CHAPTER 32WHAT COMES AFTERThe silence didn’t break all at once. It shifted. Subtly. Like the lake itself had absorbed the weight of what Rylan said and was deciding what to do with it. Tarin was the first to move, dragging himself a little further onto the shore, water dripping steadily from his clothes. He didn’t speak right away. Just sat there, catching his breath like nothing unusual had been said at all.“That’s a lot,” Eran muttered finally, still half-submerged, arms resting along the edge.Kael didn’t look away from Rylan. “Yeah,” he said simply. No judgment. No push. Just acknowledgment. Mira exhaled quietly, her gaze still fixed on Rylan, searching his face like she was trying to understand something deeper than the words themselves.“You didn’t tell me that part,” she said.Rylan glanced at her, his expression steady. “I didn’t know how.” She nodded once. Not upset. Just… taking it in.“Okay,” she said after a moment. “Now I do.” That was it. No argument. No questioning h

CHAPTER 34SHADOWS IN STRATEGYCassian paced the edge of his private chambers, the amber glow of torches casting long, flickering shadows across the walls. The scrolls and ledgers strewn across the table did little to ease the tightening in his chest. Rylan’s disappearance wasn’t just inconvenient, it was dangerous. Every moment he stayed unaccounted for, every rumour that spread about his strength or lineage, chipped away at Cassian’s control. He stopped abruptly, letting out a slow breath. There was one person he could turn to. One mind sharp enough, cold enough, to help him untangle this mess. One who understood the Dominion better than anyone else.“Edran,” he muttered. The name itself carried weight, a mix of caution and necessity. He strode toward the side door, his boots clicking against the polished stone. Edran was his adviser, the only one he trusted to speak plainly, and maybe to challenge him when he needed it. The chambers beyond smelled faintly of incense and old parchm

CHAPTER 36WHAT REMAINSAethyra didn’t leave the way others did. There was no turning away. No shift in the air. One moment she stood there, and the next, she wasn’t. The space she had occupied felt the same. But not quite. Like something steady had been removed, and nothing had taken its place. Silence followed. Not the easy kind they had grown used to. Something heavier. Uncertain. Mira didn’t move at first. Her gaze stayed fixed on the spot where Aethyra had been, like she expected her to return if she waited long enough. She didn’t.“Right,” Kael said finally, dragging a hand down his face. “That was… helpful.”Tarin exhaled slowly. “It was. Just not in the way we wanted.”“That’s not helpful,” Kael replied.“It’s information,” Tarin corrected.Mira didn’t react to either of them. Her attention shifted back, to him. Vaelis hadn’t moved since Aethyra disappeared. He stood where he was, calm, composed, completely unaffected by the weight that had settled over the rest of them. Like

CHAPTER 38THE SPACE BENEATHRylan was awake. Not physically. He had been for a while. Long before his body opened its eyes. Long before his voice, but not his voice, spoke. He had been there. Watching. It didn’t feel like being trapped. Not at first. It felt like standing just behind something, thin, almost invisible, like a surface he could press against but never pass through. He could see. He could hear. He could feel the movement of his body like an echo that didn’t belong to him anymore. Every step. Every word. Every glance. None of it was his. And he let it happen. Because the moment he realised what was happening, he stopped trying to take it back.————It had started earlier. Before the collapse. Before everything went wrong. When the memories first began to fracture and bleed into each other, when voices that weren’t his began to surface, when faces blurred and time lost its order, he had felt it. The slipping. The unraveling. And then, him. Vaelis. Not loud. Not overwhelmin

CHAPTER 40A NAME REMEMBERED WRONGFew days passed. It started casually. Like most things did with Eran. They had settled into something that almost resembled normal again. Not fully. Not comfortably. But enough that conversation flowed without stopping every few seconds to acknowledge what had changed.Kael lay back on the grass, hands behind his head, watching the strange sky above them like it might finally start making sense. Tarin sat nearby, idly tracing patterns into the dirt with a stick. Lira stayed close, quiet as always. Mira kept her distance. Vaelis stood slightly apart, not withdrawn, just… not involved. Eran, however, didn’t let things stay still for long. “You called her something,” he said suddenly. No one reacted at first. Then Tarin glanced up. “Who?”Eran didn’t look away from Vaelis. “Lira.”Kael tilted his head slightly. “Yeah,” he said. “You did. He’s been calling her a different name.”Vaelis didn’t move. “I didn’t,” he replied calmly.Eran raised a brow. “You