Dawn bells rang across Solmire.
Usually they sounded bright.
A promise of trade, work, and another day beneath the sun.
Today—
they felt like a headcount.
Shutters opened more slowly.
Families stepped outside with tired eyes.
Neighbors asked the same question before saying good morning.
"Did everyone wake?"
Some did not.
By sunrise, the number had risen again.
Not by hundreds.
Not yet.
But enough for silence to spread faster than rumor.
Eighteen now slept without waking.
A cobbler collapsed beside unfinished shoes.
Two students were found slumped over shared books in a study hall.
A stable hand never rose from the hay.
A guard was discovered still standing against the wall, eyes closed, spear upright in his hand.
The city still moved.
But every movement now carried caution.
People avoided walking alone.
Parents kept children close.
Lantern sellers had already sold out by morning.
Light remained.
Confidence did not.
Inside the royal strategy chamber, sunlight streamed through narrow windows and struck the circular war table at its center.
Rein stood over it in silence.
Around him floated cards of glowing aether.
Each card bore the mark of a district.
Each one represented a victim.
Rose stood at his right.
Darius at his left.
Leonhart leaned against a pillar with crossed arms.
Orion watched everything with unreadable calm.
Rein moved his fingers.
The cards drifted into place across the map of Solmire.
Markets.
Alleys.
Homes.
Guard routes.
Temple roads.
At first glance—
chaos.
Then Rein narrowed his eyes.
He flicked two fingers.
Red threads of light stretched between the cards.
One line.
Then another.
Then five more.
The room fell quiet.
The incidents were connected.
Not by class.
Not by family.
Not by district.
By movement.
Each victim had passed through a narrow point in the city shortly before falling asleep.
A bridge crossing.
An alley bend.
A fountain path.
A side street near the market.
A garden gate.
Places where people naturally slowed.
Paused.
Were briefly alone.
Leonhart straightened.
"…So someone is hunting intersections."
Darius grunted.
"No. Someone is planting them."
Rein touched one glowing marker.
It pulsed black, then returned to gold.
"Not random attacks."
His voice hardened.
"Preparation."
Rose looked at the pattern again.
Something about it unsettled her.
The points did not merely connect.
They curved.
Toward the palace.
Later, in a private chamber, Rose braced both hands against a washstand of polished stone.
Her breathing shook.
She removed one white glove.
Dark veins had spread farther than before.
Up the wrist.
Across the forearm.
Thin lines twisting like roots beneath pale skin.
She turned on the faucet.
Clear water ran red.
A drop of blood slid from the corner of her mouth into the basin.
Then another.
She wiped it away before anyone could see.
Placed the glove back on.
Straightened her posture.
Practiced a calm expression in the mirror.
The princess returned.
The suffering girl disappeared.
A knock came at the door.
"Princess? The king needs you."
She answered without hesitation.
"I'm coming."
In the lower city, afternoon warmth filled the streets.
Yet one alley remained cold.
No sunlight reached the stones there.
Though the sky above was clear.
The hooded traveler stepped inside.
His boots scraped softly over brick.
Laundry lines swayed overhead.
A cat hissed and fled.
He crouched beside the wall where several victims had passed.
Placed two fingers against the stone.
Frost spread outward from the point of contact.
Thin.
Pale.
Gone in seconds.
A residue.
Not of ice.
Of dream aether forced into matter.
He rose slowly.
Turned his head toward the rooftops.
Nothing visible.
No footsteps.
No scent.
Yet someone had watched from here.
And left smiling.
The traveler's hand moved to the sword at his side.
Not drawing.
Remembering.
Then he walked deeper into the city.
By order of the crown, Silver Fang doubled patrols after sunset.
Pairs of knights moved through lantern roads and silent districts.
Roofs were watched.
Crossroads guarded.
No one traveled alone.
Captain Darius himself took the eastern route.
Selene moved above him through the rooftops like moonlight with a blade.
They reached the old fountain path—another marked point.
The water there had stopped flowing.
Though no pipe was broken.
Selene landed soundlessly beside him.
"Do you hear that?"
Darius listened.
At first—
nothing.
Then faintly.
So faintly it might have been memory.
A lullaby.
Not sung nearby.
Carried through the air itself.
Darius's gauntlet sharpened into steel claws.
"Show yourself."
The lantern beside the fountain went out.
Then the next.
Then all of them.
Darkness swallowed the street.
Selene moved first.
Her blade cut through shadow—
and struck only stone.
A figure stood briefly atop the fountain.
Tall.
Wrapped in black.
Face hidden.
Then it dissolved like smoke.
The lullaby continued from somewhere else.
Darius leapt upward—
too late.
Only ripples remained in the fountain basin.
When the lanterns reignited—
another citizen lay sleeping near the path.
Freshly fallen.
Still warm.
Near midnight, Rein returned alone to the strategy chamber.
He placed the newest card onto the map.
The lines shifted.
Expanded.
Completed themselves.
A ring of marked locations now surrounded Sunspire Palace.
Perfectly spaced.
Perfectly deliberate.
The center of the circle—
was the royal palace itself.
Rein stared at it.
For the first time since taking the throne—
fear touched his eyes.
"…This was never about the streets."
Behind him, the chamber doors opened.
Rose entered quietly.
She saw the map.
Saw the circle.
And understood at once.
Somewhere in the sleeping city—
someone was not trying to spread panic.
They were building a road.
Straight to the crown.