Night settled over Solmire like silk drawn across gold.
The markets dimmed one lantern at a time.
Music faded into distant streets.
The fountains quieted.
Even the banners that had danced all day now moved only in slow, tired waves.
By moonlight, the kingdom looked different.
Less like celebration.
More like something holding its breath.
The throne room of Sunspire Palace stood empty.
Its vast white pillars cast long shadows across polished marble.
Moonlight poured through high windows and painted silver lines over the ancient floor.
The great throne waited at the center—
towering, silent, merciless.
Rein stood before it alone.
No ministers.
No guards.
No applause.
Only a young king and the seat that demanded more than youth could easily give.
He lifted the crown from his head and stared at it in both hands.
Gold.
Perfectly shaped.
Cold as winter metal.
During the day, it had seemed bright.
Now it felt heavy enough to drown with.
He exhaled slowly and sat on the lower steps instead of the throne.
For a while, he said nothing.
Then—
"…Father, you made this look easy."
The chamber offered no reply.
A deck of glowing cards formed around him.
They drifted through the air like patient stars.
Spade.
Diamond.
Heart.
Club.
Joker.
He flicked the spade toward a map lying nearby.
The northern border lit with warning lines.
He touched the diamond.
Treasury routes unfolded in gold.
The heart hovered over the capital and pulsed warmly.
Then weakened.
Rein frowned.
"…Public joy is dropping already?"
The Joker card spun on its own.
Then stopped.
Black side upward.
The candles in the room flickered.
Rein's smile disappeared.
Behind the palace walls lay the Moon Garden.
White flowers bloomed beneath silver trees.
Pools reflected the stars so clearly it seemed the sky had fallen to earth.
It was Rose's favorite place.
Because no one followed her there.
She moved between the stone paths with a sword in hand.
One slash.
Two.
Turn.
Thrust.
Her form was elegant enough to be mistaken for dance.
Precise enough to kill.
Then the blade slipped.
Pain struck like lightning through her arm.
She dropped to one knee beside the flowers.
Dark veins crawled beneath the skin of her neck and wrist, branching like roots searching deeper soil.
A mark shaped like a blooming thorn spread over her collarbone.
Her breath came sharp and shallow.
The moonlit water beside her rippled from unstable aether.
"…Not now."
She pressed trembling fingers to the mark.
Forced the power inward.
Slowly—
the veins retreated.
Leaving pale skin and a smear of blood at her lip.
Footsteps approached.
Rose stood instantly.
Sword sheathed.
Back straight.
Expression calm.
A maid rounded the path and bowed.
"Princess, the king is asking for you."
Rose smiled gently.
"Then I shouldn't keep him waiting."
She walked past as if nothing had happened.
The maid never noticed the crushed flowers where Rose had fallen.
A scream cut through the night market.
Then another.
Then silence.
Silver Fang moved before the city guard even understood where to run.
Dark-coated knights leapt across rooftops and slammed through alleyways with wolf-marked cloaks snapping behind them.
At their front—
Captain Darius Fenroth.
He landed hard enough to crack stone and scanned the street once.
Three overturned stalls.
Dropped fruit rolling through blood-red lantern light.
No attacker.
No struggle.
Only sleeping bodies scattered across the road.
A mother clutching her child.
A merchant face-first beside spilled coins.
A guard slumped against a wall.
All breathing.
None waking.
Darius knelt beside the nearest victim.
Slapped him once.
No response.
Checked pulse.
Steady.
"…Not poison."
From the roof above, Vice-Captain Selene Voss crouched like moonlight given form.
Her pale eyes narrowed.
"No wounds. No footprints. No scent trail."
Darius stood.
"Then something wanted to be noticed."
A low groan came from deeper in the alley.
They moved instantly.
At the alley's end lay a young man on his knees.
Hands over his ears.
Eyes closed.
Shaking violently.
Darius grabbed his shoulder.
"Look at me."
The man's head snapped upward.
His eyes were still shut.
Yet he smiled.
Too wide.
Too wrong.
And when he spoke—
the voice was not his own.
"Tell your king…"
The lanterns around them went out together.
Darkness swallowed the alley.
Selene's blade was already drawn.
Darius stepped forward.
The man continued smiling.
"…we have begun to dream."
Then he collapsed.
Unconscious.
The lanterns reignited all at once.
The alley was empty.
No attacker.
No presence.
Only cold air.
For the first time in years—
Darius felt watched.
Across the district, in a small restaurant now closing for the night—
a hooded traveler stood from his table.
Half a bowl remained untouched.
Coins were already placed neatly beside it.
The owner looked up.
"Leaving already?"
The traveler glanced toward the direction of the lower district.
Toward where distant whistles now sounded.
Then gave a small nod.
He stepped into the night.
Sword at his side.
Blue cloth stirring in the wind.
And vanished into the lantern-lit streets before the door finished swinging shut.
In the throne room, the doors burst open.
A Silver Fang knight dropped to one knee before Rein and Rose.
Breathing hard.
"Your Majesty—lower district incident."
Rein rose at once.
"Report."
The knight swallowed.
"Dozens asleep and cannot wake. No visible enemy."
A pause.
"And a message."
The chamber seemed to tighten.
"…Speak."
The knight lowered his head.
"They said…"
Far beyond the palace walls—
clouds moved across the moon.
"…we have begun to dream."
Rose's fingers tightened beneath her sleeve.
Rein's Joker card turned black.
And somewhere outside the city—
someone in the dark began to smile.