After learning that Soren had vanished without a trace after leaving the encampnt, Cael could think of little else. The question of where Soren might have gone followed him relentlessly, day and night, refusing to leave his mind in peace.
He was certain Soren had been present during the attack and his n had confird it after thoroughly examining the scene. Among the scattered remains, they discovered a small pouch, the only personal item Soren had brought with him to the North.
He hadn’t even taken the other belongings that had been given to him which ant whatever had happened must have occurred suddenly without warning or preparation.
Yet the deeper the investigation went, the more troubling everything beca.
They tried to identify the attackers but no clear answers surfaced. Several of the bodies were missing entirely, leaving behind no explanation of who they were or where they had gone. At the site itself, only the rchants and their slaves remained among the dead, along with the fallen horses and broken carriages. Strangely, nothing of value had been taken. The goods were untouched as well as their belongings that it didn’t look like a robbery.
It looked planned and intentional, directed toward a specific purpose.
And still, there was no trace of Soren.
No blood trail leading away, no witnesses who had seen him escape and there was even no sign that he had been taken. It was as if he had simply disappeared in the chaos.
Refusing to accept that, Cael ordered a wider search. His n combed through the slums where Soren had once lived and tracked down the man who had been with him before, questioning every possible lead but nothing ca of it.
No matter where they searched, Soren remained nowhere to be found.
Then there was a crash of shattering porcelain that rang through the bedchamber violently like sothing inside Cael had finally snapped loose. Feeling frustrated, he threw the vase on the floor hard enough that its fragnts scattered across the polished floor.
The tray of untouched food followed while clattering down in a ss of spilled broth and broken ceramic. He didn’t even look at the destruction. His chest just rose and fell too quickly with his ragged breathing, almost trembling.
"Fine... you win," he spat bitterly, though the room was painfully, suffocatingly empty. His voice sounded rough and strained like the words were being dragged out of him against his will. "How dare you make feel this way... You’re nothing but a nuisance. Pathetic. Stupid. An idiot who never knew his place..."
The insults ca one after another, harsh and relentless but there was sothing desperate underneath them. They didn’t sound like hatred. It feels like he was just clinging to them because they were easier to say than anything else.
His teeth gritted as his eyes flickered toward the door, toward the silence.
"...So, where the hell did you go?"
The question slipped out quieter than everything before it, stripped of anger. For a mont, he just stood there, listening... as if expecting footsteps, a voice, sothing. When nothing ca, a crooked smirk tugged at his lips, force and unnatural.
"I refuse to believe that you’re dead," he scoffed while letting out a sharp, breathless laugh. He then shook his head imdiately, firmly, like he was rejecting sothing absurd. "You? Die? Don’t be ridiculous. You didn’t even die after falling off a cliff before... so how could you now?"
His laughter grew louder, but it sounded wrong, almost fraying at the edges. His fingers curled into fists so tight his knuckles were turning white.
"That’s impossible," he muttered again, more forcefully this ti. "Completely impossible."
He began pacing while feeling restless and agitated like a caged animal refusing to acknowledge the open wound in its chest. Every step was impatient.
"Hah... damn it..." he murmured while pressing a hand against his forehead with his smirk still lingering but trembling now. "I’m going crazy."
But even as he said it, he kept shaking his head over and over again while denying the thought before it could settle. Denying the silence and the emptiness pressing in around him.
Because if he stopped even for a second, if he allowed himself to truly consider the possibility...
...then that would an Soren were really gone.
And Cael would rather destroy the entire room to tear apart every fragile thing within reach than admit that soone he believed who’s unbreakable... had disappeared without him allowing.
Looking back, Cael realized there had never been a mont when Soren truly smiled at him. Not once had he seen genuine happiness in Soren’s eyes. Soren had always seed distant like soone rely existing rather than living. He was soone who always have his guard up and to Cael, he had appeared emotionless and lifeless, and that emptiness was exactly what had drawn his attention.
It fascinated him.
That was why he chose Soren as his amusent because he’s a quiet, unresponsive figure he could provoke, test, and handle however he pleased. To Cael, Soren had been nothing more than an intriguing puzzle... a toy that never reacted the way others did.
But now that Soren was no longer within his reach, no longer where Cael could see him or summon him at will, sothing felt... wrong.
There was an unfamiliar emptiness lingering around him that’s impossible to ignore. It irritated him more than anything else. The feeling was foreign, unwelco, and deeply frustrating... because never, not once, had he felt this way about any of his past toys.
And that alone disturbed him more than he cared to admit.
While deep in his own thoughts, Lyric just returned from eting one of the n he had sent to investigate Soren’s disappearance. Carrying quiet disappointnt with him, he entered a pub while already sensing that the news would not be any different from before.
And it wasn’t.
Once again, they had found nothing. No sign of where Soren had gone, no clear evidence of whether he was alive or dead. Just an empty trail that led nowhere and that uncertainty weighed heavily on Lyric, far more unbearable than a definite answer would have been.
His n shared a troubling possibility that if soone was still alive yet impossible to trace, then it likely ant soone powerful was deliberately hiding them. Soone with enough influence to erase every clue and silence every lead.
But Lyric couldn’t think of anyone who fit that role.
It certainly wasn’t the Second Prince and he knew that much. Even if Cael never admitted it aloud, Lyric was certain he had been searching for Soren as well, just as quietly and stubbornly which only deepened the mystery.
Lowering his gaze, Lyric sat in silence for a long mont with frustration and regret slowly settling in his chest.
Who could possibly be hiding him?
Where could Soren be?
In the quiet of that mont, one thought slipped past his guarded composure like a quiet, aching wish that if Soren was still out there sowhere... he would at least be given the chance to apologize.
But even Soren’s shadow was nowhere to be found.
Sylas, anwhile, found himself in a brothel while being surrounded by a crowd of eager won. Unfortunately, even their laughter and touches failed to reach him.
His mind was elsewhere, lost in a storm of mories he could not shake. He rembered hiring people to harass Soren, the cruel words he had thrown at him, and the way Soren’s eyes had filled with tears, pitiful and humiliated under his mockery.
He hated Soren.
No, more than that, he despised him.
To Sylas, Soren had always been nothing more than a commoner, soone beneath him and a target for scorn, ridicule, and cruelty.
And yet, the truth gnawed at him in quiet monts he tried to avoid. Deep down, he knew how petty, how small and aningless his hatred really was. He had lumped Soren in with all the commoners he blad for the pain he carried like the deaths of his parents and the loss of soone they had treated as a brother while pouring all that grief and frustration onto a single, undeserving person.
And the cruelest truth of all?
Soren had done nothing to deserve it. Nothing at all. He hadn’t asked for their attention, hadn’t wronged them, hadn’t caused a single bit of the suffering Sylas had so selfishly placed on his shoulders.
And yet, Sylas had taken it all out on him anyway and that thought left a bitter, hollow ache inside him like a mix of sha, anger at himself, and sothing he didn’t want to na, sothing that felt like regret.
Sylas just needed soone to bla, and Soren had been the easiest target. But bitter irony gnawed at him because that sa person he had tornted was also the one who had kept them safe back in the North.
While in the midst of his own world, a soft voice pulled him from his thoughts.
"Hm, my lord, are you in a bad mood? You seem... distant today."
Another chid in while trying to smooth over the tension.
"Co on, girls. His Lordship’s just tired from the long travel and the banquet. Let’s just do our best, okay?"
And yet another offered a drink.
"Here, my lord. Have a drink..."
Frustration coiled tight inside him, though Sylas refused to admit its true source. Then, his hands clenched at his sides as he rose abruptly while moving with a force that knocked the won back onto the couches.
"Leave." His voice was cold, cutting through the room as he glared at each of them in turn.
But when none of them moved, assuming he was rely speaking without thought, sothing snapped inside him.
"I said get the hell out of here! Are your ears just for decoration?!"
The words tore from him in a scream, unrestrained. In a sudden motion, he grabbed the nearest wine glass and hurled it against the wall that it shattered with a loud crash with the fragnts scattering across the floor.
The won jumped while flinching instinctively, their laughter and chatter vanishing into stunned silence. Sylas’ chest also heaved with each ragged breath with his glare so intense that it seed to weigh down the very air around him. The room had beco a vessel for his frustration, denial, and his anger, each emotion spilling outward until nothing remained but the chaos he had unleashed.
Alaric, anwhile, sat alone in his study. After a long mont of contemplation, he turned to Cedric, his longti butler, and asked, "Cedric... what do you think I should do in a situation like this?"
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