Ethan left the manor an hour after breakfast.
Nobody stopped him. Nobody even asked where he was going. The servants just stepped aside and let him pass like they always had with Caden. Which told him something useful right away the old Caden disappeared without explanation all the time. It was expected. Normal.
Good. That meant nobody was watching.
He stepped outside and the city hit him immediately.
Cold morning air. There was baking of bread nearby and it smelled so good. On the street of Varentis the sound of wheels on cobblestone and the people calling out to each other across the street. It was loud and messy and alive in a way the mansion absolutely was not.
Varentis looked different from down here.
From the window upstairs it had looked like a painting. Neat. Organized. Everything in its place. But on the ground it was something else entirely. Busier. Louder. More real. Market shops lined both sides of the main road selling everything from cloth to food to tools. Children ran between adult legs. Guards stood at corners watching the crowd with bored eyes.
Ethan walked slowly and paid attention to everything.
He noticed something almost immediately.
The city had layers.
The closer you got to the palace hill the cleaner everything became. Better roads. Wider streets. Nicer buildings. Guards in polished armor instead of worn leather. The kind of part of the city where everything looked like it had been scrubbed and straightened before important people walked through.
But the further you moved away from the hill the more the city changed. Older buildings. Narrower streets. People moving faster because they had more to do and less time to do it in. Children in worn clothing. Stalls selling cheaper things. Guards who looked less polished and more tired.
The palace on the hill sent power outward in all directions like heat from a fire. And the further you were from that heat the colder things got.
Ethan stopped at a busy corner where two main roads crossed and just watched for a while.
He watched who moved freely and who stepped aside for who. Which noble house colors appeared most often on the guards nearby. Which merchants looked comfortable and which ones looked like they were one bad week away from serious trouble.
Small details. But small details added up to a big picture.
His mind kept drifting back to the Veyne gathering.
One week away. Ministers, military commanders and the King's own advisors all in one room. The most important political gathering of the season according to Caden's memories. And his father had made it very clear he wasn't welcome there.
He needed a way in.
Not through Harren. That door was closed. Going against his father's direct word this early would cost more than it was worth. He needed another way. Something his father couldn't easily block without making a scene.
He was still like thinking about it when he heard two men talking very close to them.
They were walking past him on the road, close enough for their conversation to reach him clearly without them noticing.
"the Veyne gathering has every major house attending. Even House Vael confirmed."
"Lady Seran is going?"
"Apparently. Her father is sending her to represent the house. Bold move considering the timing."
"Bold or calculated. With House Vael you can never really tell."
They moved past him and their voices dropped below hearing.
Ethan stood very still for a moment.
Lady Seran.
The name landed differently than he expected. It pulled something out of Caden's buried memories a face, half formed and unclear. Sharp eyes. Dark hair. An expression that said she had already decided most people weren't worth her full attention before they even opened their mouths.
He didn't have much. Just a name and a fragment of a memory that wasn't even his.
But the system responded immediately at the edge of his vision.
**[ New person of interest detected: Lady Seran Vael ]**
**[ Bond potential: High ]**
**[ Note: She is not what she appears to be. ]**
Ethan stared at that last line for a moment.
*Not what she appears.*
In a city where everyone was performing some version of themselves he had already seen enough to know that phrase could mean almost anything. More dangerous than she looked. Less cold than she acted. Something else entirely that he didn't have the information to guess at yet.
He looked up at the palace on the hill.
The gathering was in one week.
Lady Seran Vael would be there.
And he still had no way in.
He made a turn to the direction of the mansion and started walking back toward the mansion. Hands easy at his sides. Steps started moving fast. apparently his mind was already moving quickly in a completely different direction.
*There has to be a way,* he thought. *There's always a way.*
He just needed to find it before the week ran out.
Back at the manor he went straight to his room and dug through Caden's old things properly for the first time.
Letters mostly. A stack of them in the desk drawer, some opened some not. Social invitations he had ignored. Reminders about money he owed. The usual evidence of someone who had completely checked out of their own life.
But near the bottom of the stack was something different.
A letter written in loose easy handwriting. Casual. Warm. The kind of handwriting that belonged to someone who wrote the way they talked.
*Caden I heard you've been hiding in the manor again. Some of us still find your company tolerable you know. Come out before you disappear completely.*
*Pell*
Ethan read it twice.
Then he looked at the name again.
Pell Oran. The memories pulled up a face young, open, the kind of person whose expressions were always a half second ahead of what they meant to show. A friend. One of the only ones Caden had left who still bothered checking in.
*Some of us still find your company tolerable.*
That one line told him more than a page of formal correspondence could have. That was someone who actually meant what they wrote.
Ethan set the letter down carefully on the desk.
Then he picked up a pen.
He had found his way into the gathering.