Invincible Blood Sorceror

Chapter 247: Sacred caves

“If it’s coming from underground, then it is a sacred cave. It must be.”

Pecah said with hope.

He didn’t know if his mother was alive or not. He wasn’t even sure if she had gone to the sacred cave. All this time, he thought she must have died fighting them.

Nami then asked, “What is this sacred cave?”

“The sacred caves beneath the royal pillar were a divine shrine for the faeries where the faery godmothers rested, and only the women of the royal bloodline would enter the cave and worship the godmothers.”

“It’s one of our oldest laws.”

“Why didn’t you try and go into the caves?” Jorghan asked.

“I’ve tried,” Pecah admitted.

“Several times over the years. But the caves have protections, barriers placed by ancient faery magic that respond to male faeries entering. They will allow only women who reached the adulthood of the faery’s royal family.”

“Even those beasts couldn’t enter those caves. And it had been many years, so I thought she might have…”

His golden eyes fixed on Jorghan with desperate hope.

“You are powerful, Lord Jorghan; can you try to break those barriers and enter those caves? You said you detected a presence. I’m not sure myself, but I think it must be her. I don’t know…

I just want her back…”

Tears rolled down as he knelt before him. Kleela came and hugged her brother. She was wiping her brother’s tears.

“I was too weak to do anything back then, and I am weak now as well.”

He looked at Jorghan again and said, “So, please, can you try?”

He looked at the ground, wings drooping with shame.

Kleela stared at him, tears spilling freely from her large, shining eyes. On her small face, the grief looked unbearable.

Jorghan turned away for a moment, rubbing his forehead as if trying to push the feeling back down.

“…Enough,” he said, softer than he meant to. “Don’t cry.”

After a brief silence, he sighed.

“I’ll go.”

Jorghan looked at Nami, who nodded immediately.

“Go. We can manage the evacuation without you for a few hours. If the faery queen can be saved, saving her takes priority.”

“If she is alive, that is,” she said in a low voice.

*

Pecah led Jorghan away from the evacuation operations, moving with renewed urgency now that hope had replaced despair. They crossed through the ruined sections of the dome complex, past areas where the Scavenetores had constructed their processing facilities, toward the base of the royal pillar that dominated the landscape.

The pillar was even more massive up close, easily five miles in diameter, rising so high that its peak disappeared into clouds that perpetually shrouded the upper reaches. The surface was covered in intricate carvings, now weathered and damaged but still suggesting the artistic sophistication that faery civilization had achieved at its height.

At the pillar’s base, partially concealed by natural stone formations and overgrown vegetation, was an entrance that made Jorghan pause.

It wasn’t sealed like he’d expected.

There was no physical barrier, no Scavenatore construction blocking access.

Instead, the cave mouth stood open, dark and uninviting, but clearly accessible to anyone willing to enter.

Except for the barrier.

It was barely visible, just a faint shimmer in the air across the entrance, like heat distortion on a summer day. But Jorghan’s essence senses detected it immediately.

This wasn’t technological or even normal magical construction. This was something older, woven from principles that predated current understanding of magic.

The barrier pulsed with gentle rhythm, like a heartbeat, suggesting it was alive in ways that normal defensive systems weren’t.

“That’s the protection,” Pecah confirmed, his wings drooping as he looked at it.

“I’ve tried to pass through dozens of times. The barrier doesn’t attack; it’s not aggressive. It just… refuses. Like hitting a wall made of polite but absolute rejection. Male faeries can’t enter at all. Females of royal blood can pass freely once they reach adulthood. Everyone else is simply denied.”

He looked at Jorghan with desperate hope barely contained.

“The Scavenetores couldn’t penetrate it either, though they tried various technological approaches. Eventually they gave up on direct entry and just tried to seal the cave from outside to starve whoever was inside.”

Jorghan studied the barrier carefully, extending his senses to understand its structure and purpose. It wasn’t like the barriers he’d encountered before;, those had been simple detection and deterrent systems. This was sophisticated, nuanced, and designed to discriminate between different types of beings with precision that suggested centuries of refinement.

The barrier recognized who entered its space.

He could try to force his way through with raw power, but that felt wrong. Like breaking down a door when knocking might work just as well.

Instead, he reached out with blood essence, making contact with the barrier gently, communicating intent rather than demanding entry.

He just asked, though he didn’t know if it would work.

I’m here to help.

I mean no harm to sacred spaces or those who shelter here.

The barrier rippled at his touch, responding to the contact but not yet deciding whether to permit or deny passage. Jorghan felt it analyzing him, reading his essence signature, trying to categorize what he was and what he wanted.

Then something unexpected happened.

The barrier began to glow, faint bioluminescence spreading across its surface in patterns that suggested writing or symbols. The symbols were ancient, far older than any language Jorghan recognized, but their meaning came through anyway, not as words but as direct understanding that bypassed linguistic interpretation.

Sol’vur blood!

Old friend to the Faelindor!

By a special ancestral bond, you may enter where others cannot.

The barrier parted, creating an opening just wide enough for Jorghan to pass through.

But when Pecah tried to follow, the opening closed immediately, the barrier reforming with gentle but absolute refusal of his presence.

“It’s letting you through,” Pecah said, his voice mixing relief with frustration.

“But not me. Even now, even to save my own mother, the sacred law holds. Only you can enter.”

“I’ll bring her back,” Jorghan promised.

“If she’s alive, if she’s down there, I won’t leave without her.”

He stepped through the barrier, feeling it part around him like water, acknowledging his passage as legitimate rather than an intrusion. The sensation was strange, welcoming but also testing, ensuring that his stated intentions matched his actual purpose.

Then the barrier closed behind him, sealing him inside, and Pecah’s form disappeared from view.