He sat at the far left, legs crossed, fingers laced, eyes gleaming with mild amusent
as if watching a play written by lesser minds.
Let the zealots preach.
Let the soldiers bark.
He was simply waiting.
Waiting to see where the weight would fall
so he could sell the balance to the highest bidder.
⸻
Evelyne’s voice rang again, firr this ti:
"The heirship is not a suggestion. It was Kael’s will. I carry his na with consent."
Azmat didn’t flinch.
"We don’t follow nas. We follow eyes. The Mythrigan gave him weight.
You? You’re just holding the paperwork."
Matthias gave a sharp nod.
"Your authority is inherited. His was earned."
⸻
Then... the chamber shifted.
Sothing subtle. Mana pressure warping space.
The elders turned their eyes upward and saw him.
A ghostly figure, half light, half presence.
Kael.
Standing silently above them.
Not seated on the high throne
but behind it, one arm resting casually on its back.
His voice fell like glass breaking through quiet.
"You hold a eting behind my back...
as if the Mythrigan cannot see fate itself-
What use is a sealed chamber, when the Eye never blinks?"
⸻
Cassian finally stirred.
"Well," he said, voice smooth like silk.
"If the Eye is watching, I suppose we should all behave."
He smiled at no one in particular.
"Personally, I find this entire debate refreshing. Nothing sells like conflict.
But please carry on."
He leaned back
Azmat glanced at him.A Disgust, barely restrained.
Matthias said nothing.
Lucien bowed his head
to the figure watching above.
And slowly...
The tension began to ease.
As the silent settle in
Lucien raised his head slowly, reverently, the chamber still hushed beneath Kael’s gaze.
His voice was steady
"My lord... then allow to ask why her?
Why Lady Evelyne? The Sons of the Unblinking do not doubt your right to choose. But they cannot understand your choice."
A pause.
"Please. Enlighten us."
All eyes turned upward.
Kael stood still, his ghostly presence resting behind the high seat.
Then he spoke.
"I chose Evelyne..."
A pause.
"Because the Eye showed a future only she could carry-
Not because she was willing but because she was the only one who wouldn’t run from it."
I rember what the novel said:
After Kael’s death, House Valery fractured. The na splintered, loyalty turned to profit. But in the end... when the star ushered a new era, it was Evelyne who stayed.
Not out of blood. But love.
I used to wonder why.
Then I rembered that scene the one where Evelyne shouted at a Valery noble.
They’d just let soone they loved be sold to slavery. And Evelyne scread at them:
"If you love them that much, why did you choose to let go instead of fighting for them?"
And now I wonder...
If I love them that much
Why wouldn’t I fight for it, too?
As the silent settle in a voice asked
"And what exactly do you see in this... future, Lord Kael?" Azmat asked carefully
I answered calmly
"A sky waiting for its star."
I continued
"But I will change it.
So that when the star rises...
...it won’t mark our end, but our beginning."
As my word echoes across the chamber each mber have their own thoughts and interpretations using my Mythrigan with little mana, i can see it in their body language and expressions clearly.
A future only he sees...? So that’s what broke the tyrant, he looked too far ahead. But if he’s seen ruin... and still chose Evelyne...then maybe we haven’t caught up yet. Azmat thought carefully
—
Evelyne pov
Kael words strike deeper than I expected. A star? Is this about not being enough? Am I not worthy of that fate? I’m standing here. I’m still here. But...
if Kael sees sothing in this so called star, sothing I didn’t have... then what was it all for?
And A future only I can carry? Then why does it feel like you’re still carrying it alone? Why couldn’t you believe in before?
If you changed because of fate... then why do I still feel left behind?
—
A soft rustle of silk broke the silence.
Lucia, the head of House Valery’s external affairs, rose from her seat.
She looked to Kael’s ghostly figure, then to Evelyne.
"Since the Heir himself has projected his will before this council... even within a sealed chamber..."
She paused, letting the gravity settle.
"...Then I see no further use in delay."
Her eyes swept the table, pausing on each face.
"Lady Evelyne bears the Mythrigan’s trust. And she bears it in full view of the Eye."
A soft click as she folded her hands.
"I will recognize her claim to heirship effective imdiately."
Silence lingered.
Then, slowly, the other elders began to glance at one another. A single nod from Matthias, followed by one from Azmat, and finally even Lucien inclined his head.
Lucien simply whispered under his breath
"As it should be."
And above them, Kael remained still watching.
And Evelyne...
stood alone at the center of the table.
One by one, the elders began to fade.
Their figures dissolved into shimred light.
Evelyne pov
Then... it was just .
And Kael.
His ghostly form remained suspended behind the high seat.
I didn’t turn to look at him.
My voice broke the stillness.
"et ... at the East Wing."
A pause.
"Near the Eye Shrine."
Then i walked out.
As I waited near the Eye Shrine, the silence felt heavier than the stone around .
Then I heard footsteps.
There Kael appeared walking quietly toward .
He wore a white long-sleeve shirt, simple. No crest. Just Kael.
And when our eyes t
He wasn’t the Kael from the past.Not the cruel one. Not the god. Just... soone
My voice cracked through the silence:
"How did you do it?"
I looked into Kael’s eyes.
They were calm clear in a way I hadn’t seen before.
"Do what?"
My voice trembled. My fists clenched.
"They smiled at you. They believed you."
My throat tightened.
"Even now... even after everything."
I looked down. The bandage was stained deeper now—half blood, half sha.
"Why... why can’t they follow ?"
I gritted my teeth.
"I trained. I bled. I stood in your place when no one else would."
My breath hitched. My vision blurred.
"Why can’t I smile at them like you do? Why can’t I see what you see...?"
Lucien’s words ca back, clear and cruel in my mind.
"The Eye sees not just what is... but what could be."
It wasn’t pride.
It wasn’t even the heirship.
Not really.
It was pain.
Because if Kael cruel, untouchable Kael
could change...
Then what did that make ?
Why was i still stuck?
Still bitter.
Still dragging myself through the sa mories
While he walked free.
His regret was a mirror.
One i couldn’t bear to face.
So i raised my fist
Not just to challenge him...
But to demand an answer.
"If you can change...
then why can’t I?"
Kael pov
She asked why I could change.
But how do I even begin to answer that?
The truth isn’t sothing I can tell her.
That I’m not really him. That I died and woke up in his place.
And yet... sohow, this weight it’s mine now. And I’ve made it mine.
She doesn’t know that.
She just sees soone who was once cruel now acting like he’s forgiven.
And maybe that hurts more than anything.
Evelyne’s already moving. like soone who’s made up her mind.This isn’t about the heirship anymore.
It’s about everything she’s held inside.
I can feel it the way her mana stirs. She’s not fighting to win. She’s fighting because she needs to.
I exhale slowly.
My left eye still aches from the projection earlier.
I used too much.
But that doesn’t matter.
She’s hurt.And if this is how she wants to speak... then I’ll listen.
I raise my hands to be ready.
This isn’t a duel. This is sothing else.
And I have no choice but to answer
I threw a jab.
Evelyne caught it mid-air.
Without pause, she twisted my arm and flipped over her shoulder.
Thud.
My back slamd into the stone floor. Air punched from my lungs.
Before I could recover, her hand wrapped around my wrist again deliberate this ti.
Her other hand closed over mine, fingers folding together into a sharp, triangular shape.
A sigil.
A casting form.
My eyes widened. "What are you—"
Her foot pressed against my chest.
Then boom.
She kicked off , using my chest as a launchpad.
As she flipped, lightning coiled around her palm crackling.
Then she hurled it.
The Mythrigan pulsed.
A flash of foresight.
The world slowed.
I saw it.
The arc of the bolt.
Move.
I rolled just in ti. The lightning struck the marble where I’d been, blasting it apart.
I landed on my feet, barely
And then I froze.
Where was she?
A chill scraped down my back.
Too late.
Boom.
A second spell hit from behind lightning straight into my spine.
My body arced forward like a ragdoll, flung across the courtyard.
Straight into the pond.
Water exploded.
I gasped as I surfaced, breath ragged.
Then whistle.
A short sword shot toward like a javelin.
I barely ducked, stumbling out of the water and onto the green field.
And to my right I saw her.
Too late.
Evelyne.
"Look right," she said.
I blinked, instinct pulling
Crack.
Her fist slamd into my face.
I stumbled back, stars bursting across my vision.
Then she stepped back.
A pause. I thought she was giving space.
"Catch."
Sothing hard and wet smacked into my face.
Dirt. Grass.
She flung a clump of mud at .
"Who throws dirt at their opponent?!" I snapped, staggering back.
Vision blurred just a second too slow.
And that’s all she needed.
Lightning surged around her hand, brilliant and cruel.
I raised my left eye the Mythrigan pulsed once
And the force rebounded.
Boom.
Evelyne was blown back, her spell reflected mid-cast
sent crashing into the pond.
Silence lingered over the green field.
My chest rose and fell, aching.
"...Crap," I muttered, limping forward.
"Did I go too far?"
The grass swayed around ,
Everything hurt.
Then I saw her.
"Evelyne!" I called, rushing toward her.
I reached out
Slap.
She hit my hand away.
"I don’t need your help," she said, cold and shaking.
She stood across from , soaked, bruised and eyes burning.
Her voice broke the silence
"Why don’t you just pretend this didn’t happen?"
I blinked. Confused.
She took a shaky breath, but her face didn’t soften.
"You’re good at that, aren’t you?"
"Pretending nothing happened. That no one was hurt. That you didn’t leave us behind."
I opened my mouth.
But she kept going.
"You know what hurts the most?"
Evelyne continued
"It’s that... so many things beco beautiful once you really see them."
"But I wasn’t seen, Kael."
"I was looked at."
"But never seen."
The silent lingering louder than anything
Then i swallowed hard and
"I am sorry"
Evelyne turned, slowly.
Her eyes were glassed.
"Sorry?"
She stepped forward.
"Do you think sorry can fix what you did?"
I lowered my gaze.
"I don’t know."
"Then why say it?"
"Because I needed to."
I looked up, eting her eyes.
"Because if I don’t start saying it now... I never will"
The silence stretched.
Then Evelyne’s voice broke.
"Do you rember the pond?"
My eye flickered. I didn’t.
"Of course you don’t."
She stepped closer. Her fists clenched so tight her knuckles paled.
"You don’t rember the book our dad threw. You don’t rember how I waited there. Alone. Hoping you’d or soone pull it out."
Silence.
The sa kind that once filled that pond
waiting for sothing that never arrived.
I stepped forward.
"I should’ve pulled it out."
She looked away. The water rippled behind her.
"You didn’t."
Another pause.
"I wanted to," I said quietly.
"Not because of guilt. Or duty."
"But because it was you."
She closed her eyes. Her shoulders rose, then dropped.
"You’re too late," she whispered.
I nodded slowly. "I know."
"I can’t undo it, Evelyne. I can’t change what I was."
She looked at tired, but not angry now.
"You’re changing now," she said. "I see that."
She turned to leave... then stopped.
Over her shoulder, voice softer:
"I don’t forgive you."
A breath.
"But..."
Her hand clenched, then released.
"...I don’t hate you either."
Then she walked away.
And for the first ti, the silence didn’t feel so empty.
We were both still bleeding.
But maybe... sothing had started to bloom.
The soil I was planted in was rotten.
Sohow, I’ve still grown.
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