Chapter 15 - Dad Vanished From a Furnace
The Hearth chamber was empty.
Not damaged.
Empty.
The golden furnace still burned. The Maw still pressed behind the inner barrier. But Jian no longer floated at the center.
Eli stared through the glass.
"Where is he?"
Grant was pale.
"I don't know."
"That's becoming a very unpopular phrase."
Madam Sato examined the control console.
"Someone transferred the Keystone bond."
"To who?"
She looked at the furnace.
"No one."
The containment reading dropped to 51%.
An alarm began pulsing.
Cho's missing master seal had apparently been used to release Jian without activating the collapse failsafe.
That should have been good news.
It was not.
A Living Keystone could not simply leave. If separated from the engine, the contained Hunger Qi followed the bond.
"Dad is carrying part of the Maw," Eli said.
Sato nodded.
"And wherever he goes, hunger will intensify."
They tracked disturbances through emergency calls.
A grocery store where customers suddenly fought over bottled water.
A hospital cafeteria where fifty people ate until they vomited and kept eating.
A downtown bakery whose entire inventory vanished in seven minutes.
The trail moved south.
Jian was heading somewhere.
Eli Appraised a city map.
The route pointed toward the school-food distribution hub—the third point of the Starvation Formation.
"He's not running," Owen said. "He's going after the formation."
Eli knew his father immediately.
Of course Jian had escaped a furnace and gone straight to work.
They found him inside the distribution warehouse.
Jian stood barefoot among pallets of packaged lunches, gold-black fire crawling over his skin.
Around him lay six unconscious Ash Pavilion cultivators.
"Dad."
Jian turned.
One eye was normal.
The other was completely black.
"You shouldn't be here."
"Family tradition apparently."
Jian almost smiled, then doubled over.
The warehouse lights dimmed.
Every packaged meal on the pallets began leaking black mist toward him.
[WARNING]
[Living Keystone corruption: 23%]
Eli stepped closer.
Jian shouted, "Don't!"
The word came out layered with another voice.
The Maw's voice.
HUNGRY.
Everyone froze.
Jian clenched his teeth.
"Ash Pavilion released me on purpose. They want me to become the formation's center."
Eli understood.
They did not need to wake the Maw beneath the city if they could turn Jian into a portable piece of it.
"Can we put you back?"
"Not safely. The bond is damaged."
The system chimed.
[New temporary objective: Feed Living Keystone.]
Eli blinked.
"Feed him what?"
[Not food.]
Jian looked at the glowing rice-cooker symbol in Eli's hand.
"Feed me a memory."
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