Randel woke early.
Sothing was wrong. He couldn’t explain exactly what it was — just a feeling gnawing at him from the inside. The silence. The air. The light spilling through the window. Everything looked the sa as always, but…
“Erhard,” he called.
The captain entered instantly, as if he had been waiting right outside the door.
“My lord,” Erhard said, holding a wrapped bundle. “This was found at the gates. Tied to the saddle of your horse.”
“My horse?” Randel frowned. “Who left it?”
“The guards saw no one,” Erhard shook his head. “It simply appeared. During the night. Like a shadow.”
Randel took the bundle. It was wrapped in fine leather and bound with a golden ribbon. On the ribbon was a seal — not the Reaper’s. A different one.
A golden seal depicting a sun and a sword.
The seal of the Great Keeper of Eichenwald. The very sa one she had shown him before.
Randel’s hands trembled.
“Where did it co from?” he whispered.
“I don’t know, my lord,” Erhard stood at attention. “But the ssage is addressed to you.”
Randel broke the seal and unrolled the parchnt.
The handwriting was painfully familiar. Thin, elegant, with a slight carelessness — the way she always wrote when she was in a hurry. Or when she was angry.
Randel.
You searched for for so long. You crossed half the world. You asked about the woman in black who never removes her mask. You thought I was sowhere nearby — clad in armor, sword in hand, covered in blood.
You were wrong.
I was close. But not in the way you imagined. I watched you through the eyes of beasts in the forest. I listened to your footsteps through the roots of the trees. I felt your breath on the wind that carried to the scent of your sweat and your longing.
I am the Keeper. I am part of this world. I cannot be in one place, because I am everywhere. The forests speak to . The rivers sing to . The beasts bring tidings.
And they brought tidings of you. Of how you stood at the gates of the steppe city. Of how you looked at the Reaper. Of how you believed it was .
It was not.
The Reaper is a warrior. A man. A shadow who helped my brother raise the rebellion. I watched over him. I guided him. But I am not him.
I’m sorry I disappointed you.
But there is no ti for gas now. The creatures I wrote to you about in that letter are waking. They are gathering strength beneath the earth. They wait for the hour when they will rise to the surface and devour everything living. I held them back for as long as I could. Alone. In the darkness. With no hope of help. With no right to make a mistake.
I am tired, Randel. I am so very tired.
Co to the great forest. You know the place — where we first t. Where I saved you from the assassins. Where it all began.
There I will tell you everything. And show you why I could not return.
P.S. Cassius will also receive this letter. The Emperor said he will co in person. You know, he has changed so much. He has beco older. More manly. And he has the sa golden hair as mine, and red eyes. We look alike, like brother and sister. He said he wants to help. Or perhaps he simply wants to see . I don’t know. But you must be there.
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Your Keeper.
(The signature is a golden seal)
Randel read the letter three tis.
The first ti — quickly, devouring the lines, trying to grasp the main point. The second — slowly, lingering on every word, searching for hidden aning. The third — rereading the final paragraph, the one about Cassius.
“Cassius…” he whispered. “Golden hair. Red eyes. They look alike, like brother and sister.”
He smirked. Crooked. Bitter.
“Bitch,” he breathed.
“My lord?” Erhard flinched.
“She’s mocking ,” Randel squeezed the parchnt so tightly his knuckles turned white. “She writes that she watched through the eyes of beasts. That she felt my breath on the wind. That she is everywhere and nowhere.”
“And what’s wrong with that?”
“What’s wrong is that I’ve been searching for her for almost a year!” Randel shot to his feet. “I crossed half the world! I asked everyone about the woman in black who never removes her mask! And she… she was in the forest? In the rivers? In the wind?”
“My lord, but she wrote that the Reaper is not her.”
“Yes,” Randel stopped. “The Reaper is not her. I was wrong. All this ti, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have thought she would trade her golden armor for black. I’m an idiot!”
He fell silent. Then laughed — bitterly, painfully.
“You know, Erhard,” he said, “I felt it. I felt in every cell, every nerve, that the Reaper was her. And now she writes that it wasn’t. And I… I don’t know whether to believe her.”
“You think she’s lying?”
“I think she always lies,” Randel shook his head. “Or at least never tells the whole truth. It’s her way of protecting herself. Her way of surviving.”
He looked at the letter again.
“But Cassius…” His voice grew quieter, more dangerous. “She writes about Cassius. That he’s changed. That he’s beco more manly. That he has the sa golden hair as hers, and red eyes. That they look alike.”
“So?”
“She wants to be jealous,” Randel smirked. “She wants to get angry. She wants to co not as a loyal dog, but as a man who thinks he owns her. She’s playing with . She’s taking revenge.”
“For what?”
“For doubting her,” Randel looked at the captain. “For searching where she wasn’t. For not understanding that she is everywhere. For… not deserving her.”
He walked to the window and stared at the wall where the black figure of the Reaper now stood — no longer Amanda, but Kaelan.
“I was so sure the Reaper was her,” he said quietly. “I was ready to swear it. And now… now I don’t know.”
“Will you go?” Erhard asked.
“I will,” Randel nodded. “Of course I will. She knows I will.”
“And Cassius?”
“Cassius is the Emperor,” Randel smirked. “He has an empire. He has an army. He has golden hair and red eyes. He has everything… except…”
“Except what?”
“The Keeper,” Randel turned to the captain. “She invited him to spite . To make sure I understand: she is not mine. She belongs to no one. She is her own.”
“And what will you do?”
“I will make her mine,” Randel clenched his fists. “Not because I want to own her. But because I love her. And I will prove it.”
“How?”
“By being there,” Randel said simply. “Always. No matter what she does. No matter who she calls. No matter where she is.”
He tucked the letter inside his tunic.
“Prepare yourself,” he said. “We’re riding to the great forest.”
“And the squad?”
“Let the squad follow. You and I will go alone.”
“My lord, that’s dangerous. The steppe…”
“I know,” Randel cut him off. “But I can’t wait any longer. She is waiting. And Cassius is waiting. And I… I want to be the first.”
He left the room.
Erhard remained standing, watching him go.
“Looks like a new war is beginning,” he whispered. “Only this ti, it’s not for land. It’s for a heart.”
The thoughts wouldn’t leave him alone the entire way. Randel rode at the front, never looking back.
The lines from the letter kept spinning in his head. “I watched you through the eyes of beasts.” That ant she had seen everything. How he stood at the gates. How he stared at the Reaper. How he doubted, suffered, and hoped.
“Why did you do it?” he whispered to the sky. “Why did you make suffer?”
There was no answer.
Only the wind whistling in his ears and the rapid, nervous rhythm of his horse’s hooves — beating like a frantic heartbeat.
He rembered their first eting. The forest. The assassins. She had erged from the darkness in golden armor.
“I am the Keeper,” she had said then.
He hadn’t believed her at first. Then he did. And then he fell in love.
And then she left.
Now she was returning.
But not alone. With secrets. With creatures stirring beneath the earth. With an emperor who had the sa golden hair and red eyes.
“Cassius…” Randel smirked. “She deliberately wrote about your appearance. So I would lose my mind. So I would hurry. So I would…”
He fell silent.
Because he finally understood: she really was taking revenge. For every step he had taken in the steppe. For every attempt to uncover the Reaper. For every glance he had cast at the black figure on the wall.
“You win,” he whispered. “I’m coming. I’m running. I’m doing exactly what you want.”
He paused.
“But when I reach you… when I see you without armor, without masks, without lies… I won’t let you go. Never.”
He spurred his horse harder.
Ahead, beyond the horizon, the great forest awaited him.
And she.
And sowhere beyond it — the emperor with golden hair and red eyes.
“We’ll see who gets there faster,” Randel whispered. “And who she needs more.”
He vanished into the morning mist.
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