The first knock came at dawn. It was hard and deliberate, not the rhythm of a servant.Cael was already awake, hunched at a side table near the hall. A clerk’s copy of the grain tallies lay open, the ink blurred at the edges from being read too many times. He rubbed at his temples, his mind tired from a sleepless night. He read and reread them, as if proof of what he had done could hold the Southern Guild at bay.The chamberlain entered with measured steps, holding a sealed missive. The wax bore the sigil of the Southern Guild: a red coin balanced on scales.Edric took it without a word. The hall stilled around him. Servants stopped mid-way through their work, the retainers leaned closer. He broke the seal, scanned the lines, then passed it back for the chamberlain to read aloud.“A formal notice of dispute,” the chamberlain read. "Pending investigation into misappropriated surplus stock. Unlawful tampering with guild inspection rights. Allegations of coercion.”Murmurs broke loose. A

The first page trembled slightly in Cael's grip. He'd imagined her voice a hundred times since childhood, conjured it in memories and half-forgotten dreams. Now it came to him not as a voice but in ink, her handwriting neat, the letters curling in a way he remembered from the notes that were still available in the tower's library.He swallowed once and read."To my son, Cael. If you are reading this, then the time I feared has come. I am gone, and you have found the box I left. It was never meant to keep you from me, only to wait until you were ready. If you opened it too soon, you would not understand what I have to tell you. If you are reading this now… then I trust the blood has begun to stir in you."Cael's hand rose unconsciously to his chest, feeling the warmth of the locket like he was actually with his mother in the moment. He hunched over the box, reading every word like it might vanish."The Ashveil bloodline is not ordinary, Cael. You have already felt it, haven't you? The