Chapter 375: Close your eyes.

Damon saw the entire room in an instant.

The fallen woman was breathing. The girl was standing, but without balance, held by the arm. The man in the gray cloak held the silver bell close to her ear. The child was crying without sound, and the mark behind her left ear glowed with a faint white, like ice beneath thin skin.

"Close your eyes," Damon said.

The girl obeyed.

The man tightened his grip on her arm. "One more step and I break her neck."

Ester entered behind Damon. Elizabeth closed the door. The house was too small for a large fight: a table, three chairs, an unlit stove, flour on the floor, a broken bowl. That favored Damon. Less room for the man to run, less room to make mistakes.

"You have already lost the exit," Elizabeth said.

"I have the child."

"For now," Ester replied.

The bell vibrated again. It made no sound, but Damon felt the pressure inside his teeth. The elemental root reacted, and the lock in his wrist groaned from within. He did not let the cold rise. He listened without answering.

"Move the bell away from her," Ester said.

The man smiled. "So it is true. He reacts."

"You came to test the child," Damon said. "Not me."

The man blinked. It was small, but enough.

Elizabeth noticed. "He did not know Damon would come."

"No," Damon said. "But now he thinks he found something better."

The man tried to raise the bell. Damon moved two fingers. The skin around the man’s hand froze, just enough to make him drop the object. Ester was already ready. She picked up the bell with a cloth and sealed it inside a leather pouch from her medical case.

Damon advanced at the same moment. He grabbed the wrist holding the girl and twisted without breaking it. The man let go. Elizabeth pulled the child back and placed her against the wall. The man tried to draw a knife. Damon struck his forearm with the side of his hand, knocked the knife away, and shoved him against the wall. The man’s cloak froze to the plaster.

It was over quickly.

The girl stood still, trembling.

Damon stepped away before anger decided to do more.

"Breathe," Ester said.

"I am breathing."

"Not you."

She knelt near the girl. Elizabeth went to the fallen woman, who was trying to rise.

"Slowly," Elizabeth said. "Your daughter is alive."

The woman blinked several times. She had a small cut on her forehead and swelling on the side of her face. "Lia..."

The girl answered quietly. "Mother."

Ester examined the child’s neck, then the mark behind her ear. Lia tried to pull away, but Damon spoke before the fear could grow.

"She is unpleasant, but she knows what she is doing."

Ester did not look at him. "Do not use that as a medical introduction."

Lia let out something almost like a nervous laugh and allowed Ester to continue.

Elizabeth helped the woman sit. "Your name?"

"Mara Orlen."

"Did he come alone?"

Mara looked at the man pinned to the wall. "No. There was another one outside. He went to get a cart."

Damon turned toward the window.

Ester held his wrist. "Precision."

"I heard."

He opened the curtain just enough to see the alley. A man in a brown cloak was coming while pulling a small cart. There was a crossbow strapped to his back. Damon opened the window, created a short shard of ice, and threw it low. The shard struck the front wheel. The axle locked. The man stumbled, and the Arven guard watching the street appeared to knock him down with the hilt of his sword.

Damon closed the window.

"No rooftop," he said.

Ester breathed through her nose. "Acceptable."

The man pinned to the wall tried to speak. "You do not understand. The girl needs to go."

Damon returned to him. "Name."

Silence.

Damon touched the ice holding the cloak. The layer rose to the collar without touching the skin.

"Rusk," the man said. "My name is Rusk."

"Who sent you?"

"A woman."

"Green veil?"

Rusk looked away.

Ester approached. "He is lying."

Rusk swallowed. "She found us near the old salt warehouse. Told us to test the girl, confirm the mark, and take her to the Merrow barn outside the eastern wall."

Elizabeth was already writing. "How many men?"

"Six. Maybe more."

"Is Seraphine there?"

"No. I have never seen Lady Seraphine."

"Name of the woman," Damon said.

Rusk hesitated.

Ester placed the pouch with the bell on the table. It was still closed, but that was enough. Rusk went pale.

"Vara Leth. She works for Darius Kelm."

Footsteps came through the alley. The guard entered with the second captured man. Minutes later, two more of Ingrivid’s guards arrived. The message sent earlier had reached the mansion. It did not take long for Ingrivid herself to enter without asking permission. She looked at Lia, Mara, Rusk pinned, Damon, and Ester.

"Short report."

Elizabeth answered. "Lia Orlen. Mark confirmed. The bell reacted to her and to Damon. Two agents captured. Delivery planned at the Merrow barn. Operator: Vara Leth, connected to Darius Kelm."

Ingrivid absorbed it without changing her expression. "Morgana mobilized men discreetly. No one leaves through the gates without inspection. Houses of mining families are being checked. Aria found three more possible names."

Mara held Lia against her chest. "Three children?"

"Possibly," Ingrivid said. "That is why you are going to the mansion."

Mara looked at Damon. Her fear was reasonable. He had entered, frozen a man to the wall, and broken the lock. Damon took a step back.

"I will not touch her."

Lia, however, looked at him. "You heard the bell too."

The room went quiet.

Damon crouched, keeping his distance. "I heard it."

"Did it hurt?"

"A little."

"For me, it felt like someone was hitting inside my head."

Ester became serious. "Do you still feel it?"

"No. Only cold behind my ear."

"I need to examine you better at the mansion," Ester said to Mara. "We will have protection there."

Mara hesitated.

Elizabeth spoke firmly. "If you stay here, they will try again. If you come with us, the Duchess assumes your daughter’s protection. That makes any new attempt a direct attack against Arven."

Mara looked at the small house, at the broken table, at the ruined door. Then she nodded.

"I will go with her."

Damon looked at Ingrivid. "And the barn?"

"It will be watched."

"Watched?"

"If Vara Leth is waiting for the child, we can arrest more than carriers."

"She can escape."

"That is why we will have men on the routes."

"If there is another bell..."

Ingrivid looked at him. "Are you in condition to face another bell?"

Damon was silent.

Ester answered for him. "No."

"Then do not argue," Ingrivid said.

Damon did not like it, but he did not argue. The lock in his wrist was cracked. The bell had made the root recoil, not advance. He did not know what would happen if another one was used near him.

"I am not going to the barn," he said.

Ester blinked.

So did Ingrivid.

Damon looked at both of them. "Do not make that seem so unlikely."

"It is unlikely," Ester said.

"But acceptable," Ingrivid said.

Elizabeth put away the notebook. "Damon will go to the mansion with Lia and Mara. Ester comes with me and Ingrivid to the barn. She knows how to seal the bell and recognize spiritual reaction. Damon needs to be examined. Lia too."

Ester did not like it. "I am his doctor."

"And now we need you there," Damon said. "If there is a child at the barn and another bell, your men may not notice in time."

Ester stood still for a few seconds. The calculation was bad either way. At last, she picked up the pouch with the bell and looked at him.

"Straight to the mansion."

"Yes."

"No detour."

"No detour."

"No following Qi traces."

"No following Qi traces."

"No leaving the carriage if you hear something strange."

Damon hesitated.

Ester narrowed her eyes.

"Unless the carriage is attacked," he corrected.

"Better."

They left through the back door. Ingrivid left two guards to explain a simple version to the neighbors: an attempted kidnapping interrupted by ducal agents. Nothing about the bell, the mark, or Valcair. Mara carried Lia in her arms, though the girl said she could walk. Damon followed a few steps behind, hood low. Elizabeth and Ingrivid went down another street with Ester, toward the eastern gate.

Lia looked over her mother’s shoulder. "Mister."

Damon looked at her.

"Did your hair turn white because of the cold?"

"More or less."

"Will mine turn white?"

Mara held her daughter tighter. Ester was no longer there to answer. Damon chose the honest version without being cruel.

"I do not know. But we will try to stop it."

Lia thought about that. "Will you get better?"

"I am trying."

The girl nodded, as if that answer was enough.

The carriage climbed toward the mansion. Damon sat facing Mara and Lia, hands visible on his knees. Lia held her mother and occasionally touched behind her ear, but stopped before scratching.

"When did the cold start?" Damon asked.

"Today. Before, it was only a mark."

Mara closed her eyes. "I should have hidden it better."

"You could not have known."

"Her father said it was a family mark. That it did no harm."

"Maybe it did not. Until someone brought the bell."

Mara looked at him. "What do they want with her?"

Damon could have softened it.

He did not.

"They think she can open something in the mines."

"Like her father?"

"Maybe. But we will not let them take your daughter."

"Why should I believe that?"

"You do not need to believe me. Believe that Morgana wants to protect Arven. Your daughter is Arven."

Mara stayed silent. The answer did not erase the fear, but it gave it somewhere to stand.

They arrived through the side gates. Aria was already waiting in the courtyard with a doctor and two guards. Morgana came right behind her, without ceremonial clothes, without posture. Only ready.

Lia descended in her mother’s arms.

Morgana approached slowly. "Are you Lia?"

The girl nodded.

"I am Morgana."

"I know. My father said House Arven should protect those who worked in the mines."

Morgana remained still for one second longer. Then she answered without looking away.

"He was right. And I am sorry we failed."

Mara began to cry.

Morgana did not make a speech. She called the doctor and Aria. "Take them both to the inner wing. A room without an external window. Guards at the door. Aria, stay with them until Ester returns."

Aria nodded. "Yes."

Damon stepped down last. Morgana looked at him.

"Ester?"

"She went with Elizabeth and Ingrivid to the Merrow barn."

"And you accepted?"

"I did not like it. But I accepted."

Morgana studied his face. "You are learning."

"Everyone is saying that today."

"Because it is strange."

Before he could answer, the guards’ warning bell rang at the main gate.

A rider entered the courtyard at a gallop, covered in dust. He handed a note to Morgana. She read it without speaking. Then she passed it to Damon.

The handwriting was clean, feminine.

"Thank you for finding the first key. The second is already with us. Come to the mines if you want to stop the third ear."

Damon closed his hand around the paper.

Ice appeared along the edges.

Controlled.

But it appeared.

The courtyard went quiet, but not still. Guards moved without waiting for orders, closing the sides and moving servants away. Aria took Lia and Mara inside, looking once at the note but asking nothing. The doctor followed them. Morgana kept her eyes on the paper for a few more seconds, as if measuring each word before allowing any reaction to come out.

"She knows we found Lia," Damon said.

"Or she wanted us to find her," Morgana replied.

"To pull us toward the mines."

"Yes."

Damon slowly released the paper. The frozen edges broke and fell to the ground like white dust.

"So now she has a child."

Morgana put the note inside her coat. "And we have a reason not to wait for the Council."