Chapter 212: Ember Canal Vault

Asha led the group down the maintenance path behind the delegate rail. It was a tight crawl space with wet walls, and after a few steps the noise of the hall was cut off behind them.

Two lock workers came along to help. Deren carried a heat gauge, and Odile knew where the old vent controls were. The Blue Merchant broker walked a few paces behind them, her blue ledger locked shut and held out in the open.

"There’s one vent ahead of us," Odile said. "If that vent closes, we lose Lock Seven to the heat. If we lose Lock Seven, we lose everything downstream."

Tessa opened the public heat map, and Ceryn read out the values as they moved.

"East gate is heating up. Lower canal is fine. Lock Seven is failing. No private updates to the route."

They took the stairs down to the vault beneath Cindervale. The walls glowed red and grew hotter as they descended. By the time they reached the bottom, the air was almost too hot to breathe. The Ember Canal base was a maze of locks and stone, with hot water running through the middle, thick with ember mist.

The councilor was waiting on a platform above the controls. His blue silk coat was soaked with sweat, and his hand rested on one of the levers, ready to pull it.

Above the hot water channel, in a cage of black metal, hung a demon woman bound in ember water. Her eyes were barely open, and she looked as if she had been struggling against her bonds for hours. Red and gold water wrapped around her, but contract chains held her fast to the locks.

"Welcome," the councilor said. "The districts along the canal are not working fast enough to fix their own problems. I will give them one emergency buyer, and they will thank me for it. Because if I don’t, they will burn."

A red phrase hung above the controls.

EMERGENCY BUYER OWNS THE LOCK.

Austin Veyron could feel the power of the canal beneath them. Water, heat, and trade all flowed through this one vault. If he devoured it, he could control every province that used the canal. DEVOUR wanted all of it: the heat, the locks, and the chance to remove the councilor’s threat all at once.

Veyra came up beside him.

"What do you want?"

"The canals."

"What will that create?"

"A protector who owns every route I protect."

Sable raised her crown shard toward the red phrase. "Then we devour the buyer, not the locks."

Ember-lock constructs climbed out of the canals, hissing as the water evaporated off them.

They were made of red iron, hot water, and lock keys. Each construct carried a hot chain that melted anything it was dragged across.

THE LOCK ANSWERS TO THE BUYER.

One came straight for Deren, its chain scraping a glowing line across the stone.

Tamsin got there first and knocked the hot chain away with her spear. Rin clawed at the key on its chest. The key broke, but the construct rebuilt it out of the ember mist. Veyra sliced the hot chain in half, and it scattered across the floor in glowing pieces.

Odile ran to the first vent wheel. "I can keep this vent open, but someone needs to hold the heat gauge steady."

"I will," Deren said.

Asha picked up the public relay slate. "We’re still counting districts. Lock Seven needs the west vent opened, and that will take the crew at the upper gate. Tell them why."

The delegate hall passed the information along to everyone through the public relays. The districts weren’t going to wait for the councilor to save them. They were working off the public heat map.

Nyra held her heart shard up to the demon woman’s cage.

"These chains aren’t just binding her," Nyra said. "They’re turning her flow into ownership commands."

The demon woman looked at Austin Veyron.

"My name is Sali. Please don’t devour my ember. Devour the buyer. I can choose which vents to open."

"Will you choose how to release the heat?" Austin Veyron asked.

"Yes."

The councilor slammed his hand down on the controls.

The second vent closed with a loud boom.

Heat rushed through the room, and Tessa had to shield the heat map with her arm. One of the lock wheels began to glow white. The ember-lock constructs grew larger as they sensed the danger of the vault failing.

Austin Veyron saw the phrase in their hot chains.

THE LOCK ANSWERS TO THE BUYER.

All the lock needed was workers, water, supplies, and people sharing their heat readings with each other. It didn’t need an owner to keep it safe.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The lock-answers-to-the-buyer claim. Not the workers. Not the heat. Not Sali."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable said.

Austin Veyron pressed the white root chain into the closest hot chain.

DEVOUR opened. The phrase tasted like a burning gate being sold to whoever was holding the bucket of fire.

THE LOCK ANSWERS TO THE BUYER.

He consumed buyer.

The construct crumbled into pieces of iron and hot water. The other constructs froze as their keys fell out of their chests. They no longer recognized the councilor’s contract as their answer.

The councilor stared at the broken phrase.

"You’re making sure nothing ever gets repaired," he said. "No buyer means no one makes the call."

"The workers are making the calls," Asha said over the relay. "You just never bothered to count them."

Tessa and Ceryn made it to the main controls. The Blue Merchant broker showed them a hidden set of valves.

"The original charter required three locks to open a vent," she said. "The council changed it to a single buyer’s key. If we change it back, Sali can push the heat out through the vents that are open."

"Who decides on the locks?" Austin Veyron asked.

Odile looked at the heat gauges. Deren was reading the heat off the lock. Asha was listening to the districts over the relay, and Sali was watching the water flow.

"Everyone," Odile said. "No one person can read every lock."

They decided on the order of the locks. For a moment it was quiet, except for the steam hissing off the locks and the groan of the valves opening.

Odile opened the first vent.

Deren gave the heat count.

Asha confirmed that the districts were receiving the information.

Sali pushed her ember water through the west channel.

The chains around the central cage began to loosen.

The councilor pulled out a black key and tried to force it into the central wheel. Veyra was on him before he could turn it, and her sword knocked the key out of his hand. He drew a blue ledger knife, and Rin’s claws knocked it from his grip.

The councilor ran for the tunnel at the side of the vault, holding his hand against his chest.

Austin Veyron could have chased him. DEVOUR wanted to devour his fear and the demon power that lived inside him. To end another owner.

But the locks were still hot.

He stayed by the controls.

"How’s the heat?" he asked.

"Going down," Deren said.

"West vent is open," Odile said.

"The districts are confirming," Asha said.

Sali broke free of her last chain.

She stepped out of the ember water channel with fire and water flowing down her arms. The heat didn’t disappear. It simply went where she told it to, warming the locks without burning them. The white glow faded from the wheel, and the air became cool enough to breathe.

The councilor reached the end of the side tunnel.

The Blue Merchant broker was waiting for him there with two canal workers.

"You can’t leave," she said. "Not privately."

"You’ve broken the charter," he said with a laugh.

"I revealed how the charter was broken against the people it was meant to protect."

The workers took the councilor into custody. He didn’t resist. As they led him away, he looked back at the cooling locks with a frown on his face. There would be no private cell for him, and no secret judgment. His route keys, his blue ledger, and his black key were laid out on the public control table.

The Ember Canal vault was quiet. Water dripped from the pipes overhead, and above them, the delegates were still calling out their heat counts.

Sali looked at the open heat map. "We need something for the locks in the meantime. I can open the vents when the workers tell me where the heat is. The districts can decide what needs fixing first. No single buyer can control the vents."

"An interim public lock agreement," Asha said. "We can start with the workers who are already here."

Tessa was flipping through the councilor’s blue ledger. She found a map tucked inside, with a blue circle drawn on it.

LEDGERDEEP.

Ceryn read the words written beside it.

"This is where the Blue Merchant council’s capital comes from. The central contracts for the canals are kept here."

The broker stared at the map with wide eyes.

"That isn’t on any public map," she said. "Ledgerdeep is where all the contracts for the canals are made. If you want to stop this, you need to go there."

Austin Veyron stared at the blue circle for a moment.

The war over the contracts had taken them underground once again.

Only this time, they knew where to go.