The cloaked assailant's dagger gleamed in the wavering light of Arin's wind blade. Rainwater dripped from jagged stones onto the narrow ledge, each drop echoing like a ticking clock. Kalem fell back, bow at the ready, while Lireya raised her gauntleted arm to shield Arin's flank.
Arin advanced, the pulse of Althé's breath still thrumming through him. He parried the dagger's strike with a ripple of condensed wind, the blade snapping aside on a wind-forged parry. The attacker lunged again, faster this time—Arin's gauntleted fist met the strike, earth magic reinforcing his arm like a battering ram. The dagger clattered to the rock and skittered toward the abyss.
Silence—and then the assailant threw back their hood. Arin's heart froze. "Tavian?"
Silver eyes glinted beneath dark bangs. "You didn't think I'd let you get the Codex so easily," Tavian hissed, stepping forward. The rogue elementalist had once been a promising student—until he'd vanished from the Academy months ago.
"I—" Arin began, then shook his head. "You betrayed us."
Tavian's lips twisted. "I serve a higher purpose. The First Binding isn't just a seal—it's a source of power." He raised a hand, and a shard of wind spun into a lethal dart.
Arin braced himself. "Don't make me stop you."
The wind-dart streaked forward; Arin met it with a blast of earth, the two currents clashing in a shower of sparks. The ripple rocked the narrow ledge, sending Kalem stumbling against the monolith.
Lireya moved like a flash, shadowing Tavian's flank. She struck with her earth gauntlet, cracking the rogue's ribs—but Tavian twisted free, summoning a whorl of wind that sent Lireya skidding backward.
Arin lunged, embedding the fragment's soft glow in his gauntlet. He channeled earth into the ground beneath Tavian's feet; the rock shivered, then split, knocking the rogue off balance. As Tavian teetered at the edge, Arin reached out with wind-core, whipping a vortex that spun Tavian around—away from the chasm and onto firmer ground.
Kalem seized the fallen dagger and forced Tavian to his knees. "Enough games."
Tavian glared up at Arin, defiance in every line of his face. "You think you're the hero, but you don't understand the power you wield." He spat at Arin's boots. "The gouged runes on the seal stones—someone wanted this fragment for themselves, long before you showed up."
Arin's gaze flicked to the spiral monolith and the empty alcove. "Who?"
Tavian's eyes flickered toward the path back down the ridge. "That's what you need to find out." With a sudden burst of wind magic, he vanished into the storm's mist.
Silence settled once more. Lireya scrambled to her feet, checking Kalem's shoulder for signs of injury. Arin approached the monolith, hands trembling as he pressed his fingers into the empty outline.
"Someone beat us here," he murmured. "They knew exactly where the missing Codex page would fit."
Lireya turned to the runes carved into the monolith's base. "Look—these are the same spirals, but the lines here are gouged, as Tavian said." She traced a carved sequence with her gauntlet. "They've been partially erased."
Kalem's voice was grim. "Sabotage, ancient or recent."
Arin knelt and scraped rain-soaked moss from the adjacent stones. Beneath, finer runes emerged—tiny sigils of air and stone interwoven like a secret code. He closed his eyes, letting his dual currents whisper their meaning to him.
"The gouged lines hide a secondary message," he said. "A warning: 'Beware the Voice Unbound.'"
Lireya swallowed. "The Voice Unbound… that's a heretical sect rumored to seek elemental fusion beyond mortal limits."
Arin's jaw tightened. "They must have sent Tavian—and whoever stole the Codex page—to stop us. We need that page to reconstruct the First Binding."
As thunder rolled overhead, Arin rose. "We can't return the way we came. Tavian knows that path."
Kalem nodded. "There's an old hunters' trail on the eastern flank—steeper, but uncharted. It might lead us past the culprit's hideout."
Lireya hefted the codex's alcove outline in her mind. "And on that path, we may find the missing half."
Arin slid his gauntlet free and pried at a loose stone in the monolith's base. Behind it lay a narrow iron ring—perhaps a key to unlock deeper chambers. He pocketed the ring and fastened his gauntlet once more.
Lightning crackled across the sky as they turned toward the hunter's trail. Arin's heart pounded—not from the storm, but from the realization that the Voice Unbound was closer than he'd feared.
As they descended into the night, the monolith's spiral faded into darkness behind them—its ancient secrets sealed once more, waiting for the next brave soul to uncover the truth.