Chapter 31 · The Hunting Ground Beneath the Silver Umbrella

The city turned against her before the smoke from the tribunal’s bodies had cleared.

Every public rune-screen in Riftport flared white. Then Ivra Kohn’s face appeared above the streets—calm, pale, framed by the polished collar of her inspector’s coat. Behind her, the Ashfall towers burned with red warning sigils.

“Citizens of Riftport,” Ivra said, her voice carried through the brass speakers mounted on every wall, “the creature responsible for the continental ignition has escaped containment.”

Xia Lan stood beneath a collapsed archway, blood drying across her cheek. Nolan’s rifle rested against his shoulder. His expression was empty in the way it had been since the Core rebuilt him—no memories behind his eyes, only reflexes and the cold geometry of survival.

Milo crouched beside a shattered control panel, one hand pressed to the wound beneath his ribs. His fingers were slick with blood. “That broadcast is running through the emergency lattice,” he rasped. “I can cut one district, maybe two. Not the whole city.”

On the screens, Ivra lifted a black metal case.

Xia Lan’s stomach dropped.

The case looked exactly like the one that had broken open beneath the tribunal chamber. Its edges were scorched.