“You better explain what you mean by that.”

Astra raised her chin and stared directly into Alice’s eyes.

“They are not untrained. Idren, Uryss, Holden. They’ve been training for years. Just like I did before I became a Grimm.”

“Practicing and studying is not the same as real-life experience.”

“It’s not,” Alice admitted. “But they are not untrained. Just inexperienced.”

“They’ll die.”

“Or they live.”

Alice continued to hold her ground till Astra eventually backed off. It was tense and slow, but the three of us returned to the alcove and sat down.

“You know them. They’ve been with us as long as you have, if not longer. You’d watch them toss into a monster’s jaws? Eaten and swallowed as nothing more than a snack?”

“We’re Grimms. We hunt monsters. And if we die, we try again until the monster is slayed.”

I cleared my throat, drawing their attention. “Can we even afford to lose? You have any idea what Grim wants to do? Why he’s doing this?”

Astra glared, but the chains squeezing her arms retracted and bunched around her waist.

“The Prime is… unpredictable. There’s no understanding him. He’s a…” Her voice trailed off as she flinched as if something jolted her side. When she regained her composure, she ground her teeth and exhaled slowly. “He wouldn’t put you in an impossible fight. He’s ancient and unstable, not unfair.”

I relaxed at that.

It wasn’t exactly comforting, but at least we had a chance to win. If he tossed something insane and unbeatable, I doubted there was anyone who could stop him. Not with the way he so easily forced the others to kiss dirt.

“Then we can win. And even if it’s a fair fight, it feels like we have to. He’s too interested in me.”

“You?” Astra asked, bewildered. “Did he do something?”

I conjured a marble and tried to shift the flames to as red as possible, but it still remained more orange than crimson.

“He gave me something. I don’t know what. But it was the same fire that lit the ritual circle.”

Astra placed a hand along my chest and even leaned forward to press her ear against it. When she backed off, she shook her head and stared at the flames.

“I can’t detect anything different. Has your system changed at all?”

“No. Nothing.”

I had checked, the other night while practicing. But beyond the recent stat changes, there was nothing new–at least, nothing that I could see on the status sheet.

She bit her lip. “Why is he so obsessed with you?”

Neither of us had an answer and she started tapping the table.

“The Blood Harvest is coming, and we don’t know when itll happen. The Prime wants to play games, and now he’s messing with you.” She pointedly glared at us. “And now your throwing yourself into a ridiculous fight that’ll decide the fate of the Warren. Why? All of this craziness is happening now. And it wont end!”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

It took another minute of angry muttering before Astra poured herself another cup of tea and calmed herself. Alice joined me and stared at my back.

“What?” I asked.

“Devon’s note.”

“Really? She just calmed down.”

“Yes.”

Astra sat up and looked ready to throw us out of the Archives. I quickly held up my hands and smiled.

“We’re actually here because we received something yesterday. Devon gave it to us before walking away.”

“Of course he did,” she said, deadpanned. “Because why not?”

I fished out the paper with the numbers written on it and handed it over.

“Devon told us to show it to you. Said you’d show us the journals?”

She didn’t speak, so we waited. And waited. Until she finally downed the rest of her drink and stood up. Her eyes were back to normal, losing the yellow tint. But her face wasn’t calm.

I couldn’t tell if she wanted to growl, scream, or sigh.

“Astra? Are you okay?” Alice asked, drawing her out of her stupor.

She massaged her temples. “I knew he did something to them. For ages, I tried to unlock the mystery of those stupid journals. Yet I foolishly believed Devon would tell me about them eventually. And yet here you are, for you to read, not me… It’s so…”

Her voice trailed off and she chuckled mirthlessly. She pushed past us and grabbed something from a nearby shelf. I didn’t recognize what it was at first, but as she let it drop down and unfold, I recognized the crimson cloak that was standard for all Grimms.

Her’s was probably the cleanest I’d seen so far, with only a single tattered end toward the left.

For the first time, Astra donned her cloak and adjusted the hood so it covered her hair.

“Come. Put your hoods up. You won’t be able to enter otherwise.”

I complied, as did Alice, and we got in line behind Astra. The Archives wasn’t very big, filled to the brim, but not any larger than the mess hall. But she led us to a shelf in the center of the room and placed her hand flat against a red spine. The book was thick, easily half as wide as her palm.

On a hunch I pushed mana into my eyes and watched as grey swirls snaked from her fingers and into the book. Golden runes appeared against the red leather and trailed into the wood beneath it before it continued to spread beyond. Soon enough, the floor was covered in the runes and slowly encircled us.

“Arms together, head up, and exhale,” she instructed.

I slapped my arms to my sides and raised my chin, following Astra as she stared at the ceiling. When I breathed out, there was a stretching sensation and my cloak reacted. The shell appeared, wrapping around me when the world went black.

As quick as it disappeared, reality returned and the area around the circle had changed. Gone was the soft pink light and tightly packed bookshelves, and in its place was a room, lit by floating balls of light.

They were barely bright enough to expose the room’s massive interior. Surprisingly, the space was empty beyond a scattering of iron pillars jutting out of the ground every twenty feet.

“Is this the secret Archives?” I asked.

Astra nodded and pointed to the iron door on the far side. “Follow me, step where I step. It’s your first time being inside; it’ll require your registertration at the door. A drop of blood will do, nothing more.”

She moved in a straight line but stopped at every pillar and waited two clicks, watching Alice and I as we followed her exact movements. There was a feeling of danger around each pillar.

“Are these traps? Defences?”

“Without the hood up, you’d be dead. Those pillars would activate and turn you to ash.” She stopped at the final pillar and pointed to the walls. “They’re supposed to be white, not grey.”

Once we were at the door she placed her hand along the center and glowing white runes appeared in a circle around her hand. They flashed red before fading into the metal as she stepped aside.

“Single drop, use your thumb and push where I placed my hand. Remove your thumb when it turns red,” she instructed.

Alice went first. She bit into her thumb and a bead of blood welled up before the injury sealed. Slowly, she pressed it against the metal and the circle formed just like it did for Astra. But after a dozen seconds, a second circle appeared, a ring of gold made up of smaller runes that slowly blended into the white.

After a several clicks the runes flashed red and she removed her thumb. The blood was nowhere in sight.

She joined Alice a few steps form the door and I took my position. I did as Alice did and bit into my thumb. Copying Astra’s movements exactly, I pushed my thumb against the cool metal and felt a low thrum of electricity gather beneath my skin.

Seconds passed and the golden circle appeared. The thrum intensified, jolting my palm till the runes merged together.

They flashed grey and a chain wrapped around my waist.

I tried to remove my thumb, but it was glued to the door.

“Cain!”

My mana rushed into my arm and I pictured the void before the electricity stopped and the runes turned a glaring red.

The runes disappeared and there was a crack as the metal sank into the floor, revealing the room behind it.