The hand began to move.
Barely a faint metallic sound.
But to me, it was like hearing the end of the world.
Time seemed to slow down all at once.
I froze completely.
I didn't know how much time had actually passed. Maybe not even a second.
But to me, it felt like entire minutes.
My breathing had stopped.
The king was coming in.
Shit.
Then I reacted.
Instantly.
I pulled the drawer all the way open without even thinking and shoved my hand inside.
I didn't even look at what was there.
I simply grabbed the first thing I found.
A piece of paper.
Just a single sheet.
I didn't have time for anything else.
I took off running.
I ran as fast as I could toward the opening in the wall.
My heart pounded against my chest so hard it almost hurt. My legs felt clumsy, heavy, as if they were far too slow for a situation like this.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on.
If I didn't make it in time, it was over.
The king would see me.
And I didn't even want to imagine what would happen afterward.
Everything happened absurdly fast.
Grab the paper.
Run.
Slip through the opening.
Find the lever.
Pull it.
But at the same time, everything seemed to move incredibly slowly.
Too slowly.
The wall began to close.
Very slowly.
Far too slowly.
By the time I pulled the lever, the main door was already almost completely open.
I felt a chill run through my entire body.
He hadn't seen me.
Not yet.
But if that didn't close in time…
It was over.
I peeked slightly through one of the cracks from where I had been watching the room earlier.
I was so nervous I couldn't even stand still. My legs trembled on their own as I waited.
Come on…
Come on…
Close already…
The wall kept moving.
Centimeter by centimeter.
And just as it was about to close completely…
The king entered.
I felt my heart leap into my throat.
Instinctively, I pressed myself against the wall.
The king turned his head slightly in my direction.
And then…
Click.
The wall finished closing.
Silence.
He hadn't seen anything.
Or at least…
He hadn't seen me.
I let out my breath all at once, not realizing I had been holding it the entire time.
But then I noticed something.
Shit.
The drawer.
I had left it open.
Open and broken.
I watched as the king slowly walked across the room.
He had that way of walking. Calm. Controlled.
As if the entire place belonged to him.
As if no one could challenge him.
He slowly circled the room, looking around.
And then he saw it.
The drawer.
He stopped.
The atmosphere changed instantly.
He approached it slowly.
Too slowly.
He crouched down.
He examined the splintered wood.
The broken lock.
Then he looked inside.
Empty.
The contents were with me.
In my hand.
A simple sheet of paper, slightly crumpled from the way I had grabbed it.
For a second, the king remained completely motionless.
His expression changed.
I couldn't say exactly what it was.
Rage.
Fear.
Desperation.
All mixed together.
I watched him turn his head from one side of the room to the other as if he expected to find someone still there.
For a moment, I was even afraid that somehow he might be able to see me through the wall.
But it didn't happen.
Suddenly, he turned around.
And hurried out of the room.
Far more disturbed than I had ever seen him.
—GUARDS!!!
At last, I could breathe.
My heart was still racing a thousand miles an hour, as if it hadn't realized I was safe yet. I leaned against one of the narrow walls of the passageway and carefully lowered myself to the floor. My hands were still trembling slightly.
I had done it.
Judging by the way the king had reacted, that sheet had to be incredibly important. There was no other explanation. He had run out of his room as if something vital had just been torn away from him.
I looked at the paper I was still holding in my hands.
It was a simple sheet.
A miserable sheet that had nearly gotten me caught.
I swallowed and unfolded it quickly, with a strange mixture of excitement and nervousness.
I knew there had to be something important on it.
Something huge.
Something capable of explaining everything.
I started reading.
"VII
OVSH XBLYPKV YLF KL SH ÑHJPVÑ, AL LZJYPIL LZAV HLAOLY, JVTV OHZ WVKPKV CLY TL OL LÑALYHKV KL AB WLXBLÑV WSHÑ WHYH HJHIHY JVÑTPNV HÑALZ KLS ÑVTIYHTPLÑAV…"
I blinked.
I read it again.
Then once more.
And again.
Nothing.
I didn't understand a single thing.
I frowned.
—What the hell…?
My eyes moved across more lines.
It was all the same.
Meaningless letters. Impossible words.
It looked like some kind of strange language… but no, there was something odd about it. It was as if it had been written in a code.
A cipher.
And if it was encrypted…
Then it really was important.
Very important.
But that brought another problem.
How the hell was I supposed to uncover the king's secrets if I couldn't understand a single word on that damned sheet?
I lowered the paper slowly.
My mind was already moving too fast.
The king.
Aether.
The letter.
My failure.
And then… my friends.
The previous sheet.
The names.
Helen.
Tarin.
Mira.
Luca.
A horrible emptiness settled in my stomach.
What if something had happened to them?
What if they were in trouble because of me?
I had escaped.
I was hiding.
And they could be paying the consequences.
I tightened my grip on the paper.
I'm an idiot…
A selfish idiot.
I had been so focused on my revenge, on Aether, on my brother… that I hadn't even thought about what it might cause.
No.
I had to go back.
I had to see if they were okay.
But first…
Aria.
She might know something about the cipher. Besides, I needed to tell her everything that had just happened.
I got up from the floor and started walking back through those endless passageways.
The same narrow walls.
The same cold stone.
The same current of air that seemed to slip in from every direction.
But this time I barely noticed any of it.
I was too lost in my thoughts.
Until I felt it.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
That feeling again.
That strange pressure.
Heavy.
As if something invisible were crushing my chest.
My breath caught for a second.
No.
It couldn't be.
I already knew that feeling.
Far too well.
My hand instinctively moved toward the mark on my chest.
And then I heard it.
A voice.
Distant.
But recognizable.
My entire body tensed.
No…
For a moment, I wondered if I was losing my mind.
Was I hearing Aether for no reason now?
Was I really that messed up in the head?
But those doubts disappeared quickly.
Very quickly.
I slowly approached a crack in the floor.
And looked.
What I saw made my body go cold.
Aether.
It was him.
He wasn't wearing his characteristic hood this time.
Only… I couldn't get a good look at his face from that angle.
The first thing that caught my attention was his hair.
Silver.
I had never seen it like that before.
It shimmered faintly in the corridor's light.
But I didn't need to see his face to know who he was.
The clothes.
The presence.
And above all…
That feeling.
Unmistakable.
It was him.
My brother's killer.
The man who almost killed me.
The one who left that burning mark on my chest.
And yet…
He was laughing.
As if nothing had happened.
Standing in front of him was a brown-haired girl. I had never seen her before.
They were talking casually in the middle of a palace corridor.
Laughing.
As if they were friends.
As if nothing had happened in the world.
What the hell was Aether doing there?
Court mages weren't supposed to live in the palace except during important occasions or meetings with the king.
So…
Why was he there?
And above all…
Who was she?
After a few seconds, the two exchanged a small farewell wave and started walking in opposite directions.
But just before I lost sight of her…
The girl turned back toward Aether for a moment.
And then I saw her eyes.
Green.
Very green.
Strangely captivating.
My breathing stopped for a second.
Those eyes…
I had seen them before.
But where?
My mind tried to connect the pieces.
Now I had even more questions.
Aether.
The king.
That girl.
The encrypted letter.
Everything was starting to feel too big.
Too confusing.
The only thing I knew for certain was one thing.
I had to get back to Aria.
Right now, it was the only place where I felt safe.
I continued walking through those narrow passageways, once again surrounded by cold stone and that strange silence that seemed to swallow every sound. After spending so long in there, I no longer even knew how much time had passed. I just wanted to reach somewhere I could stop for a second.
Eventually, I arrived at what I remembered to be the entrance to Aria's room. I hesitated for a moment. All those passageways looked far too similar, and honestly, I was already starting to lose my sense of direction.
I crouched down slightly and looked through one of the cracks.
Yes.
It was her room.
I let out a slow breath, almost without realizing it. I hadn't been mistaken.
Although there was a problem.
It was empty.
I frowned.
Had she still not come back after all this time?
I looked around uneasily. I didn't like the idea of staying out there, in the middle of those endless passageways. After what happened with the king and seeing Aether again… it felt like my mind was moving far too fast for me to be alone.
I placed my hand on the lever and pulled it.
The wall began to open little by little, accompanied by that heavy sound of stone scraping against stone that was already becoming familiar.
This time, I knew the distance.
I took a deep breath and jumped.
My landing was much better than the last time. Not as graceful as Aria's, of course. She seemed to fall as if she weighed nothing. I still looked like someone learning not to break a leg.
—Well… progress —I muttered to myself.
The wall closed again behind me.
Finally.
A safe place.
Or at least, the closest thing I had to one right now.
I sat down on Aria's bed, still holding that folded sheet in my hands.
I stared at it for a moment.
I still couldn't understand a thing about that damned code.
Then my mind returned to what mattered.
My friends.
Helen.
Tarin.
Luca.
What if the king really was coming after them?
The mere thought made my stomach churn.
I squeezed the sheet between my fingers.
All of this was my fault.
For wanting revenge.
For being so naive.
"Somewhat naive boy," I thought, remembering those words from the report.
It irritated me to admit it… but maybe they were right.
I rested my elbows on my knees and ran a hand over my face.
And then there was Aether.
Again.
In the palace.
Laughing.
As if he hadn't murdered my brother.
As if nothing had happened.
And that girl…
Those green eyes…
I felt certain I had seen her before.
But where?
I didn't know.
Everything was questions.
Questions and more questions.
The king.
The encrypted letter.
My friends.
The mark on my chest.
Aether.
The girl.
My head felt heavy.
Very heavy.
Too much had happened in too little time.
Without realizing it, I ended up leaning back slightly, still sitting on the bed.
I'll just close my eyes for a moment, I thought.
I'll wait for Aria.
But little by little, my eyelids began to feel too heavy.
I tried to resist.
I really did.
But the exhaustion from so many days of sleeping badly, the fear, the tension… it all came crashing down on me at once.
My breathing began to slow.
The room became blurry.
And before I even realized it…
I fell asleep.
Everything was dark.
Calm.
Absolute silence.
Until, suddenly…
The creak of a door was heard.