Chained Hearts: From Slavery to Sovereignty-Chapter 133: The Sealed Chamber

The silence didn’t last long.

It was broken by the soft sound of our boots brushing against the stone floor as we started moving again, deeper into the temple’s twisting passageways. The air was colder now, heavy with dampness and age. The flames from our torches flickered weakly, barely lighting the path ahead. It was hard to tell where the ceiling ended or if it even existed anymore—everything above us was swallowed by shadow.

The stone walls around us were covered in carvings. Symbols and markings that looked older than any kingdom still standing. I didn’t recognize most of them, but they felt familiar in a way I couldn’t explain. Some parts of the wall had faded with time, worn down by centuries of stillness. But others... others looked untouched, like they had just been carved yesterday. Sharp, perfect and alive.

And the murals...

I hated looking at them.

Each one seemed to tell a story I didn’t want to hear. There were kings dressed in cloaks darker than night, standing in fire and shadow. Crowns that dripped with blood instead of gold. Great altars surrounded by kneeling figures with hollow, empty eyes, like their souls had been pulled out. And behind it all, something huge and formless waited, watching.

I didn’t want to know what they were worshiping.

My steps were quiet, but the thoughts racing in my head were loud. Every heartbeat echoed in my ears like a warning bell.

The others followed close behind. No one spoke. Even the most talkative members of our team stayed completely silent, their faces tense. Everyone could feel it. The air wasn’t just heavy. It was... alert. Like the temple was awake and aware that we were here.

It didn’t feel like we were exploring ruins.

It felt like we were walking through something’s body. Or worse, its memories.

The hallway curved sharply, and as we turned, we stepped into a wide chamber sunken below the rest of the temple. My boots landed softly, but I felt the temperature drop almost immediately. The air was colder here. Not in the way caves usually are, but in a way that made you feel small. Like you weren’t supposed to be breathing the same air as whatever had once lived here.

Statues stood in a wide circle along the edges of the chamber. Huge ones—taller than any of us, carved out of black stone so polished it looked like glass. Each figure wore a long cloak, and every face was completely hidden by a hood. No eyes. No mouths. Just darkness.

But all of them had their right arm raised, and their fingers pointed toward the center of the room.

Keren moved up beside me, his voice low and steady, but tense. "They’re all looking at something."

I followed the direction of their stone fingers, and that’s when I saw it.

In the center of the room, sitting on top of a pedestal, was an urn. A silver one, smooth and bright, like it had been placed there yesterday. The light from our torches made it shimmer faintly, and strange patterns glowed faintly across its surface. The designs were elegant, curling in soft shapes, like music turned into lines. Beautiful, but... unsettling.

And as I looked at it, something inside my chest stirred.

Like it was calling to me.

I stepped forward slowly. My body moved before my mind had caught up.

But the second my foot touched a certain spot on the floor, everything changed.

The ground rumbled beneath us.

"Get back!" I yelled.

Stone panels in the floor split open with a loud, grinding groan. The sound was so sharp, it cut right through me. And then, with terrifying speed, spears shot straight up from the floor, nearly skewering me where I stood. One passed just inches from my leg. Another ripped straight through my cloak like it was nothing but paper.

Alistair swore loudly and reached for his weapon. "What the hell!"

"Traps," Keren said, his teeth clenched, eyes darting across the floor.

"No kidding," I muttered, stepping back quickly.

We stood frozen for a few seconds, watching the spears retract slowly back into the floor. The air was silent again, but it didn’t feel like peace.

It felt like we had been warned.

Like we had disturbed something that didn’t want to be touched.

Alistair glanced around, his voice quieter this time. "This place wasn’t built to keep people out."

I turned my eyes back to the statues. "No."

"It was built to keep something in."

And whatever it was... I might have woken it up.

Ever since I touched that pedestal upstairs, something had felt different. Every breeze we passed felt too warm, too heavy. The air was too thick, like it had weight. The shadows moved too easily. Like they were alive.

This wasn’t a ruin, not really.

It was a home.

And we weren’t welcome here.

We kept going, more careful than before. Every hallway felt like a trap waiting to be sprung. Every step was tested twice. We set off three more traps—one nearly took Alistair’s arm—but we were lucky. We made it to another door. This one was sealed tightly and covered in an old, faded symbol.

And I froze.

I didn’t just recognize it.

I knew it.

Keren saw the way I stopped and stepped closer. "Cassian? What is it?"

I didn’t answer right away. I just stared at the mark. Then slowly, almost without thinking, I raised my hand and reached out. My fingertips touched the carved lines of the sigil. The edges were sharp. The curves smooth. I traced them all like I had done it before.

Because I had.

Somewhere.

Alistair moved beside me. "What is that? Do you know what it means?"

My throat felt dry. "It’s a name," I said quietly. "A demon’s true name. This door is sealed with it."

"A name?" Alistair repeated, confused.

I nodded once. "A binding. A ward. Someone locked something behind this door, and they used that name to keep it trapped."

Keren’s voice tightened. "And how the hell do you know that?"

I didn’t answer.

Because I didn’t know how I knew.

But I did know. Deep inside me, past logic and memory, the knowledge just existed. Like it had always been there, waiting.

And that terrified me.

This temple wasn’t just ancient stone and forgotten prayers.

It was a tomb.

Not just for a human but for a demon.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺