Beast Evolution Forge

Chapter 129 Dungeon Games 5

The Imperial City's perfume of jasmine and marble dust turned cloying as Vell's team entered their assigned quarters. What might have passed for austerity elsewhere felt deliberately theatrical here - rough-hewn walls framed by gilded doorways, straw pallets arranged beneath stained-glass windows depicting imperial victories. Ada's boot scuffed against a mosaic hidden beneath grime, revealing a single golden tile shaped like a snarling wolf's eye.

"Charming," Sia drawled, tracing a finger along a suspiciously fresh bloodstain on the doorframe. "I give the decor three days before it kills someone."

Lira didn't look up from her workbench of scavenged floorboards. "Four hours," she corrected, soldering wires to a resonator crystal that hummed in dissonant thirds with the city's ambient magic.

"The dampening field in these walls isn't just soundproofing. It's chewing through my circuits like a starved gremlin."

Mia materialized from the shadow of an overfilled bookcase, her hands full of pilfered cutlery. "They left listening spells in the soup tureen." She dropped the spoons into Lira's lap with a discordant clatter. "Third one from the left gets chatty around moonrise."

Vell remained statue-still by the window, watching sunlight fracture through the glass map of the Empire's conquests. The red pane over Karstok still bore chip marks from whatever weapon had shattered it decades earlier.

"Will you stop that?" Ada's pacing intensified, her braid coming undone as she gestured at the half-visible runes glowing beneath the plaster. "We need to sweep this place properly, not play house with whatever parasites the Imperials-"

"Ada." Vell's voice cut clean through her rant. He held up a hand, catching the dust motes dancing in a sliver of sunlight. "What do you smell?"

"Rot. Hubris. Cheap lavender oil trying to mask-"

"Beneath that."

The room stilled. Sara paused in her knife-sharpening ritual, blade poised at the exact angle to catch reflections from the hallway. Even Alex's whetstone ceased its rhythm against his sword's edge.

Ada inhaled deeply through her nose - once, twice. Her eyes narrowed. "Salt. And... burnt sugar?"

"Tidepools." he pressed his palm flat against the damp stone wall. "This wing's built over old sea caves. The foundations are honeycombed with tunnels that flood during storm season."@@@@

A slow grin spread across Sia's face. "You're thinking we don't need doors."

"Not thinking." Lira held up her mangled resonator, now sparking violet. "Knowing. The interference patterns match tidal charts from-"

"Enough." Ada massaged her temples. "This is exactly what they want. Distract us with shiny secrets while-"

[Hoo, when did she get so mature?]

'....you should actually be embarrassed instead of impressed.' He thought with a mocking smile.

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[Don't worry too much, if things go south you can easily sense it and go save them and if that is not an option, you can divide your power among them like before.]

'Yeah, you are right, I am sure its nothing.'

Mia's hand darted out to snatch a sugar cube. Before anyone could react, she popped it in her mouth.

"Mia!" Three voices shouted in unison.

She blinked slowly. "Cyanide's bitter. This is cardamom." A beat. "Also poisoned. But nicely balanced."

'They are so cute... they have grown so much.' He kept thinking.

Chaos erupted. As Lira scrambled for antidotes and Ada started inventorying Mia's pupils, Vell caught her wrist. Her pulse fluttered calm beneath his fingers.

"relax, this is nothing." He removed the poison from her body and formed it into a ball in this hand. "Sigh, you can be such a handful sometimes."

Sia barked a laugh. "You ate the evidence?"

"Waste not."

"Next time, wait for Lira's analysis."

---

That night, Vell found Ada rewiring the listening spells into a crude music box. Her fingers moved with precise fury, braid now completely unraveled.

"You should rest," he said, placing a stolen honeycake from the kitchens beside her tools.

"Can't." She jerked her chin at the ceiling where Sia snored in a hammock of stolen drapery. "Someone needs to watch the idiots."

They both knew she meant the voices - the ones that whispered from every corner of this gilded cage. He leaned against the wall beside her, close enough to share warmth but not touch.

"in that case, want to go catch the rats outside? They are beginning to annoy me."

They both smiled at each other.

"Thought you would never ask."