It began with a knock that didn't belong.
Not polite. Not urgent. Just three slow taps.
Kaelen opened the door, expecting Ren.
Instead, he found a man cloaked in gray, face half-covered in silk. No insignia. No title. Only a single ring on his gloved hand—black iron, etched with a broken crown.
The man bowed slightly.
"No need to speak, my lord. You're being watched."
Kaelen didn't move. "Who are you?"
The man handed him a scroll, wax-sealed but unmarked.Then vanished down the corridor like smoke.
Kaelen closed the door, broke the seal, and read.
We see the games. We know the rules they hide behind.You are not the only piece out of place.Meet us tonight. Past the Hall of Bells.Come alone.
—The Unnamed.
That night, the Hall of Bells was silent.
No guards. No music. Just tall marble archways hung with faded crimson banners and hundreds of tiny bronze bells—long rusted, no longer ringing.
Kaelen followed the path into an abandoned chapel, walls scorched by fire. Somewhere, a candle flickered in the dark.
He stepped forward.
"You came," a voice said.
From the shadows emerged a woman—cloaked like the man before, but with sharper eyes. Behind her stood two more figures, masked and motionless.
Kaelen spoke calmly. "You're the Unnamed?"
"No. We are what came after names were stripped away."
"Whisper Branch?"
A slight smile. "That's what the court calls us. We call ourselves the Truth that survived the blade."
Kaelen felt the chill in his blood.
The woman approached slowly, her hand never far from the dagger at her belt.
"You are not the only blood they buried, Kaelen. And not the only rightful heir whose story was burned."
"What do you want from me?" he asked.
She paused, then placed something into his hand.
A ring. Black iron. Same as the man from before.
"Wear this, and we will protect you.Fight for you, if needed.Bleed beside you."
Kaelen's hand closed around the ring.
"What's the cost?"
The woman's expression darkened.
"Loyalty. Silence. And one promise:When the fire rises… you will not run."
Kaelen returned to his chamber before dawn.
He didn't speak to Ren. He didn't sleep.
He simply stood at the window, watching the kingdom's towers piercing the morning mist.
He opened the drawer of his desk.
Inside were two things:– His mother's lion pendant.– And now, the ring of the Unnamed.
Two bloodlines.
Two paths.
One promise:
He would never be nameless again.