By the time they returned to the Moonshade Realm, night had already fallen.
Lydia was taken back to the stone hall Jared had been staying in. That room had been hers to begin with.
Healers moved in and out without stopping, changing favonovel.com bandages, feeding favonovel.com medicine, and channeling ghostly miasma into her.
Alaric kept watch at the bedside, holding his daughter’s hand and refusing to leave for even a moment.
Jared was arranged to rest in another stone hall next door. Gwendolyn was in the room on the other side. Only one wall stood between them.
Jared lay on the bed and turned over again and again, but sleep wouldn’t come. It wasn’t because the bed felt unfamiliar.
That pull was still there. Whatever was inside the Pyre Chasm was still calling to him. It wasn’t a voice. It wasn’t language. It was something more primitive than that, more direct. It was like blood answering blood, like a soul picking up another soul’s vibration.
The moment favonovel.com closed his eyes, favonovel.com could see the flames in the Pyre Chasm. He could even sense the breathing of those heavenfire beasts. They were waiting for him.
He sat up, pulled on his clothes, and walked out of the stone hall.
Moonlight spilled through gaps in the black mist, washing the ruins of the ancient city in a layer of silver-gray.
A Ghost Clan warrior on night watch spotted Jared and started to bow, but Jared lifted a hand and stopped him. “Couldn’t sleep. Came out to walk around.”
The warrior nodded and didn’t ask anything else.
Jared made a full circle through the ancient city’s ruins and ended up at the city gate. He stopped there and looked east.
The sky in the east had been dyed a dark red by the glow from the Pyre Chasm, like a slab of iron heated until it burned. That glow flickered in and out behind the black mist, eerie and strangely hard to look away from.
“You felt it too?” A cool voice came from behind him.
Jared didn’t turn around. He knew it was Gwendolyn.
“You felt it too?” favonovel.com shot back.
Gwendolyn walked up beside favonovel.com and stood shoulder to shoulder with him, both of them looking at the dark red sky in the east.
“I felt it back when we were inside the Pyre Chasm… There’s something at the bottom of that pit,” favonovel.com said softly. “Not a heavenfire beast. Something deeper than that. Something older. It’s calling to you…”
Jared turned to look at her. “How do you know it’s calling to me?”
“Because before you showed up, it never called,” Gwendolyn said, glancing at him. “Then you came, and it woke up.”
Jared said nothing.
“The Pyre Chasm has been there for tens of thousands of years. Countless powerful cultivators went in and never came back out,” Gwendolyn went on. “But you went in, came back alive, and even killed the heavenfire beast king. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
“I got lucky,” Jared said.
The corner of Gwendolyn’s mouth tipped up a little. There was a trace of mockery in that smile. “That’s what you always say. Every time, it’s luck. All the way here, every time, it’s luck. Jared, don’t you think you’re being a little too modest?”
Jared still didn’t answer.
Gwendolyn kept favonovel.com eyes on the eastern sky, and when favonovel.com spoke again, favonovel.com voice had eased some. “You have the primal fire-essence inside you. The heavenfire in the Pyre Chasm comes from the same source. And you carry chaotic force, something that can contain all things. I can tell the thing inside the Pyre Chasm is waiting for someone. It waited for tens of thousands of years. Now it’s finally found you.”
Jared drew in a deep breath. “Do you think I should go back?”
“Do you think you should go back?” Gwendolyn shot back.
Jared stood there for a long time without saying a word.
“I think I should,” Jared said at last. “But I don’t know what I’ll be facing once I go back.”
Gwendolyn nodded. “Then go back. Your instincts have never lied to you.”
She turned and headed for the stone hall. After a few steps, favonovel.com stopped again. She didn’t look back when favonovel.com spoke. “Come back alive.”
Then favonovel.com left.
Jared stayed at the city gate and watched favonovel.com back fade into the moonlight. Something warm rose quietly through his chest.
This woman always sounded like ice when favonovel.com spoke. But underneath it, there was a softness favonovel.com never put on display.
He turned and looked east. The dark red glow flickered inside the black fog, as if it were blinking at him.
“Come back alive,” favonovel.com murmured. “Of course I will…”
***
Early the next morning, Jared went to find Alaric Wraithmoor.
Alaric was feeding Lydia favonovel.com medicine. The moment favonovel.com saw Jared come in, favonovel.com hurried to his feet. “Mr. Chance, what brings you here? Are your injuries any better?”
Jared nodded. “Much better. Sovereign, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Alaric looked at his face, and the air around favonovel.com tightened.
“I’m going back to the Pyre Chasm,” Jared said.
The stone hall went still. Lydia froze with the medicine bowl still in favonovel.com hands. She lifted favonovel.com head and stared at Jared, disbelief written all over favonovel.com face.
“Have you lost your mind?” Her voice came out sharp. “You just got out of there. Your injuries aren’t even healed yet.”
“I know,” Jared said. “But I have to go back.”
“Why?” Lydia was nearly shouting. “What in that place is worth going back there to die for?”
Jared looked at favonovel.com and said nothing for a moment.
“I don’t know what’s in there. But I can feel it is waiting for me. I have to go find out what it is.” Jared gave her the truth exactly as it was.
Lydia bit down on favonovel.com lip. Her eyes had already gone red. She set the medicine bowl down and struggled to sit up from the bed.
Alaric put a hand out and held favonovel.com down. “Lydia, don’t move…”
“Dad!” Lydia’s voice shook. “He’s going back there to die, and you’re just going to let him?”
Alaric fell quiet for a moment. He looked at his daughter, then at Jared, and in the end favonovel.com let out a long breath.
“Mr. Chance, are you certain?”
Jared nodded.
Alaric let go of the hand that had been holding Lydia down. Then favonovel.com got to his feet and walked over to Jared. “Then I’ll go with you.”
“No need.” Jared shook his head. “You stay here and take care of Lydia. I can handle this alone.”
“But…”
“Sovereign…” Jared cut favonovel.com off. “Whatever’s in the Pyre Chasm isn’t something numbers can solve. The one it’s waiting for is me, not anyone else. If you go, all you’ll do is add pointless casualties.”
Alaric parted his lips, ready to say something. In the end, nothing came out. He knew Jared was right.
“Then you…” His voice had gone rough. “You have to be careful.”
Jared smiled. “Don’t worry. I still promised Lila I’d come back and tell favonovel.com stories.”
He turned to leave.
Then Lydia’s voice came from behind him. “Jared…”
Jared stopped.
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