Chapter One Hundred And Five : The Journey
Chapter One Hundred And Five : The Journey
The rain had thinned to a drizzle by the time Logan left the Broken Tower’s shadow. His cloak clung to him, heavy with damp, but his thoughts were heavier still. The old stones whispered as if mocking him every revelation, a reminder that the ground beneath them was stitched with secrets.
When he returned to the city, the gates were guarded tighter than before. Torches burned low in iron sconces, and the men at watch eyed him like they would a thief. Something was shifting in the air.
Inside the council chambers, silence reigned. A silence so taut it rang louder than shouts. Magistrates sat stiff in their chairs, cloaks drawn close, whispering only when shadows swallowed them. The tribunal had postponed its hearings again, citing unrest in the northern quarters. But Logan knew better: they were stalling.
That evening, he sought out Corwin in the dim backroom of a shuttered tavern.
“You’ve heard it too, haven’t you?” Logan asked, slamming his palm flat on the table. “The council’s holding their breath like children afraid of the dark.”
Corwin leaned back, his pipe smoldering. “Not the dark. The storm. They say the Old Blood stirs again. That’s why they whisper your name in the alleys.”
Logan stiffened. “My name?”
“They think you know more than you’re saying. That your connection to Evelyn isn't a chance.” Corwin’s eyes narrowed. “They’re not wrong, are they?”
Logan looked away. His throat felt dry, as if the truth itself was poison. “She’s… more than she realizes. More than any of us thought.”
Corwin tapped ash into a tin plate. “Then tell me, before the council twists it into something else. What did you find?”
Logan lowered his voice. “The Broken Tower wasn’t just a ruin. It was a seal. And Evelyn she’s tied to it. Blood or bone, I don’t yet know, but she’s part of whatever they tried to bury there.”
The room seemed colder with those words. Even the pipe’s smoke hung still.
Before Corwin could answer, the tavern door creaked. A figure entered, cloaked in gray, dripping from the rain. Talia.
Logan rose halfway from his seat, tension knotting his shoulders. “You have the gall to show your face here?”
Her lips curved in something that wasn’t quite a smile. “If I hadn’t, you’d already be dead. The council wants you silenced before you start preaching about towers and seals. I came to warn you.”
“Warn me?” Logan’s voice sharpened. “You betrayed us. You betrayed her.”
Talia flinched, but held his gaze. “Yes. And I’ll answer for that. But you need to listen to Evelyn walking into a snare she doesn’t even see. The benefactor doesn’t want her destroyed. They want her unlocked.”
Corwin frowned. “Unlocked?”
“She isn’t just a girl wearing a stolen name,” Talia whispered. “She’s the key to breaking what lies beneath Gevan. And once they break it… this city won’t survive.”
The words fell between them like stones into deep water. Logan’s jaw tightened, fury warring with dread.
“You expect me to believe you?” he hissed.
“I expect you to decide,” Talia said softly. “Do you hate me more than you love her?”
Logan’s hand curled into a fist, trembling. For the first time in years, he had no answer.
The council chamber was nearly empty when Evelyn slipped inside. The torches burned low, shadows flickering against the carved stone walls. Logan was already there, his back to her, staring at the sigil of the Broken Tower etched into the council’s crest.
“You came,” he said without turning.
“I couldn’t stay away,” Evelyn replied, her voice sharper than she intended. “Not after everything that’s happened. Jeff… his death can’t be the end of it. There’s something bigger at work here.”
Logan finally faced her, his expression unreadable. “Bigger doesn’t even begin to describe it. The benefactor wasn’t just moving pieces on a board. He was making sure we walked into every trap.”
Evelyn crossed her arms, fighting the ache in her chest. “And Talia knew.”
“Yes,” Logan said bitterly. “She’s been two steps ahead of us. Maybe three. And now she’s gone slipped through before I could corner her.”
Evelyn’s gaze fell on the table between them. A map lay unfurled, marked with red ink and symbols she didn’t recognize. “What’s this?” she asked, touching one of the circles.
“The ruins beneath Gevan,” Logan said. “Old records claim there’s a sealed chamber down there. A chamber that the Broken Tower tried to erase from history. And according to what I’ve pieced together” he tapped the mark closest to the city’s center, “that’s where they want you.”
“Me?” Evelyn blinked. “Why me? I’m no heir, no chosen figure. I was a runaway girl who stumbled into this world.”
Logan’s silence was heavier than words. His jaw tightened, as though he were holding back something he had no right to say.
“You’re not telling me everything,” she accused.
His eyes met hers, and for the briefest moment, she thought she saw guilt flicker there. “There are truths, Evelyn,” he said slowly, “that once spoken, can’t be taken back. And if you hear them… nothing about who you are will remain the same.”
Evelyn’s pulse quickened. She wanted to press him, to demand the answers clawing at her heart, but before she could speak, the chamber doors creaked open.
A figure stepped inside, cloaked in crimson, face hidden beneath a mask of silver.
Evelyn froze. The benefactor’s emissary.
“You’ve lingered too long in the shadows,” the masked figure said, their voice echoing eerily in the chamber. “The council is breaking, the city is crumbling, and yet you waste your time mourning the dead. The chamber beneath Gevan waits and so does the truth of your blood.”
Logan’s hand brush
ed the hilt of his blade. Evelyn’s breath caught.
The game had shifted again.