat on the floor of the mental world with her hands on her face and her breathing still fast, ignoring the sounds Noxx was making in the background.
The laughing stopped and her breathing calmed.
'So that's the bastard my master hates so much.'
A pause.
'I think I could kill her.'
