The cloaked figure dropped to one knee.
"Greetings, My Lord."
"Greetings, Robert." Rudious didn't look up immediately. "And take the cloak off before someone puts an arrow through you. Again."
Robert removed it in one motion. Beneath it — gleaming clothes. Neat. The look of a man who had never once needed to hide what he was.
The corridor went quiet.
"Did you find anything?" Rudious asked. "About Veil. Where he came from. Who did this to him."
Robert was quiet for a moment. "So his name is Veil." He glanced at Rudious. "Interesting."
Rudious looked back at him and said nothing.
"Ahem." Robert cleared his throat. "Veil... most likely came from a Cultist experiment chamber."
The temperature dropped.
All at once.
Rudious's eyes went wide — then still. "What did you say."
"They have been eliminated, My Lord." Robert kept his head slightly lowered. "King Solaris led the First Royal Dragon Knight Order himself."
The cold spreading through the corridor was not aura.
It was something older than that.
"Then how did Veil get out?" Rudious began walking.
Robert fell into step behind him. "Some of them escaped in the chaos. Our team is tracing them now. In their haste — they couldn't finish. They left him behind. In that condition."
"Haste isn't good enough. I need proof."
"Understood."
Their footsteps echoed through the empty corridor.
"And Veil himself," Rudious said. "Where is he from?"
"He is not from this continent, My Lord."
Rudious stopped.
"How."
"Our investigation points to a pattern." Robert's voice stayed even. "Powerful houses across the world — destroyed by war, by conflict — their children are being taken. Different experiments. Different purposes." A pause. "They are no longer staying within this continent. They are reaching further now."
Rudious said nothing for a long moment.
"These people will never change."
"No, My Lord."
"Anything else?"
"As soon as we find the escapees — you will have a full report."
---
Robert reached into his coat and produced a letter. A black falcon pressed into the wax.
"The rest of the country's news."
He held it out. Then, as he stepped back —
"My Lord." His voice dropped. "You will need to keep yourself controlled. Something large is coming."
"Meaning?"
"You will have your report."
And then — slowly, quietly — Robert stepped back into the shadow of the corridor.
And was gone.
---
Rudious stood alone.
He broke the seal and read.
*Hmm. Solaris is ruling well. That was the right decision — making him king.*
He turned the page. His eyes moved down.
*So... he survived.*
His grip on the paper tightened. The edges crinkled under his fingers.
*Looks like I'll have to come out in a few years.* A faint smile — but beneath it, pressed down and invisible, something that had no clean name. Something that had been sitting there since Lily.
*Until then — stay calm, Rudious.*
He read the last line.
The smile came back. Different this time.
---
He walked straight to his office.
Jorald was still there — exactly where he had been left.
"Jorald. Look at this."
Jorald took the letter and started from the top. "King Solaris has formed a new—"
"Last line," Rudious said, without patience.
Jorald found it.
A slow grin spread across his face.
"Even after we died... our underworld bounty went up." He looked up. "And they have a personal grudge against you specifically. With your bounty alone — I could buy a castle."
Both of them laughed. Loud. Real. The kind that fills a room.
Then — just as fast — it was gone.
"So he is alive," Jorald said quietly.
"Robert said to stay controlled." Rudious's voice had changed. "Something large is coming."
"Hmm." Jorald looked at the letter one last time. He tore it in half.
The moment the paper split — it caught fire. Burned clean and quiet. Ash fell to the floor and scattered.
Rudious turned to the window.
"Winter council meeting first. Then we dig into this."
---
Outside, Clad had returned.
He was carrying Veil with one arm — dangling him in the air like a bundle. Veil had a cookie in his mouth, the bag of cookies in one hand, and the shiny toy shield held carefully in the other. From head to toe — covered in dust and afternoon light.
Clad spotted a servant and didn't break stride. "Bathe him. Clean clothes."
"Yes, Sir."
By evening, Drake and the other boys had dragged themselves home — worn through completely.
Dinner was quiet. Drake and Veil ate without talking. They went to bed early — hands linked, as always.
---
That night — a dream came for Veil.
A room.
He didn't know what a room was. He didn't have the word. But he was in one — and above him was a ceiling. Grey. Cracked. With lines he had looked at so many times they had become familiar, though he didn't know why.
People stood over him. Talking. The sounds meant nothing.
Then they moved closer.
And then — something happened that he had no word for either.
His vision blurred at the edges. But the pain — the pain came through clearly. Tearing. Splitting. His body twisting against something he couldn't name and couldn't stop. He was making sounds. He didn't know if they were screams.
After a while they did something else. Something that was supposed to fix it.
The pain stayed anyway.
His eyes closed.
---
When they opened — he was somewhere else.
No ceiling. No room. Just open air, heavy and still. The ground beneath him was bare and broken. The sky above was red — soaked through with it, edge to edge.
Nothing moved. Nothing lived. Nothing died.
In front of him — a staircase. Built from bones. Rising into the red sky above.
At the top of the staircase — a throne.
And on it — someone was sitting.
He walked toward it. He didn't decide to. His feet simply moved.
The figure on the throne was speaking. He could see the mouth moving. But the sound didn't arrive — like something between them was swallowing it whole.
Veil opened his mouth.
*"Amm... Hello... Uncle... Bro..."*
The only words he had.
The figure spoke again. Still nothing reached him.
Then —
In one motion — no warning, no sound —
The shadow was directly in front of him.
Two eyes. Burning. Steady.
And a face.
Veil stood completely still.
No sound left him. No movement. Just — still.
The way only someone can be still when something inside them recognizes what the mind cannot yet reach.
---
**[Chapter 21 — End]**