Chapter 504: The Cage Is Bone

Sophia’s fingers tightened on the parchment.

She didn’t speak immediately.

Her eyes moved over the script again, slowly, tracing each symbol with the kind of careful attention that told the others she wasn’t stalling — she was making sure. Making absolutely certain that what she was reading was what she thought it was.

The hall waited.

And then she nodded to herself and spoke;

"Blood seeps beyond flesh..."

"...Darkness drinks the marrow..."

"Life rots where it lingers..."

"...The curse feeds, the cage is life..."

"Power devours power, endless..."

"...And the shadow hungers."

Silence descended on the hall again.

And then Daniel dragged his one hand slowly down his face.

It was a long, tired movement. The kind that came not from exhaustion of the body but of the mind — of a person who had no idea what they had just heard.

He lowered his hand.

"What," he said, "is that even supposed to mean?"

Every head in the hall turned toward Eldric.

Eldric looked back at them.

Then he shook his head once. "Just because I could explain the last one doesn’t mean I can explain this one," he told them.

"Didn’t you think it’s related? You can’t get even the smallest thing out of it?" Ronan asked him.

"Maybe the part about darkness rotting the marrow is in line with the black blood?" Lysander spoke out.

All eyes focused on him then.

"The bone marrow produces the red blood cells and it’s part of what makes up our blood... I may be wrong, but..." he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I don’t think you are," Eldric said with a nod. "It may not be exactly like what you are saying, but the marrow is an important part of the body. Perhaps it’s not really our bodies, but something in the earth that serves as a marrow?"

Sophia’s eyes widened at that. "The last one said wash the face of the earth..., I never thought I’d say this ever, but you do have your use, Eldric, and you are smart after all."

Eldric adjusted his glasses. "There was never a doubt that I am smart. You just fail to acknowledge it."

"And that’s because you are annoying," she told him.

Eldric huffed but didn’t say anything in reply.

"But that doesn’t explain everything," Mary told them. "And there’s talk about this shadow again. What could it possibly be?"

"The enclave?" Daniel suggested, making the others laugh.

"I don’t think it’s the enclave, though," he told them.

Madam Tyler had not spoken since Sophia finished reading.

She turned now toward Ronan, her gaze sharp and deliberate despite her age.

"Ronan," she said quietly. "The rock this was drawn from. Tell me exactly where you found it."

Ronan straightened slightly, brow furrowing as he cast his mind back.

"It was... at the ruins in the east," he said. "A circle of pillars, moss-covered. The slab of black stone was in the center of it. The other stones surrounded it, forming something like a rough circle around it."

He shook his head. "I did not like the way the rocks were positioned, honestly."

Madam Tyler was quiet for a moment.

Then she shook her head slowly.

"Nirvana," she murmured, voice low, almost to herself. "This place is truly filled with things that should not be, and we are just now noticing it, like they are just now coming alive."

"Is something the matter with where I found it?" Ronan asked her.

"There is something," she said with a nod. "I don’t know why, but I felt unsettled from the moment Sophia read out the translation. And also the place you just described... it’s very familiar, like I’ve seen it somewhere or read about it, but I just can’t quite reach it."

Eldric nodded slowly from across the table. "I have the same feeling," he admitted. "It is familiar, like something I’ve read in passing, but I cannot remember it."

Orion, who had been quiet and still at the head of the table, spoke.

"Then work together," he said simply.

Both Eldric and Madam Tyler turned to him.

"The two of you," Orion continued, voice calm but carrying the quiet weight it always did when he was not asking. "You share what you know. You cross-reference what you’ve read. Whatever corner of whatever text this is hiding in — find it."

They both nodded immediately.

Sophia picked up the last parchment and frowned.

"This was the one you got in front of the shrine, right?" she asked Ronan.

"Yes."

"Come on, girl, just tell us what it says," Caspian urged.

Sophia nodded. This script was the shortest one out of all of them she had read.

"To take," she said quietly, "is to die. To unleash is to release."

She set the parchment down.

"That’s all?" Mary watched her movements with a frown on her face. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"Yes," she nodded.

"And what in the goddess’s name is that one even supposed to mean?" Caspian asked.

"A warning?" Daniel suggested. "It sounds like one. Or maybe a danger sign."

Ronan made a cross with both his hands. "Don’t come closer. This is a dangerous zone," he said with a smile.

Sophia stared at the parchments. If this was a seal, then what could...

Her eyes widened and she turned to Orion. "The seal... it was for the beast you killed. It was for Dolion."

Orion held her gaze for a moment. Then he reached across and took the parchment from where it rested in front of her. He turned it once in his hands, eyes passing over the script, then set it back down.

"Yes," he said. "That is what I suspect."

He leaned back slightly in his chair.

"Dolion was not ordinary," he said, his voice careful, measured. "The black magic he practiced... it was powerful." He paused.

Ronan’s brow furrowed.

He looked between Sophia and Orion, then at the triangle on the table, then back.

"Wait," he said slowly. "So..." He tilted his head, and the frown deepened into something genuinely unsettled. "If the seal was for this Dolion you speak of, and Dolion is already dead, then aren’t we already too late? The danger these rocks were trying to curtail is dead."

"I’d appreciate some context," Eldric said quietly. "On who this Dolion is."