March 21.

Coo, coo... A messenger pigeon cut the sky like a gray pebble skipping water. Paris caught it, scanned the note, and smiled, a knife-edge glint under lamplight. He unhooked the scroll from its leg, penned a reply, and let the bird lift like a leaf on wind.

He spread the scroll on the broad wooden table. Scrolls already piled there like a low mountain, no fewer than twenty.

“Your Majesty, it’s almost time.” The butler in black satin and a white dragon robe smiled, calm as winter frost.

Paris nodded and waved him away like a hand brushing still water.

He faced the mirror. His two pupils steadied like twin moons on a lake. He checked again, then smoothed his robes, wearing that official’s smile like a mask of lacquer. He knew this was the last time he’d match a face to a mirror.

...

Father, unease first. Elyu’s chest felt tight like a drumskin in a storm. He climbed to Ostos Palace with a head full of thunder.

Ostos seemed to have expected it. He pointed toward the pavilion, a silent finger like a road through fog.

They sat across each other. Air grew heavy, a lid on a simmering pot.

“You came for Paris,” Ostos said straight out, his voice a blade that cut through mist. The city had swapped guards and mustered troops like ants before rain. He’d have to be blind not to know.

Elyu nodded, the weight dropping like a stone in a well. He was silent a while, then dragged breath like from deep water. “This time, I felt a fear I can’t name.”

He swallowed. Memory rose like smoke. “Do you still remember? When we were seven, big brother fooled around, slipped into the armory, and almost lost his life.”

Ostos’s smile warmed like old wine. “Of course. You two little brats nearly scared your mother to death.”

Elyu laughed, brief sunlight through cloud. Then his face tightened. “That day, we lied to you.

“The armory was still under construction. Defenses were loose, traps unfinished. We slipped past guards and snares like shadows in reeds. We wanted a glimpse of the fabled holy ground—Heavenly Edge fallen, storms converging, gales howling, all creation in mourning.

“We saw it there. We saw that vast, terrible beauty. And we learned what people call god.”

“Did you.” Ostos sipped his wine, indifferent as a stone in a stream. “That’s why I spent decades sealing it off.”

Elyu’s fingers locked together until the knuckles were chalk. His face went dark as ink. “I suspect big brother tasted ‘its’ power back then. Since that day, he’s never let it go.

“Even I, every night before sleep, see that earth-shaking vision like lightning behind my eyes. I’ve dreamed that with a sword in hand, the world would drop like ripe fruit. And all we do would—”

“Elyu.” Ostos snapped it like thunder. Elyu jolted awake. He stared at his own hands, trembling with excitement, and shame flushed like heat.

“Father, I…”

“No shame,” Ostos said, voice low like a deep bell. “Back then, I was no better. Your uncle lost himself to it and became a benighted king. I even had to…”

He let the words trail into shadow. “Its power is absolute. That goes without saying. The Southern Kingdom’s Emperor doesn’t yet grasp how strong it is. He’s heard only rumor.

“If he knew, the world would already be in chaos like a forest on fire.

“Your brother is only… large in ambition. A ruler needs that, or grand designs rot on the vine. When I founded the Navy, it was for the same reason. We both know how wide the sea runs.

“But who dreams of conquering it? It’s so beautiful, and the resources are rich as reefs.”

He held Elyu’s gaze, each word a steady oar stroke. “Ambition isn’t a sin. Do you hear me?”

Elyu’s right hand trembled, the tendons taut like bowstrings. His expression twisted. “Everything lately tracks back to big brother like rivers to one source.

“Delaia ran into trouble right after big brother moved her. In the report, Erig said, ‘Why do you think we chose tonight to attack?’ That means they tracked Delaia’s steps like a hawk tracks a hare.

“That line also hints at something else. Medith returned. On her way back, she had to pass Sia City.

“In Medith’s letter, she wrote that big brother used the past of Eunomia to ‘forcefully’ keep her one night.

“Three days after that, Sia City’s siege broke out. By the old schedule, she should have been two days away. Without her, Lachesis might not have even opened.

“Powell’s betrayal was real. So was the threat. We found the wife he mentioned. She was already hanging from a tree. We don’t know why. The truth is gone like ash in wind.

“Before Medith came, there was the tsunami. It’s the same kind of pseudo-magic strike as this time. That’s why Captain Hibo could break it by force.

“But… don’t you think it’s too neat?

“The first Sia City wave hit when big brother was conveniently out. Then the wave happened.

“The second, at the Royal Capital, came not long after he went out again. Yet big brother stayed calm as a frozen lake. I was drowning in it.

“He had already sent Captain Hibo to the gate. Tianensai’s arrival was a variable. He’s a genius, sharp with danger. That I can explain. But Captain Hibo? Without a royal writ, he can’t move.

“Delaia and big brother were with me. Captain Haidra was absent. The other commander was away. So who gave the order?

“And big brother has been meeting noble vassals often, like crows gathering before rain.

“Lord Vald’s strange death.

“The one who could pass intel and war supplies to Segireneto without a trace. The one Powell wouldn’t name, even to his death.

“And what Medith wrote about their talk.”

Elyu let the long-suppressed doubts spill like floodwater through a broken dike. Ostos’s face changed, color draining like dusk.