Chapter 213: Nix Found a Bloodborn Without His Bloodline

Nyxara had placed the corpse on a blanket, and Raven appreciated that she hadn’t simply dropped it onto the dirt. Not out of respect for the dead. Mud, leaves, and moisture ruined evidence.

Night had fully settled around the camp. Roland added two logs to the fire and moved a lantern beside the body while Valeria cleared the supplies away to make room. Elise knelt on the opposite side without touching anything.

Nyxara remained standing. That was the first thing Raven noticed. Normally, she occupied any space as though it belonged to her and expected everyone else to adjust. This time she hadn’t sat down, wasn’t smiling, and didn’t seem interested in provoking anyone. She only watched the dead man.

Raven pulled back the cloth covering the torso. Bloodborn, adult male. Pale skin, dark nails, reduced but well-developed fangs, and musculature denser than a human’s. Beneath the ribs and along both sides of the spine were scars far too clean to have come from combat.

Predation reacted.

[Bloodborn Biological Architecture Detected.]

[Hereditary Structure Extraction Detected.]

[Structural Retention: 22%.]

[Extraction Method: ARTIFICIAL.]

[Analysis Incomplete.]

Raven let the information disappear before speaking. "Approximately twenty-two percent of the original hereditary structure remains."

Nyxara looked at him. "So they really removed it."

"Part of it. Predation recognizes the extraction, but it can’t reconstruct what’s missing or identify the original Bloodline on its own."

Elise examined the corpse from where she knelt. "Then you can’t tell which family he belonged to either?"

"Not through this."

Raven didn’t elaborate. Whether he could determine it through marks, anatomy, or documentation was a different question, but he didn’t need to explain every possible method. Nyxara exhaled through her nose.

"Good. I’d rather not discover you can look at a corpse and tell me which lineage lost a son."

Raven watched her for a moment. "There are less comfortable methods."

Her eyes narrowed. "That doesn’t help either."

"It wasn’t meant to."

Valeria placed a small box beside him. "What do you need?"

"Stable light, forceps, clean water, and nobody moving the body until I’m finished."

Elise raised one hand slightly. "I can maintain the light."

Raven nodded and began.

---

The incisions were too precise to have been made during an improvised transport. Raven started with the left side. A thin scar ran beneath the lower ribs and had nearly closed. Farther back, he found two more, each with different depth and different stages of healing. They hadn’t been made at the same time. Repeated access points.

"He survived the first procedure," Raven said.

Nyxara leaned forward slightly. "How long?"

"I can’t determine that yet. But this wound had enough time to close, and the inflammation here had already gone down before they opened him again."

Valeria examined the edges. "Then they treated him afterward."

"Yes. They didn’t cut him open, extract something, and immediately throw him away."

With Roland’s help, Raven carefully turned the body over. There were more scars near the spine. Some were narrow. Others had penetrated deeply. One area was surrounded by small dark marks that didn’t resemble bruising.

Elise brought the light closer. "There’s degraded energy around that wound. It could be residual corruption."

Nyxara’s head snapped up. "Don’t use that word."

Elise frowned slightly. "I’m not saying he was corrupted. I’m describing the residue."

"Then say degraded. Asteria already uses ’corruption’ to justify too many things."

The tension rose enough that Valeria stopped studying the corpse and Roland looked up. Raven continued examining the scar for another two seconds before intervening.

"Elise is describing energy. You’re talking about politics. Both may matter, but not while we’re trying to determine what they did here."

Nyxara looked at him with obvious irritation. "I don’t need you telling me how to react when someone mutilates one of my people."

"No. I need to know whether you want to understand it first or argue with Elise first. We can’t do both at once."

Nyxara held his gaze. Eventually, she looked back at the corpse. "Understand it."

Raven looked at Elise. "And avoid doctrinal terminology unless it’s necessary."

"Agreed."

Roland muttered, loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Surprisingly civilized."

Valeria didn’t even look at him. "It’s still early."

---

Raven found the first significant anomaly beneath the sternum. He didn’t want to open the body completely. It would destroy part of the evidence, and he still didn’t know what local laws governed the possession or examination of a Bloodborn corpse inside Asteria. He worked only through the existing incisions. Predation responded by region.

[Hereditary Pathway Damage.]

[Foreign Stabilization Residue.]

[Host Tissue Adaptation Detected.]

Raven stopped. "They didn’t only extract something here."

Valeria moved the lantern closer while he lifted a thin layer of scar tissue. "What do you see?"

"They tried to keep him stable after the procedure."

There were traces of some compound around several internal structures. Not blood, and not an ordinary preservative. It smelled mineral, mixed with something botanical Raven didn’t recognize. Nyxara did.

"Nocturnal resin."

Raven looked up. "Use?"

"Bloodborn tissue stabilization. Deep surgery, hereditary-channel repair, and certain succession procedures."

Elise asked, "Bloodline succession?"

Nyxara looked at her. This time, there was no immediate hostility. "Very limited ritual transfers within the same family. Small fragments, strict conditions, and usually consent. You don’t rip out an entire Bloodline and hand it to a stranger."

Raven pointed toward the residue. "Then whoever worked on him knew Bloodborn procedures or had access to someone who did."

Nyxara nodded slowly. That removed one simple explanation. This wasn’t a group of humans cutting bodies apart without understanding what they were touching. Specialized knowledge was involved.

Raven continued examining the body and found internal sutures of different ages, some crude, others far too precise. "There were multiple interventions."

Valeria leaned closer. "You’re sure?"

Raven pointed to two areas. "These scars aren’t at the same stage of healing. They opened him, let him recover, then did it again."

Elise used the smallest amount of sacred perception. "He’s right. The regeneration didn’t begin at the same time."

Nyxara lowered her eyes. "They kept him alive between procedures."

Raven nodded. "Days at minimum. Possibly longer."

Fury crossed Nyxara’s face and disappeared almost immediately behind something more controlled. "Transfer Station Four couldn’t do this."

"No," Raven said. "They lost too much material during extraction. This is more precise and preserves the host better."

Valeria understood the implication. "Then someone improved the process."

Raven refused to claim more than he knew. "Someone improved this process."

The distinction mattered. They still had no proof it was the same network.

---

Nyxara finally sat beside the corpse. "Bloodlines aren’t simply abilities to us. They determine inheritance, marriages, political rights, and access to techniques certain Houses have protected for generations. In some courts, they even determine who has the right to claim a position."

Valeria understood quickly. "If you can extract a Bloodline in a controlled way, something that used to belong to a family could be sold."

"Or used to falsify legitimacy," Nyxara replied. "Or to break a succession without killing the entire line."

Elise looked at the body. "They could deliberately destroy a Bloodline too."

Nyxara looked at her and nodded. "Yes."

Raven didn’t need a full lecture on the Night Courts to understand the threat. A political system built around exclusive inheritance became far more fragile if that inheritance could be stored, sold, or implanted.

"So this isn’t just trafficking," he said.

Nyxara shook her head. "No."

"It could become a political weapon."

"Now you understand why I’m tracking Soren."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "I thought you also enjoyed appearing in our camps without warning."

Nyxara almost smiled. "Both can be true."

Valeria gave a short laugh, and the tension in the camp dropped enough for Raven to return to work.

---

Something near the heart kept producing a different response. Raven placed two fingers against the skin.

[Foreign Biological Structure Detected.]

[Origin Mismatch.]

[Host Species Compatibility: ABNORMAL.]

He went still. Elise noticed. "What did you find?"

"I don’t know yet."

He widened one of the existing incisions only as much as necessary. Valeria brought the lantern closer, and Nyxara leaned in to watch without touching.

Among distorted blood vessels and scar tissue was a dark, fibrous structure about the size of a coin, connected to the body by small channels. It resembled no Bloodborn architecture Raven had ever examined. Predation reacted again.

[Foreign Trait Architecture Detected.]

[Integration Status: PARTIAL.]

[Analysis Incomplete.]

Raven held the forceps still. The problem had just changed. Nyxara saw it in his expression.

"What is it?"

Raven looked up. "They didn’t only remove something."

Elise stared at the structure. Valeria went completely still beside the lantern. Raven looked back at the corpse.

"They tried to put something inside him that never belonged there."