Excellent choice. Let's dive into **Chapter Six** of *White Ember*, where **Rin's past** comes back with teeth—literally. This c
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## **Chapter Six: Dead Nobles and Dirty Secrets**
> *Location: Xintai Upper District – The Gilded Vein*
> *Night. Fog. Blood on glass.*
It started with laughter.
High. Polished. Not Rin's.
A limousine parked across the safehouse. Black as sin, with golden trim that shimmered with enchantments only the ancient used anymore. Bai Lu stepped to the window and didn't move.
Rin joined her, then froze.
His hand tightened on his thermos.
"No," he whispered.
The door opened. A figure stepped out—six-foot elegance wrapped in crimson silk. White gloves. Silver eyes. And a cruel, aristocratic smile carved from history's oldest sins.
> "Lord Caliverius."
Rin's voice was barely audible.
"You know him?" Bai Lu asked.
Rin laughed. But it sounded cracked.
"He's my... creator."
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### **The Return of the Highblood**
Lord Caliverius entered without knocking. He always had that habit—walking into places like he owned the atoms.
He barely looked at Bai Lu.
"Rinaldus," he said, smiling like a guillotine. "You look remarkably intact for someone who was supposed to be disposed of."
Rin didn't smile.
"I quit your coven. Six years ago."
"Vampires don't quit. We die. Or we kneel."
Bai Lu stood between them.
"You're trespassing."
Caliverius finally gave her his full attention. His pupils dilated slightly.
"Ah... you must be *her*. The Erisyn-That-Was. I heard rumors. I thought them laughable. And yet... here you are. Guarding my stray."
She didn't blink. "Say another syllable, and I will unmake your skeleton."
Rin groaned. "Can we *please* not start a diplomatic incident in my living room?"
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### **Unholy Ultimatums**
Caliverius dropped a scroll on the table.
"Rin has been summoned. By the Crimson Court. They wish to review his escape, theft of blood-rites, and"—he smiled wider—"fraternizing with divine-imbued anomalies."
Rin flinched.
Bai Lu opened the scroll. Her eyes narrowed.
"It's a writ of execution."
"Or submission," Caliverius said smoothly. "He may return to the fold. Be reeducated. Purged."
Rin took a step back. "That means brainwashing. That means the Pit."
"You stole things that weren't yours, Rinaldus. Secrets we bled centuries to protect. Did you think they wouldn't come for you?"
Bai Lu tore the scroll in half. Slowly. Deliberately.
"Leave."
Caliverius didn't move.
So Bai Lu touched her necklace—and the air shifted.
The demon prince had cracked her seals.
Not fully.
But enough.
Caliverius's pupils contracted. For the first time, he looked... cautious.
"I will relay your rejection," he said, bowing. "But know this: the Court will send others. They always do."
He left without sound. The air grew lighter.
Rin collapsed onto the couch.
"I'm so screwed."
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### **The Truth About Rin**
Later, over silence and cold tea, Bai Lu looked at him.
"What did you steal?"
Rin hesitated.
Then he told her.
He'd taken three things from the Court when he fled:
1. A fragment of the **Elder Codex**, an artifact detailing ancient vampire creation myths—and forbidden rituals.
2. A **name**. A *true name*. One of the original Seven who made the first pact with the Abyss.
3. And a **child**—a halfling, experimented on, whose fate had been ritual sacrifice.
"I got her out. Gave her to someone I trusted. Haven't seen her since," he said. "The Court called it treason."
"You didn't mention this before."
"Would you have trusted me if I had?"
Silence again.
Bai Lu finally said, "Yes."
Rin blinked. "Seriously?"
"You're still an idiot. But you did the right thing."
He laughed. Then sobered.
"They're going to come for me. And they'll come for you now too."
"Let them," she said.
And the way she said it—
As if war wasn't a threat, but a promise.
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### **Somewhere Else – The Crimson Court's Gathering**
A cavern of bloodlight and velvet.
Seven thrones.
Six filled.
The Seventh—Caliverius—stood before them, scroll torn in hand.
"She protects him. And her seals are cracking."
The one on the middle throne smiled.
"She'll wake up soon."
Another leaned forward. "And when she does... we must be ready."
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> *Rin thought he could outrun his past. But the past wears fangs.*
> *Now, hunted by the vampire elite and tied to a girl whose very existence unravels the fabric of power...*
> *There's no more running.*
> *Only war.*
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