At the far end of a sleepy alley, silence swallowed a run-down manor that guarded a courtyard long abandoned. It was the last fragment of life in a corner the city had forgotten.
The day I met her, the contrast was almost absurd. A noblewoman stepped across cracked flagstones, her scarlet gown blazing against the washed-out walls.
"You're Kael of the Lumen Wardens, aren't you?"
Sweat prickled down my back. I knew that voice and that name.
Elyssia Luminar.
In another life, I devoured a popular fantasy romance in which Elyssia was the leading antagonist. Her taunts felt like sharpened daggers, and her schemes could freeze an army in its tracks. She was so overpowering that the story's final villain fled whenever she appeared. She seemed imported from a darker series altogether.
Yet an antagonist remains an antagonist, fated to crash and burn before the hero's rise. I expected the same fate for myself as well.
"This investigation nearly drained my coffers," she said, surveying the derelict court. "You were remarkably hard to find."
I could believe it.
"But I'm here now, and I have a proposal."
"A proposal?" I echoed.
Elyssia, the forbidden crystal of a storied bloodline and master of invisible strings, placed a bundle of documents in my hands without meeting my gaze.
"We're getting married."
"Excuse me?"
"A contract marriage," she replied, tapping the parchment. "Mutual obligations, neat and tidy."
"Married by contract… right."
My knees almost buckled. Words spun inside my skull. Through a half-open door, I noticed a pair of anxious eyes. I gestured for the eavesdroppers to come in.
Two boys and a little girl entered. The youngest darted forward and clasped my waist.
"Daddy!"
"You just called me… what?"
"Daddy!" she repeated, glancing at Elyssia for approval while waving the contract at me.
I managed a tired smile. "As you can see, I already have family."
I suspected her motive but pressed once more.
"Are you certain you're ready for this?"
White, orderly teeth flashed. Elyssia whispered a barely audible reply, "I want you. All of you."
Perhaps that single line rewrote our futures. Even now, I remember the day fate spun my life beyond recognition.