My arms still ached from the last training session with Seraphina. I sat on a bench in a quiet corner of the mansion, trying to make sense of the notes she'd left me. The paper was covered in her sharp, clear script, but the words might as well have been bird tracks. Reading was slow, frustrating work.
Seraphina found me there, scowling at the page. She didn't say anything, just took a seat beside me.
"It doesn't make sense," I muttered, pushing the notes away. "All this talk of ancient tech and magi-cores. It sounds like a fairy tale, not a real thing people built."
"It's real enough," she said, her voice calm. "The old emperor, Socharis, found the proof himself. He was just a man walking the desert, checking his borders, when he found a city buried in the sand. Not a ruin, not really. A place where the metal didn't rust and the lights never went out."
I tried to picture it. A whole city, just sitting under the dunes, silent and waiting. "What was in it?"
"Machines. Things no one had ever seen. With no one around to explain it, Socharis had to learn for himself. He was a builder at heart. He used what he found to make our walls stronger and our tools better. He laid the foundation for everything you see now."
"So he was the careful one," I said. "And Radames is the one who decided to start swinging the hammers."
A faint smile touched her lips. "Exactly. When Radames took the throne, he saw the old discoveries not just as tools, but as weapons. As possibilities. The magi-trains, the guns you've seen, none of that was his grandfather's design. Radames pushed for it. He started the Institute and gathered people like Thalia and Veylan, people who weren't afraid to take things apart to see how they worked."
I thought of the workshop, the chaotic energy, the hum of magic and machinery tangled together. It was a place that would have given the old emperor a heart attack. But it was also the engine of the empire now.
It was a strange thought. This whole powerful, clanking empire started because one man got lost in the desert and found a secret. And now that secret was the reason I was here, learning to fight and thinking about linking my magic to a living legend.
I looked at Seraphina, the scale of it all finally starting to sink in. "This ancient city," I asked, my voice quieter. "How big was it, anyway? I mean, if they're still pulling stuff out of it, it must be massive, right?"
She didn't bother making it sound grand. "Not just one, actually. They've found a few of those places over the years, scattered all over the empire."
Her voice was flat, like she was telling me the weather. "They aren't just ruins. They're whole cities underground, built with materials and magic we can't even figure out. Which means someone else lived here long before we did."
I blinked, trying to fit that idea in my head. "So... we weren't the first ones here?"
"No," she said, crossing her arms. "We call them the Ancients, but that's just a name. We don't know what they called themselves. No writings, no long-lived races around who remember them. Just the stuff they left behind."
She gave a small shrug. "We got lucky some of it still works. If it didn't, this empire would be a lot smaller."
She wasn't being cold, just practical. There was no point in dressing it up with wonder. It was just a fact, and I was the one who had to catch up.
I was still trying to wrap my head around the idea of a whole civilization under my feet when the air in the library changed. Like a quiet sound I couldn't quite hear.
A soft knock, then the door opened just enough for a familiar shape to step through. Perfect posture, gloved hands, not a single hair out of place.
Albrecht.
He bowed, the same way he always did, like he'd been practicing it his whole life.
"My apologies for the interruption," he said, looking right at me like I was a minor scheduling problem. "But you have a visitor."
Seraphina looked up from her book. "Who?"
"Not for you," he replied, tipping his head toward me. "For her."
Me?
I looked around, half-expecting to see someone else. "A visitor? Are you sure?"
The only people I knew were already here. Arden, Sora, Lysandra... who else would come see me? And why would they need to be announced?
The double doors swung open hard enough to make the ink bottles rattle, making me jump.
Standing in the doorway was a girl I'd never seen before in my life. And she was smiling like she'd just won a prize.
"There you are!" she said, pointing right at me. Her twin tails bounced with the movement. "I finally found you, Master!"
My brain stopped. "What."
She walked in like she owned the place. "Mmm, the magic in here isn't as much as that big place earlier. It's enough to be filling, though."
She had silver-white hair with pink streaks, tied up with little black bat-wing clips. Her dress was a mess of frills and belts. And behind her, actual bat wings flapped, pink and black and way too delicate.
Seraphina was on her feet in an instant. She didn't reach for a weapon, but her whole body went still and ready, like a hunter who'd just heard a twig snap.
Even the air felt thicker. The girl's presence filled the room, not with magic, but with a feeling that made my hair stand on my neck. It wasn't a threat, not exactly. It was a warning.
Albrecht let out a slow breath, straightening his cuffs like someone had messed up his whole day.
"She was... persistent," he said quietly to Seraphina. "I attempted to redirect her, but she bypassed standard channels entirely and appealed directly to His Majesty. The Emperor found her 'amusing' and granted her temporary access to the palace grounds."
Of course he did, I thought. That sounded exactly like Radames. Let a strange, powerful creature waltz into his home because he was bored or curious. The man was too carefree for an emperor. He did what he liked and trusted his own judgment over anyone else's.
Seraphina didn't relax. If anything, she looked more tense.
Meanwhile, the strange girl walked right up to me, leaned over the table until her face was way too close to mine, and grinned.
She had sharp fangs. Her eyes were red and yellow, like melted gems. A tiny heart was drawn under one eye.
"My name's Lilith," she said, her voice sweet. "I'm your familiar!"
I stared, blinking. My head tilted on its own.
"...My what?"
Lilith's face fell. Her lip actually trembled, like I'd hurt her feelings.
"Oh... you really don't remember me?" she said, slumping like a puppet with its strings cut. "I knew it! I told myself not to get my hopes up." She sniffed, then peeked at me through her fingers with a sly look. "Well... I guess it has been a long time. And I do look different now."
She spun around, her frills flying. I put a hand over my teacup before the breeze from her wings could hit it.
"I was a lot smaller back then," she went on, "and not nearly this cute. But you're still you, even if you don't remember. And a contract is a contract! That makes you my Master."
For just a heartbeat, something flickered at the edge of my mind.
Damp leaves. The smell of moss. Small hands cupped around something warm and fragile.
Then it was gone, leaving behind a faint, uncomfortable ache in my chest.
I shook my head. Just imagination.
"Contract?" I repeated, still trying to catch up. "I... I never made a contract with anyone. I think I'd remember that. Unless I did it in my sleep, and even then, why would I..."
I stopped talking.
A cold, solid thought dropped into place. Something Veylan had explained when he was talking about the taming link. A person can't form a contract with another person, he'd said. The magic needs a hierarchy; a human and something else. A beast. A spirit. A monster.
My eyes traveled from her frilly dress to her fluttering wings, to the fangs in her smiling mouth. I'd thought she was just a strange race I hadn't seen before, maybe a type of devil or some kind of demi-human.
But the magic didn't lie. A contract couldn't happen between two people.
My mouth went dry.
"You're..." I started, the word sticking in my throat.
Not a person. A monster. That's what the contract meant.
Lilith's grin came back, wide and knowing.
"I didn't always look like this," she said, waving a hand like it wasn't important. "This is just… what I grew into."
Then she struck a pose. Feet together, head tilted, hands under her chin like a picture of innocence. Her eyes sparkled, and her smile was all mischief and fangs.
"Was I wrong to think you'd find me adorable, Master?" she asked, her voice dripping with fake sweetness.
I just stared.
A heavy silence filled the room. The kind you get when the world tilts and you haven't figured out which way is up yet. Behind her, Seraphina was still frozen, her jaw tight. She hadn't relaxed since the door opened.
Albrecht just adjusted his gloves, calm as ever, like he was watching a mildly interesting play.
And me? I had nothing. Because the problem was...
She was adorable. In a scary, winged-devil-dressed-like-a-doll sort of way. But still adorable. And I had a feeling she knew it.
Seraphina's voice cut through the quiet, sharp and clear.
"What do you want with her?" she asked, not moving from her spot. "If you're here to cause trouble for someone under the palace's protection, you'll regret it."
The words hit harder than I expected.
I didn't flinch, but something inside me did. Maybe because it was true. I was the weak one. I wasn't like Arden or Seraphina. I wasn't even like this bat-winged girl who acted like she owned the world.
But Lilith's face darkened.
"I don't need a reason," she shot back. "Do I need some secret plan to want to be with my Master?"
Her wings twitched as she turned to face Seraphina fully.
"And she's not weak. Just because she doesn't walk around scowling or throwing fancy magic doesn't mean she's nothing. You don't know her like I do."
I blinked, still having no idea what she was talking about.
Albrecht cleared his throat with a quiet authority that demanded attention.
"I have seen no deception in Miss Lilith's words," he said calmly. "She is not lying. Her intentions, whatever they may be, appear to be genuine. Very much so."
Seraphina turned her head just a little toward him. Something in her posture shifted. She didn't relax, but the tightness in her shoulders eased. She didn't say anything else, but I could feel her stand down a little. If Albrecht, the human embodiment of protocol and suspicion, vouched for her sincerity, then that was a truth even Seraphina had to accept.
I wondered what it was about Albrecht that made her listen. Was it trust? Some kind of truth-sensing magic he never mentioned? Or just a feeling that he knew things the rest of us didn't?
Whatever it was, it worked. And somehow, that made this whole strange situation feel even more real.
The silence that followed was different now. Less dangerous, more awkward. Lilith broke it by hopping up to sit on the edge of the table, swinging her legs and making the wood creak. She looked utterly pleased with herself.
"So!" she chirped, beaming at me. "Where do I sleep?"
I stared at her. "What?"
"Well, I can't just leave. I'm your familiar! We're bound together. I have to stay close to you." She said it like she was explaining that water was wet.
"This isn't a negotiation," Seraphina stated, her voice leaving no room for argument. "You will be assigned guest quarters under guard. You will not have unrestricted access."
Lilith's cheerful expression didn't falter, but her eyes narrowed just a fraction. "You think a guard will stop me if I want to see my Master?"
"Try it," Seraphina replied, her tone flat and cold. "See what happens."
The air grew tense again. I could feel it prickling against my skin. This was going to be a disaster. A powerful, unpredictable creature and the empire's most disciplined soldier stuck in a palace together.
"Wait," I said, stepping forward before they could start a silent war in the library. I looked at Lilith, at this girl who claimed to know a version of me I couldn't remember. "Before anyone decides where you sleep, you're going to explain yourself to Arden."
Lilith's confidence flickered for the first time. "Arden?"
"The man I travel with," I said. "If you're going to be... attached to me, then he needs to approve it." I wasn't sure if that was true, but it felt right. Arden was the closest thing to an anchor I had in this chaotic new life.
A sly smile touched Lilith's lips. "Oh, I know who he is. The quiet one with all the power. The one who ended a war." She leaned forward, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "He's not going to like me."
"That's not a point in your favor," Seraphina commented dryly.
"But he'll tolerate me," Lilith continued, undeterred, her gaze fixed on me. "Because I'm useful. And because I make you stronger. He wants you stronger, doesn't he?"
Her words hit a little too close to home. The taming link, the training, all of it was about making me less of a liability. Now this familiar shows up claiming the same goal. Was I just a project to everyone?
A cold knot tightened in my stomach as I remembered Veylan's lecture about the taming link. The magic needs a hierarchy, he'd said. The stronger core becomes the anchor, the 'Master.'
If that rule applied to familiars too, then what did that make me? Lilith felt powerful, her presence a low hum of danger in the room.
But this wasn't a normal familiar contract. She said she'd known me before, from a time I couldn't remember. What if the rules were different? What if her magic was stronger than mine, and she was the real anchor here? The thought was terrifying.
"First things first," I said, pushing the frantic thoughts aside. "You're coming with me. We're finding Arden. And you," I looked at Seraphina, "you're probably going to want to come too, aren't you?"
"Someone has to ensure this doesn't end with a wing pinned to the wall," she replied, already moving toward the door.
Lilith giggled, a sound like ringing bells. "This is going to be fun!"
I highly doubted that. As I led the way out of the library, with a gothic-frilled monster on my heels and a stoic imperial agent at my back, I felt the walls of my world expanding in a way I couldn't control. My past was a blank page someone had scribbled on; my future now included a self-proclaimed familiar who treated life like a game.
The walk through the palace halls felt longer than usual. Servants paused their work to stare at our strange procession. Lilith waved at a few of them, her bat wings giving an occasional, unsettling flutter.
I kept my eyes forward, my mind racing. What would Arden say? What would he see that I couldn't? And what would happen when an unstoppable force like Lilith met an immovable object like him?
I was about to find out. And a part of me, the part that was tired of being the one who was always protected, was morbidly curious to see it.