The day after the battle was quieter than death.
No birds sang. No wind stirred the ash-covered streets. The broken pieces of buildings stood like old men, hunched in grief, watching the sun rise for the first time in days.
Jayden walked alone through the ruins of Westpoint Square, his coat dragging ash behind him.
The people who passed him didn't cheer. They didn't call out. They simply nodded — as if saying, we know, we saw, we remember.
He was no longer just the heir.
He was the survivor.
And somehow, that felt heavier than any title ever given to him.
---
Aria sat inside the burned-out chapel, her hands stained with oil and dried blood as she cleaned her blade. She'd been in that same spot since dawn.
Jayden approached but didn't speak.
She finally broke the silence.
> "We saved the city, but at what cost?"
> "Too much," he said quietly.
She looked at him, and there was something in her eyes he hadn't seen in her before — fear. Not of death, but of what might come next.
> "The Syndicate's retreat wasn't a surrender."
> "No," Jayden said. "It was a setup. They wanted us to taste peace."
> "And then take it from us."
--
That afternoon, someone unexpected arrived at the gates.
Sophie, still bruised and limping, ran to Jayden's quarters.
> "There's a man asking for you," she said breathlessly. "He says… he says his name is Warren."
Jayden stood so fast he nearly overturned the desk.
Warren was dead.
He'd been executed by the Council two years ago for treason.
Or so Jayden had been told.
When he reached the gates, he saw the man himself — older, scarred, wearing a mask of cracked iron, his left eye missing, but unmistakably… Warren.
Jayden stopped cold.
> "How?"
Warren smiled thinly.
> "Because the Council never kills what it can use."
--
They sat in the war room, everyone tense.
Jeff, arms crossed.
Linet leaning against the wall, unreadable.
Sophie barely blinking.
Warren took a long sip from the black tea offered and said:
> "The bomb wasn't the final move. It was the distraction."
> "Distraction for what?" Jayden asked.
> "The artifact."
Everyone went still.
Warren pulled out a rolled-up parchment — a map burned at the edges.
> "There's a vault under the Northern Ice Fields. Beneath the ruins of the Old Cathedral. That's what they want."
Jayden stared at the map.
> "Why?"
> "Because whatever's in that vault can change the world."
--
Jayden stood that night beneath the statue of his mother, staring at the sky. The stars looked colder now.
He remembered her voice:
> "Never chase power. Let it find you when you're ready to bear it."
He wasn't sure he was ready.
But he was certain he had no choice.
Behind him, footsteps — Maggy.
She hadn't left his side since the battle. Still, she was quiet now, unsure of her place.
> "You're thinking of going after it," she said.
Jayden nodded.
> "Then I'm coming with you."
He looked at her, eyes tired.
> "Why?"
> "Because if you fall, who else will make fun of your terrible cooking?"
He laughed — really laughed — for the first time in days.
---
Far away, in a hidden chamber lit by pale green fire, a figure stood before a black mirror.
The Syndicate leader — cloaked, masked, and ageless.
He whispered to the shadows:
> "The Heir lives."
The mirror rippled, showing Jayden's face.
> "He is not yet what he must become," said a second voice from the darkness.
The masked man nodded.
> "Then we'll break him first. Let him watch his world crumble — one piece at a time."
The mirror turned red.
And in its reflection, the future began to burn.
---
In a quiet room, sealed in a small envelope, was a letter.
Nadia's last words.
Jayden hadn't opened it.
He wasn't ready.
But he carried it with him everywhere — in his coat, next to his heart.
Because some things hurt more when spoken.
And some love stories are better when unfinished.
---
By morning, Jayden had assembled the team.
Maggy, Aria, Jeff, Linet, Sophie, and two new names: Callum — a sniper from the mountains with a grudge and a secret — and Mira — a healer with magic in her veins and a past tied to the Syndicate.
They would travel by night.
Through enemy lines.
To the north.
To the place known only as "Crimson Hollow."
As they saddled their horses and prepared to leave, Jayden turned one last time to the city they'd saved.
> "Hold, until we return."
> "And if we don't?" Maggy asked.
He gave her a faint smile.
> "Then write better legends about us."
---