Celeste and the others raced down the corridor, boots striking hard against polished floors as red alarm-light pulsed over the walls.
Godiad no longer felt clean.
It felt awake.
The Celtic runework embedded in the glass panels flashed warning symbols in sharp, repeating patterns. Doors sealed behind them with heavy mechanical thuds. Somewhere beneath the floor, wards groaned as if something enormous had taken hold of the facility and begun to shake.
Director Addfwyn’s voice crackled through the overhead speakers.
“All active personnel, divert to the east sector. The main swarm is moving toward the research facility. I repeat—the research wing is their target. Stop them before they breach containment.”
Celeste tapped the glowing face of her Arcbracer as she ran.
“Arcade? Where are you and Ray?”
Static hissed.
Then Arcade’s voice came through, breathless and far too excited considering the circumstances.
“Commander, you are not going to believe our luck.”
Celeste frowned. “That sentence already worries me.”
“Saff is here!”
Celeste blinked.
“Saff?”
A crash boomed somewhere on Arcade’s end.
Ray shouted something incomprehensible.
Arcade yelled, “YES, THAT SAFF!”
Celeste’s ears perked.
“Oh! The one from the Rustrows.”
Silver glanced sideways at her. “Friend of yours?”
Mezzo barked a laugh.
“More like ripped the Commander’s rune out.”
Silver’s eyebrow rose.
Celeste considered this for a second.
“I kinda went postal, just a tad.”
Silver slowly looked at her.
Then at the faint mana shimmer already crackling around the edges of her weapons.
“You must have a considerable amount of built-up mana, Commander.”
Celeste glanced at him.
Silver’s expression remained perfectly serious.
“Best get that looked at before you become an explodable problem.”
“I’m not an explodable problem.”
Mezzo snorted. “That sounds exactly like something an explodable problem would say.”
Lumina, running just behind Celeste with her backpack bouncing against her back, nodded solemnly.
“Very suspicious.”
Celeste looked wounded. “Not you too.”
Arcade’s voice burst through the comms again.
“Oh, that’s not ominous at all.”
Ray barked something in the background that sounded very much like, “Shut up and run.”
Celeste’s grip tightened around her katanas.
“The research facility?” Mezzo said, running beside her. “That the place with the creepy scanners or a whole new flavour of bad?”
“At Godiad,” Silver replied, bow already summoned, “assume both.”
A shape moved ahead of them.
Pitch.
He slid out of a patch of shadow, glanced once toward the far corridor, then gave a sharp nod.
“I’ll go ahead,” he said. “See how many. Find the breach.”
“Careful,” Hughes warned.
Pitch gave him a look. “I’m always careful.”
Ray’s distant shout crackled again through Arcade’s open comm.
“LIAR!”
Pitch rolled his eyes.
Then vanished into shadow.
Hughes slowed just enough to take in the branching corridors ahead. Three routes split away from the main hall—one toward the east service yard, one toward the inner gardens, and one down into the lower research levels.
“We split,” Hughes said. “Cover more ground. If the swarm’s moving in clusters, we can’t all chase one trail.”
Celeste opened her mouth to agree—
Then caught sight of something through the long window to her left.
Outside, across the main garden, Ray and Arcade were sprinting after a figure in a hooded coat. C.H.I.P., in Big Mode, thundered behind them, punching a candy zombie so hard it cartwheeled through a hedge.
Celeste stopped for half a heartbeat.
“Ray?”
The figure ahead of Ray turned briefly.
Hyena ears.
A flash of bone charms.
A jagged greatsword made from stone.
“Saff,” Mezzo said, his joking tone dropping away at once.
Silver followed Celeste’s gaze. His eyes narrowed.
“The perimeter breach was a diversion.”
“Or bait,” Hughes said grimly.
Topsy bounced on the balls of her feet, gripping her weapon with both hands.
“Either way, zombies are still zombies. We bonk first, theorise after.”
Hughes nodded.
“Topsy, with me. We’ll take the service yard and keep anything from circling back.”
Topsy saluted so hard her ears flopped.
“Yes, goat dad.”
“I have asked you not to call me that in active combat.”
“And yet emotionally, here we are.”
Hughes looked toward Celeste, then toward Silver.
His expression tightened.
Just slightly.
“Mezzo,” he said, “you go with Celeste. Silver, you’re with—”
“No,” Silver cut in.
Hughes’s eyes narrowed.
Silver did not look at Celeste when he spoke. He kept his gaze forward, posture composed, voice brisk and practical.
“Celeste will need someone with range. If the swarm is converging on the research wing, we will be fighting through corridors, balconies, probably glass partitions, and whatever charming experimental architecture this place considers reasonable. My bow is the better choice.”
It was not false.
That was the annoying thing.
Hughes heard the truth in it.
He also heard everything underneath it.
Topsy raised her hand.
“I have range!”
Silver glanced at her.
“You once missed a zombie and hit a weather vane.”
“It looked suspicious.”
“It was on a roof.”
“Exactly. High ground.”
Silver’s mouth flattened.
“Your aim is terrible.”
Topsy gasped.
“My aim is expressive.”
“It is legally a hazard.”
Celeste made a small sound that might have been a laugh if she had not caught it halfway.
Silver noticed.
So did Hughes.
For a second, the older soldier looked as if he might overrule him anyway.
Silver’s jaw tightened, but his voice stayed controlled.
“I will not interfere with command decisions. I will provide ranged support. That is all.”
Celeste did not look at him.
“Fine,” she said softly. “Silver and Mezzo with me. Lumina stays with us. Hughes and Topsy take the yard. Pitch stays with you untill you need himto scout ahead. Ray and Arcade are already engaged.”
Hughes held Silver’s gaze for one more long second.
The warning was silent.
Do not make this worse.
Silver inclined his head once.
Message received.
Maybe.
Mezzo stepped closer to Hughes as Celeste checked the corridor ahead. His grin stayed easy, but his voice dropped low.
“I’ll keep His Royal Tail-Fluff in check.”
Silver’s ears twitched.
“I can hear you.”
“Good,” Mezzo said brightly. “Saves me repeating myself.”
Hughes gave Mezzo a look that was almost grateful and almost exhausted.
“See that you do.”
Topsy leaned in toward Celeste.
“Don’t let the boys do weird dragon dominance nonsense again.”
Celeste’s ears warmed.
“I’ll try.”
“Wrong answer,” Topsy said gravely. “Hit them with a chair.”
“There may not be chairs.”
“Then improvise. You’re very creative.”
Hughes caught Topsy gently by the back of her collar and steered her toward the corridor.
“Come on.”
“Chair safety is important!”
“So is moving.”
Celeste turned following them.
Lumina hurried close behind her.
Mezzo fell into step on her left.
Silver took her right, a half-step behind, bow raised but not drawn.
Close enough to protect.
Far enough not to crowd.
For a few seconds, only the alarms spoke.
Then Mezzo sighed dramatically.
“So,” he said, glancing sideways at Silver, “range support, was it?”
Silver’s eyes stayed forward.
“Yes.”
“Not hovering?”
“No.”
“Not brooding?”
Silver looked mildly offended.
“I brood handsomely.”
Celeste’s mouth twitched.
Silver continued, with all the dignity of someone correcting a serious factual error.
“This is what you would call miffed.”
Mezzo stared at him.
“Miffed.”
“Yes.”
“You shouted kneel at the Commander.”
“I am aware.”
“And now you’re miffed.”
“Correct.”
Mezzo nodded slowly. “Glad we cleared up the emotional scale.”
Silver’s tail lashed once behind him.
“Are you finished?”
“Not remotely.”
Lumina giggled.
Mezzo carried on.
“So. Not hovering. Not brooding handsomely. Not working through a deeply inconvenient dragon identity crisis by standing close to the Commander and pretending it’s tactics?”
Silver’s grip tightened around Windswept.
Celeste nearly tripped.
Mezzo grinned at the corridor ahead.
“Just checking.”
Silver’s voice went silk-thin.
“There are zombies attacking the facility.”
“And yet you still found time to be offended by biology. Impressive scheduling.”
“I am not offended by biology.”
“You shouted kneel.”
“That was—”
“A normal research question?” Mezzo offered. “Because I’ve had some weird medical appointments, mate, and none of them involved royal lizard theatre.”
Celeste’s ears dipped.
“Mezzo…”
His tone softened immediately.
“Sorry, Commander.”
Silver glanced at her then.
Just once.
The red alarm-light caught in her hair, in the edges of her ears, in the faint tension still sitting in her shoulders.
He looked away first.
Mezzo saw that too.
Of course he did.
Then the Arcbracer screamed with static.
“CELESTE!”
Everyone stopped.
Arcade.
Not joking now.
Not even slightly.
“Arcade?” Celeste snapped. “What happened?”
There was crashing in the background.
C.H.I.P. roared.
Then Arcade shouted over everything.
“Ray’s been stabbed!”
Celeste went cold.
“What?!”
“I’ve got her! She’s still moving, she’s still yelling at me, which is normally a good sign, but I’m going to need Lumina to heal her ASAP when we meet up!”
Lumina immediately stepped forward.
“I can go on my own.”
“No.”
The answer left Celeste so quickly Lumina actually blinked.
Celeste turned toward her, lowering one katana just enough to reach out and touch her shoulder.
“No. Stay with us, sweetie.”
“But Ray—”
“Arcade has her. We’ll meet them.”
Lumina’s ears lowered.
“I could get there faster.”
“I know.”
Celeste squeezed her shoulder.
“But we don’t know what Saff wants, where the zombies are coming from, or what else is in these corridors. I’m not sending you off alone.”
Lumina looked like she wanted to argue.
For once, she didn’t.
“Okay.”
Celeste tapped the Arcbracer.
“Arcade, keep pressure on the wound. Don’t let Ray run anywhere.”
Ray’s furious voice came faintly through the connection.
“I CAN HEAR YOU!”
Celeste’s eyes widened.
Silver’s mouth twitched.
Arcade shouted, “SEE? YELLING! VERY HEALTHY!”
“Arcade!”
“Pressure on wound! Got it!”
The connection crackled out.
For a moment nobody spoke.
Then Mezzo breathed out.
“Well.”
Silver drew an arrow of pale light.
“Yes.”
The corridor opened into a wider passage lined with observation glass. Beyond it, the research wing glowed in cold white and warning red.
Something slammed into the far doors from the other side.
Once.
Twice.
A wet, sugary shriek dragged itself through the walls.
Celeste lifted both blades.
Whatever hurt had been on her face folded away beneath command.
“Ready?”
Mezzo rolled his shoulders and grinned.
“Born ready.”
Lumina summoned Roselight Blade.
“Ready.”
Silver drew the bowstring back, runes spiralling down the shaft of his summoned arrow.
“Prepared.”
Topsy and Hughes got into Posistion.
Skye Counted his cards.
Celeste nodded.
Then the doors burst inward.
Candy zombies flooded through in a tide of teeth, syrup, and broken limbs.
Celeste charged first.
Silver watched her go.
And this time, he followed without saying a word.
