Chapter 9 · You know... who I was?

We reached a heavy iron grate. Beyond it, the air smelled of sulfur and decay. I could hear them—hundreds of them. The scratching of claws, the wet gurgle of monsters fighting over scraps. The Lower Ward.

Lyra looked at me, a cruel smile playing on her lips. "Here's the deal, Kael. I'm going to open this gate. I'm going to walk through, and I'm going to let the things in there smell you. If you can kill three of them without me having to bail you out, I'll tell you one thing about why I know who you were."

"You know... who I was?"

"I know the name Kael used to carry weight in the guilds," she said, her hand on the lever. "But names don't mean much when you're a puddle of ink. Ready to prove you're more than a stain?"

She slammed the lever. The grate groaned open with a sound like a dying god.

Immediately, the smell hit me—thick, cloying, and hungry. And then, the first one charged. It was a Spine-Rat, three times the size of a normal one, with jagged bone protrusions ripping through its skin. It didn't hesitate.