They followed him, but he started moving fast. The gap between them widened with every passing second, leaving the group far behind his tracks.
"Slow down, kid!" Thorne yelled.
Kota didn't answer. He didn't even turn his head.
"He isn't listening, Thorne," Leiya said. "Look up ahead. That's the boundary."
Jaeger narrowed his eyes. "The Speedhardt estate line."
Before any of them could close the distance, the air around Kota warped. He blinked out of existence for a single frame, flashing into incredible velocity exactly like his fight with the mercenaries.
In a single instant, he was standing entirely across the shallow river, leaving no tracks in the mud.
"What the hell was that?" "He just skipped the whole damn river," Thorne muttered, stopping at the bank.
"He did the same thing back at the sanctuary too," Mira whispered, "He just disappears."
"We don't have time to stare at the water," Leiya said, stepping toward the bank. "We cross now. "Thorne, grab Mira."
Thorne grunted, scooping Mira up onto his shoulders. "Hold on tight, little one."
He waded into the shallow stream, the water hitting his shins. Jaeger and Leiya splashed right behind him, climbing up onto the opposite bank.
Jaeger looked around at the vast expanse of rubble and broken blocks. "It's completely flattened."
"Koma did this years ago," Leiya said, navigating through the piles of debris. "The whole estate was erased. There is nothing left standing.
"You've been here before?" Thorne asked,
"I grew up here. The library cellar is the only thing Koma didn't smash into dust."
"Where is the library then?" Thorne asked. "Right there," Leiya said, pointing toward a hollow footprint of stone blocks. "Kota went down."
Far ahead of them, Kota pulled open the heavy, reinforced iron door set flat into the ground. He descended the steps alone, plunging into the quiet subterranean cellar that smelled of old timber and ancient dust.
"I'm tired," Kota muttered inside his own head.
"Rest is for the weak," the woman's voice instantly rasped back. "You are here for a reason."
"Shut up," Kota told her.
The woman simply laughed, a cold, ringing echo that rattled against his consciousness.
He slid his heavy back down against some old wooden boxes inside the cellar. His eyes closed instantly, his breathing settling into a deep, ragged rhythm as he fell fast asleep against the rough timber.
A few minutes later, the crew finally descended the stone steps into the room.
"It stinks in here," Mira said, stepping down from Thorne's shoulders.
"His masking wasn't complete," Leiya said. "His yen is still leaking."
Jaeger leaned against the entry wall, his face rigid. "The energy is completely back under his skin. It's quiet now."
"Good," Thorne said, propping his blade against a broken stone pillar. "Let the kid sleep. Nobody wake him up."
The vast cellar felt like an ancient tomb cluttered with broken debris. Mira wandered away from the group to avoid the thick scent of raw Yen, her eyes scanning the bare, water damaged shelves.
Near the back wall, she spotted a large, rusted iron bound chest with its latch thrown wide. Inside lay a small, ornate wooden box, its unlatched lid resting slightly crooked.
Mira reached out and lifted the box. Opening it fully, she found a dark velvet lining bearing a precise, localized indentation. Shaped like an eyeball.
Tucked beneath the box at the bottom of the larger chest, a damp piece of paper caught her attention. Mira pulled the warped parchment loose and squinted at the faded handwriting across the center.
"Storm eye," Mira read under her breath.
She turned the wet page over. At the very bottom corner, mostly obscured by deep moisture damage, two tiny initials remained stamped firmly into the fiber. It said K.S.
"Leiya," Mira called out softly, holding the items up in the dim light. "Look at this box. It looks like an eye used to be in it."
Leiya turned her head sharply, her eyes locking onto Mira standing by the ancient chest.