Chapter: THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD"No." The word came out of Aria's mouth before she even had the chance to stop it. She didn't need proof to answer this time. She was hoping what she was about to say was wrong. The archivist appeared completely exhausted. "You're Mistaken." Aria tried to convince the archivist and herself, even if it meant sounding desperate. "You have the wrong person." "I don't." The response was precise and beyond sure. The old man's certainty made Aria's chest tighten. "My father died." The archivist apparently agreed because there was no argument which somehow made this so much worse. "That's what everyone believed." The room was encased in silence. Nyra looked back and forth between the two, confused and concerned but trying to comprehend where the definitive truth ended and speculation began. Rowan was the first to break the silence. "You saw Elias yourself?" "I did." "When?" "Three years after his disappearance." Not his death, but disappearance. Aria saw Rowan noticing it at
Last Updated: 2026-07-09
Chapter: THE MAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPHFor a few seconds, everything stopped. Aria focused on the picture. The rest of the archive faded. The smell of old paper. Rowan’s breathing. Nyra shifting her weight. All gone. There was only this small photo in her hands.Her father was on the left. Elias Voss. In this photo he looked… formative. Not the strained, polite stranger smile from the portraits she grew up with. Not the stiff man who died too young and left grief behind. This was a real family smile. The kind that reached his eyes. The kind Aria barely remembered but her body recognized anyway.The man next to him was a stranger.That made her stomach drop. Because Aria had never seen him before. And he was standing shoulder to shoulder with her father like they were equals.“You know him?” Rowan asked.“No,” she replied. Too quick. Because she wanted it to be true. Aria looked again. Dark coat. Silver ring on his right hand. Sharp face, sharp eyes. The kind of face that looked annoying even when it wasn’t doing anythin
Last Updated: 2026-06-11
Chapter: THE RESERVOIR Silence enveloped the group as they walked. It was not because there was nothing to talk about. There was too much to say. Thoughts consumed Aria. The circular route around the reservoir. The writings etched on Daren's arm. The expression plastered across Rowan's face. And worst of all, her father. Once again. All of the questions resurfaced with him. A man who had been dead almost two decades. A man who with each day, continued to surround himself with even more mystery. Finally, the silence was disrupted by Nyra. "I get the feeling that now your father owes all of us an explanation." One of the guards burst out laughing. Rowan looked indifferent. Aria almost smiled. Almost. The moment was over. The reality was that Nyra was not wrong. The further Aria investigated, the more her father surfaced, like clues left behind by a phantom. By nightfall, they arrived at the ancient city archives. These were not the public records. The real archives. The inaccessible archives. The abysmally d
Last Updated: 2026-06-11
Chapter: THE BODY IN THE FORESTAria had seen death before. Too many times.It came in all kinds. Quiet ones. Violent ones. The ones you saw coming from a mile away. The ones that blindsided you and knocked the air out of your chest.You never got used to it. You just learned how to keep walking after.The forest was too quiet. That creepy, wrong kind of quiet where people start whispering without meaning to, like loud voices might wake something up.Aria walked between the trees with Rowan and two guards. Nyra stuck close behind her. Closer than normal. Aria noticed. Didn’t say anything. Everyone dealt with fear their own way. Nyra was pretending she wasn’t afraid by staying one step behind Aria at all times.“You sure you want to see this?” Rowan asked.Aria didn’t look at him. “Yes.”“You don’t have to.”“I know.”But that wasn’t the point. Daren died because he knew something. Aria felt it in her gut, heavy and certain. And if she wanted answers, she couldn’t keep looking away every time things got ugly. She
Last Updated: 2026-06-11
Chapter: THE SERPENT RING Nobody said anything for a moment. Aria's gaze was glued to Rowan. So was Nyra's. Even Rowan felt the weight of his choice to speak. Regrettably for him, it was too late. "You know where the symbol comes from." Aria said. Not a question, a statement. "I know where I’ve seen it." He said, sighing. "Then start talking." Nyra said, with a nod of approval. "Yes, please start talking. That's how conversations work." In reply, they both continued to ignore her. Again. Nyra sat back with her arms crossed. "One day I will stop helping you both." "That day is not today." Aria responded. "No. Sadly." For the first time that afternoon, Rowan's lips twitched with a smile, but it faded quickly. He opened a drawer and pulled out a folder, with layers of dust on the edges. Not a good sign. Old documents meant old problems and old problems meant they had never been resolved. He placed it on the desk. "The serpent ring isn't a family crest." Aria continued to listen, "Is it military?" He continued fl
Last Updated: 2026-06-11
Chapter: THE MISSING HOURSAria read the note four times. Same line every time: She isn’t supposed to remember.It was hard to process. Not because the words were complicated. Because the author wrote “she” like Aria wasn’t in the room. Like she was a piece on a gameboard someone else was moving. That feeling made her skin crawl.Nyra broke the silence first. “Okay.”Rowan took the note from Aria. He stood there, tense, staring at it like it might change if he looked hard enough. “Same handwriting.”Aria nodded. Same author. But why? How had they gotten close enough to leave a note for them?“Daren,” Aria said the name out loud.Rowan looked up. “What about him?”He tensed. Dropped his gaze. Got lost in thought. That wasn’t for no reason. Something had made him terrified. Liam. The silver marks. The questions Aria wasn’t supposed to ask.Aria hated that memory. It was obvious Daren wasn’t afraid of a sick man. He was afraid of someone who knew things. Someone who knew too much.Rowan stood up. Aria knew that m
Last Updated: 2026-06-11
