Rain beat against the windows, sheets of water sliding down the glass. Lord Kael Viremont rested his hands on the balcony railing and let his eyes follow the black water below.
"Status?" he said without turning.
Behind him, Doctor Vance stood with a glass of wine, the stem turning slowly between his fingers. "Veilrot performed exactly as predicted. No deviation. The sample hasn't failed us yet. Everyone believes he is dead, especially Morgan."
Kael nodded slowly. "He has to." A pause. "He is growing too quickly. His underground network even began to envelop our cell teams." A faint exhale. "Almost enviable. But left alone, he would become uncontrollable."
Vance's lips curved faintly. "I'm sure he will surrender. He truly believes his son has died. His little empire means nothing to him now. I dare say he forged every emotion that's supposed to exist in a human and connected it to his son's existence. This will break him without us touching him any longer. Of that, I have no doubt."
Kael glanced at the rain. "And the boy?"
Vance's eyes glimmered for a moment. "He is alive, stable on the Class 4 island, recuperating from the weight loss. But he is still unconscious."
Kael pressed his fingers against the railing, his gaze returning to the dark water. "Then it is done. Let him collapse under the weight of what he believes is lost. We adjust the rest afterward."
Vance straightened and started to walk away. "Even a mind like his won't handle this one."
Before he went out of the room, Kael called out, "Vance."
"Yes?"
"Don't mess this up. We still need his well-being for the next mailman to emerge. I won't tolerate your impulsive… hobbies on this."
Vance, with a grim expression on his face, said, "I understand."
While on planet Elaris
I carry water from the lower cistern, buckets swinging against my legs, trying not to spill too much. Next year, when I become a cultivator, I will just fill the whole house with water and see how Mom reacts, I muse to myself, giggling at my stupid thoughts.
Who am I kidding? These dreams are just dreams, of course.
"Isara! Hurry!" my mother calls from somewhere behind me, her voice sharp over the clatter of the streets.
The bells don't ring.
I pause halfway up the slope, looking up at the Knight Citadel clinging to the mountain above. White stone, floating terraces, impossible in their perfection. From here, it looks untouchable, untarnished—but something feels wrong. The air is heavy, almost as if the mountain itself is holding its breath.
Ripples move across the water in my buckets, and I hesitate. People in the streets stop, tilting their heads toward the towers. Then the bells toll—not the warning bells, the mourning bells. They never sound together, not like this.
A terrace wobbles, tilts, and falls, almost gracefully, and for a moment I think the world itself has slowed to watch. The sound reaches the valley seconds later, muffled and wrong. Water spills over my hands, but no one notices.
The system blares from the overhead speakers: Sector 7 Citadel integrity compromised. All cultivators exercise caution. Its calmness is worse than shouting.
Then pandemonium.
From down here, the cultivators on the terraces look like small, frantic figures, techniques flaring and stalling midair. Sigils fade. Banners crumble to ash, drifting down like gray snow. I run, trying to keep my buckets steady, shoulders tight, heart racing.
Then the whole ground shakes once. Buildings fail, cracks stretch across the ground as deep as the eye can see. I fall to the ground as my water starts spilling and pooling over the edge.
Twice. Everything blurs, the air shimmering with dust, mist, and something else…
Buckets at my feet, my hands shake, and I can't stop staring. I wonder if I should care for the others, help them, run home, or do something, but even as I think it, my weakness glares at me from inside, and I stand there, watching the mountain.
Trice. The mountains depicting the first Knight of the Dumuzi clan crumble like a clay jar as Isara so white and fell like everyone else close to the mountains of Eridu
If the Citadel can fall, then everything can. For the first time in millions of years, silence descends on Elaris.