Chapter
The night outside Leon's residence slept like a creature finally exhaling, but the world around him didn't follow its king into rest. The city of Vel always carried a heartbeat under the darkness—the quiet shifting of guards, the faint rattle of cart wheels, the distant cry of a night hawk circling over the rooftops.
While Leon lay sunk into the warmth of his bed, chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm, something else moved through the capital. Not loud. Not chaotic. Just… awake.
A little distance from the royal residence, near the inner great walls of the palace grounds, stood a building that didn't match the surrounding architecture at all.
It didn't shine like the marble pavilions.
It didn't glow like the lantern-lit gardens.
It didn't carry the gentle elegance of noble estates.
This one was built of something far older.
Far darker.
Black granite—pure, cold, almost devouring the moonlight.
