Velden was a city that didn't sleep — it watched.
High towers gleamed like daggers, flanked by iron gargoyles and glowing crystal wards. Streets pulsed with enchanted lanterns, steam carts hissed across cobbled avenues, and every stone seemed carved with the quiet promise of secrets best left buried.
Kai stood at the gates in Valeria's skin and felt the eyes of the city sink into his bones.
They had arrived just before sundown. The royal escort was waved through without pause — nobles didn't wait in line. But inside, Velden was everything Kai remembered hating about power.
And everything Valeria had once called home.
---
She had lived here.
Not in the city proper, but in the high citadel district — where the rich slept behind enchanted walls and the air smelled like fireglass and false hope.
The carriage rattled through wrought-iron gates. Kai sat across from Prince Rael, who hadn't spoken a word since last night.
The silence between them was no longer heavy.
It was sharp.
And Kai could feel it — Rael wasn't just watching anymore.
He was waiting.
---
The citadel was carved into a cliffside overlooking Velden's river. Pillars of stormglass and black marble rose into the clouds, banners whipping in the wind. A symbol was etched into every tower: a sword wrapped in lightning.
Rael's family crest.
The royal house of Sareth.
When the doors opened, a row of guards greeted them with stiff bows. Not one looked at Kai directly.
Except one.
A woman with dark green armor and a scar running from lip to collarbone. Her eyes were hard. Calculating.
She spoke quietly as Kai passed her.
"Didn't expect you back."
Kai paused. "Neither did I."
A flicker of surprise crossed her face — quickly masked.
> She knew Valeria.
Another thread to avoid pulling.
---
The quarters assigned to "Lady Knox" were sprawling. Velvet chairs. Crystal decanters. Walls lined with weapons wrapped in silk. A room built for a killer who happened to be welcome at court.
Kai stood before the mirror and pulled back his collar.
The black vein was still there.
Darker now. Curving.
Like something trying to complete a pattern.
He lit a candle and pulled open Valeria's journal. There were no new entries — but there was something etched in the spine. Faint. Almost burned in.
"The seal wakes in Velden."
As if on cue — a knock at the door.
Kai slammed the book shut and turned.
A man entered. Middle-aged, draped in blue and silver, with a short blade at his hip and rings that screamed old money.
His eyes locked on Kai with casual arrogance.
"Lady Knox. You were not expected so soon."
"Things changed," Kai said flatly.
The man smiled. "They always do in Velden."
He stepped closer and offered a hand.
"I'm Lord Teryn Vael. Chief Advisor to the Royal Court… and old friend of your father's."
Kai hesitated before shaking it.
Valeria's father was dead. Or so she'd claimed.
Teryn's expression was unreadable. "You'll find the court a little more… volatile than when you left."
"I'm used to danger," Kai replied.
"Oh, I don't mean blades." He leaned in. "I mean whispers. Your absence raised questions. Your return will raise more. They'll want answers."
Kai's smile was Valeria's — cold and dismissive. "Then they'll be disappointed."
Teryn gave a small bow. "I hope not. We're all depending on your loyalty, after all. Especially Prince Rael."
He left before Kai could reply.
---
Later that night, Rael came to him again.
Not in anger.
Not even in suspicion.
But with a quiet, calculating stillness that made Kai more nervous than yelling ever could.
Rael sat on the balcony railing, staring at the city below.
"There are people who think I brought you back for politics," he said. "To remind the court I still have weapons no one can touch."
Kai leaned against the doorway. "And what do you think?"
Rael looked at him. "I think I don't know you anymore."
Kai exhaled. "Maybe you never did."
Rael stood. "Valeria would never have let that beast get so close."
The words landed like a slap.
"I had no weapon," Kai said carefully.
"You are a weapon," Rael snapped. "That's what makes you dangerous."
He stepped closer, voice lower.
"Tell me, Val. What's bleeding under your skin?"
Kai froze.
And Rael's voice dropped into something far too intimate.
"I see it. The way you hesitate. The way your eyes scan rooms like they're maps you've forgotten how to read."
Kai said nothing.
Rael's gaze softened. "If something is wrong… if something happened to you…"
Kai looked away. "You wouldn't believe me."
Rael touched his wrist — not with power this time, but gentleness.
"I might."
Kai shook his head.
"You really think I'm still her?"
Rael didn't answer.
Because something behind Kai moved.
Not physically. Magically.
A whisper in the air. A chill.
Kai turned.
The black vein on his wrist burned — and split.
Not the skin.
The seal.
And for a second, his reflection in the glass doors flickered.
Not Valeria.
Himself.
His real face.
His real eyes.
And then it was gone.
Kai backed away.
Rael stood frozen.
"Valeria?" he said softly.
Kai's heart stopped.
Rael's hand went to his blade. "What's going on?"
But Kai was already running.
---
He made it to the training yard before the pain hit.
He dropped to his knees.
The seal had bloomed across his chest now — vines of dark magic, crawling up like barbed wire under the skin.
And in his head — Valeria's voice.
> "Don't fight it. Don't reject the seal. You're tearing the bond."
Kai screamed through clenched teeth.
> "If it breaks, you die. If you die, I die too."
He collapsed.
The last thing he saw before blacking out —
Was a woman in green armor standing in the shadows.
Watching.
Smiling.
Waiting.