The morning light in Versile was never kind. It crawled through half-broken shutters, filtered by the smoke that always clung to the city, turning everything into a grayish blur. Inside the interrogation chamber, the air smelled of rust and burnt oil. A single lamp swung above the table, creaking faintly.
Kael sat there, shoulders stiff, his eyes darting once in a while to the revolver on the desk. The same revolver that had been lying in the blood-soaked house where he had woken up. The only weapon found near the butchered noble family.
Across from him sat John Gary.
The man's back was straight, posture soldier-like, his coat pressed neatly despite the stains of ash. He held a notebook in one hand, pipe in the other, smoke curling lazily around his sharp face. His eyes, however, were anything but lazy. They pierced through Kael, steady and unblinking, like a judge ready to deliver a sentence.
"Let's begin again," John said, voice steady, clipped. "You claim you don't remember what happened in that house?"
Kael swallowed. His throat was dry. Fog. That's all there is. Just fog. He forced himself to nod.
John tapped his pen against the notebook. Tak, tak, tak.
"That house belonged to the Morty family. The ones whose corpses we scraped off the walls last night. Dismembered. Torn apart. And you Kael Morty, age twenty-two, recently graduated from Loy University you were found alive, sitting there like a ghost, with this on the counter."
He jabbed his pen toward the revolver.
Kael forced himself to breathe steadily. "I… I told you already. I don't remember anything. My head it's like everything is wrapped in fog. I didn't kill anyone."
For a moment, silence filled the room. Only the hiss of the lamp above them broke it.
John leaned forward, voice lowering.
"No broken locks. No signs of forced entry. Everyone else dead, you alive. Either you're the luckiest bastard in this city, or you're lying through your teeth."
Kael's palms began to sweat. His heart hammered against his ribs. But somewhere deep down, a part of him remained oddly calm, detached. I didn't do it. I know I didn't. But why was I there? Why that family?
When his silence dragged, John's eyes narrowed. He leaned back, smoke curling from his lips.
"Rose," he called.
From the corner, Rose stepped forward. Velvet-black hair framed her pale face, her expression unreadable. Her gloves gleamed faintly under the lamp as she raised one hand.
"Let's see if his mind tells a different story."
Kael stiffened. "Wait, what—"
Before he could move, Rose's palm pressed against his temple. Her voice fell into a soft murmur, a chant laced with strange rhythm:
"Shadows weave and silence bind,
Unveil the truth you hide inside.
Through veil and dream, I pry, I see,
Unmask the past and set it free…"
The room darkened. Kael gasped as the world around him twisted.
He was standing no, floating in a gray fog. The ground beneath his feet was endless mist. A single door stood far away, black as ink, chains rattling across it. Whispers slithered through the fog, half-formed words, promises, and threats.
Rose appeared before him, her eyes glowing faintly violet. She studied him calmly.
"Answer me, Kael. Did you kill them?"
"No!" The word tore out of him, raw, desperate.
Her eyes narrowed. "Strange. I'm in your head. Lies shouldn't work here."
She stretched her hand toward the chained door. The whispers grew louder, pounding in Kael's skull. His knees buckled under the weight of it.
Rose began another chant, her voice sharp this time:
"Veil of mind, I break and tear,
Reveal the truth that festers there "
The moment her fingers grazed the door, a surge of energy exploded outward. A blinding light and a violent crack like glass shattering inside his skull threw her back.
Kael screamed as pain seared through him. His vision went white.
When he blinked again, he was back in the interrogation room. His head throbbed, his ears rang. Rose was staggering back, pale as chalk, sweat dripping down her forehead. She lowered her hand slowly, breathing hard.
John's pipe tilted downward. "What happened?"
Rose shook her head. Her voice was strained.
"Something's… blocking him. His memories aren't gone. They're sealed. Locked behind something far stronger than me. Whoever or whatever did this… it didn't want us to know."
The room went silent again. John's gaze lingered on Kael, unreadable. Then, slowly, he set down his notebook and lit his pipe again, the flame sparking briefly.
He inhaled, then exhaled smoke toward the ceiling. "If you were guilty, Rose would've seen it. But she didn't. That means you're either innocent… or something's protecting you."
Kael's hands curled into fists on the table. Protecting me? Or trapping me?
John stood. His shadow stretched long across the room.
"There've been… incidents. Killings. Suicides. Whenever we arrive, the culprits are already dead or worse. But you… you're alive. That makes you valuable." He narrowed his eyes. "For now, you'll stay close. Don't make me regret this."
Before Kael could respond, the door creaked open.
"Oi!" Kim strode in, a grin plastered on his face. His red hair was messy, his coat unbuttoned, looking far too relaxed for a morning like this. He clapped Kael hard on the shoulder. "Welcome to the family, mate. Don't mind John he's always like this. You'll get used to it."
Kael winced from the impact, blinking at him.
John ignored the interruption, puffing calmly on his pipe. He turned to Rose. "Take him. Patrol the southern district. Keep your eyes open. If he tries anything, you know what to do."
Rose nodded, already recovering her composure.
And so, Kael found himself being dragged into the streets of Versile, Rose cheerfully holding his hand like some playful lover.
The southern district was worse than Kael imagined. Streets cracked and uneven, gaslamps flickering weakly. Steam hissed from grates, carrying the stink of oil and rot. People shuffled by in threadbare coats, avoiding eye contact.
Rose walked lightly, humming to herself, still holding his hand as if he'd run away otherwise.
"You're stiff," she teased. "Relax a little. We're just walking."
Kael gave her a flat look. "You call this relaxing?" He gestured at a beggar coughing blood into the gutter.
Rose only grinned. "Oh, don't be so gloomy. You'll make a terrible patrol partner."
Before Kael could answer, a man in a tattered vest brushed past him, slipping something into his hand. Kael froze, glancing down. It was a folded flyer.
Rose leaned over curiously. "What's that?"
He opened it slightly strange symbols inked in black, an invitation to a gathering. The words promised truths beyond the veil.
A chill crept up his spine. He folded it quickly, shoving it into his pocket. "Nothing."
But as he looked up, a shiver ran through him. On the rooftop across the street, a cloaked figure stood, watching silently.
By late afternoon, Rose tugged him into a narrow alley where a fortune-telling stall sat tucked between crumbling walls. Incense burned, smoke curling through the air.
"Come on," she insisted, dragging him toward the table. "Let's see our destiny."
Kael sighed. "I don't believe in this."
"Then prove it wrong."
The fortune teller, an old woman draped in rags, smiled faintly and shuffled her worn deck of cards. "Three. Past, present, future."
Kael hesitated, then touched three cards.
The woman flipped the first.
Past: A man hunched over, chains around his wrists. Hardship. Loneliness. Struggle.
Second card.
Present: A figure lost in fog, clutching his head. Confusion. Fear. Amazement.
Third card.
The woman froze. Her breath caught. The card showed a figure standing amidst shattered mirrors, staff in hand, eyes burning with impossible paradoxes.
XVII – The Mirage.
Her hands trembled. "This… this card should not exist…"
Kael's chest tightened. The word echoed in his mind. Mirage.
Before he could ask, voices shouted. Two uniformed men stormed the stall, dragging the old woman up roughly. "Fraud! Pretending to be a fortune teller!"
The woman laughed weakly as she was hauled away, her eyes fixing on Kael. Her cracked lips moved, whispering something he couldn't quite hear.
Then she was gone.
Kael sat there, frozen, confusion clawing at his mind. Rose, however, leaned across the table, eyes shining.
"Hey, what about my future?!"
The chapter closed on Kael's bewildered silence… and Rose pestering the guards to let the old woman finish her reading.