The next three days passed with the characteristic monotony of life at the Drayvar mansion. Silent breakfasts where Kael was invisible. Lessons with Master Corvin where his mind wandered while Sareth took obsessive notes. Afternoons spent watching from the balcony as Rylan improved with every training session, his electric blue Aether shining ever stronger.
And nights in his cold room, listening to storms and building plans that were still too vague to be useful.
But on the fourth day, the routine broke.
Not dramatically. Not with explosions or revelations. But with something much more mundane: Kael saw something he shouldn't have seen.
And he decided to use it.
He had spent the afternoon in the secondary library, a small space compared to Varen's main library, but large enough to house several shelves of unread books, when he heard voices in the hallway. Voices kept at a low volume, the type of conversation people have when they don't want to be heard.
Kael moved silently toward the slightly ajar door. Not because he was particularly stealthy, but because he was small, and people rarely noticed small children when they were focused on other things.
"...you can't keep doing this," a feminine voice was saying, trembling and desperate.
"My husband started asking questions. If he finds out..."
"Your husband is a half-deaf blacksmith who works twelve hours a day," a male voice replied, deeper, tinged with cruel amusement.
"He won't find out anything unless you tell him."
"But..."
"But nothing. You enjoy it as much as I do, Mira. Don't pretend otherwise."
There was a sound of fabric rubbing against stone, a muffled gasp, and then Kael peeked out just enough to see.
The hallway led to one of the mansion's little-trafficked storage wings, except by servants. And there, half-hidden in a niche between two pillars, stood two figures.
One was Mira, one of the kitchen maids. Kael had seen her before: common face, brown hair always pulled back in a tight bun, hands constantly red from washing dishes. Married to Tomos, the blacksmith who maintained the training weapons in the mansion.
The other figure was Ser Aldric, one of the knights in charge of the mansion guard. Young, perhaps twenty-five, with the kind of chiselled face that made maidens sigh when he passed. Aether Level: Knight Second Layer, competent enough to be respected but not powerful enough to be important.
And at that moment, he had Mira cornered against the wall, one hand on her waist, the other playing with the laces of her apron.
"Tonight," Aldric murmured.
"The stables. Midnight."
"I can't. Tomos will be..."
"Tomos will be drunk and snoring as always," Aldric's hand moved up, tracing the line of her jaw.
"Unless you'd prefer I have a conversation with him about how his wife brings me extra wine every night. And how she always stays a little longer than necessary."
Mira paled.
"That's... you asked me to..."
"I know," Aldric smiled.
"But do you think he'll know the difference? He just needs the seed of doubt, Mira. Just a small conversation about how friendly his wife is with the knights."
It was blackmail. Pure and simple. And Mira knew it, her face crumbling into a mixture of fear and resignation that made something in Kael's stomach twist.
Not out of moral disgust. Kael was eight, but he had already learned that the world didn't operate on morality. It twisted because it was inefficient. Aldric was gaining momentary pleasure, yes, but he was creating an enemy. He was planting resentment that would eventually explode.
'Stupid,' Kael thought. 'If you're going to manipulate someone, do it right. Do it in a way that makes them thank you for it.'
Mira finally nodded, her eyes bright with contained tears.
"Midnight. The stables."
"Good girl," Aldric gave her a condescending pat on the cheek and walked away, whistling a cheerful tune.
Mira stayed there, leaning against the wall, her shoulders shaking as she tried not to cry. Then she straightened up, roughly wiped her eyes, and hurried back toward the kitchens.
And Kael remained in the library, the door ajar, processing what he had just seen.
Information. Power. Opportunity.
Not to be good. Not to help Mira, who was clearly a victim in this situation.
But to learn. To test. To see if knowledge could truly become something useful.
'There are other ways to be strong,' he had told Sareth a few days ago.
Perhaps it was time to find out if he was right.
That night, Kael waited until Sareth was asleep in the adjoining room before getting out of bed. The castle was silent except for the steady wind and the occasional creak of old wood settling. Guards patrolled the outer perimeter, but inside the mansion, after midnight, almost everyone was asleep.
He slipped through the corridors on bare feet, avoiding the floorboards he knew creaked. It wasn't difficult to reach the stables; he had walked this path dozens of times during the day. Only now, in the darkness, everything looked different. Bigger. More menacing.
'Don't be afraid,' he told himself. 'Fear is for those who have no plan. You have a plan.'
More or less.
The stables smelled of straw and horse manure, an aroma that normally would have been unpleasant but in the dark became almost comforting. Familiar. Kael hid behind a pile of grain sacks, with a perfect view of the rear storage area where the saddles were kept.
And he waited.
He didn't have to wait long.
Aldric arrived first, stumbling slightly. He had been drinking, Kael could smell it even from his hiding place. The knight leaned against a wooden post, checking something on his belt, probably making sure his sword was handy, because even drunk, a warrior's instincts remained, and he whistled that same irritating tune.
Five minutes later, Mira appeared. She moved like someone walking toward her own execution, her shoulders rigid and her face pale in the dim light of her lantern.
"You're late," Aldric said, even though she was exactly on time.
"I'm sorry, Ser Aldric. Tomos took a long time to fall asleep."
"Mmm," Aldric grabbed her waist, pulling her sharply toward him.
"Well, you're here now."
What followed was educational.
Not in the sense most people would think. Kael was eight; he didn't fully understand the mechanics of what he was seeing, nor was he particularly interested. But he understood power. He understood dynamics. He understood that Aldric was taking something Mira didn't want to give, using threats disguised as seduction, and that she allowed it because she believed she had no other choice.
'But there is always another choice,' Kael thought as he watched.
'It's just that sometimes it requires someone else to show it to you.'
He waited until they finished. Until Aldric buckled his belt with lazy movements and gave Mira a slap on the rear that made her flinch.
"Same time next week," he said in a slurred voice.
Mira nodded, picking up her lantern with trembling hands, and rushed out of the stables without looking back.
Aldric waited a minute, making sure she was gone, and then headed toward the opposite exit, the one that led to the knights' barracks.
And Kael emerged from his hiding place.
"Ser Aldric," he said with a clear voice in the darkness.
The knight froze, his hand instinctively flying to his sword. He spun around, squinting in the gloom, and then his expression changed from alarm to confusion when he saw a small boy standing among the grain sacks.
"What the devil?" Aldric released his sword, relaxing slightly.
"Young Kael? What are you doing here at this hour?"
"I saw something interesting," Kael said, keeping his voice neutral, almost curious.
"With you and Mira. Here. Now."
Aldric's face paled even in the darkness.
"Were you... were you spying on us?"
"Not on purpose. I woke up and couldn't sleep, so I came to see the horses," Kael shrugged, the perfect image of childish innocence.
"And then you arrived. I didn't want to interrupt, so I hid. But I saw everything."
"Little pest," Aldric took a step forward, his expression now twisted.
"Do you know what happens to children who poke their noses where they shouldn't?"
"No," Kael admitted. "But I know what happens to knights who are caught..." he searched for the word,
"consorting with other men's wives. Especially when they use threats to do it."
Aldric stopped dead in his tracks.
"You're a brat. No one would believe you."
"Probably not," Kael agreed.
"But what if I tell Tomos? He's just a blacksmith, but he's big. Very big. And he has hammers. Lots of hammers."
"Tomos won't..."
"Or I could tell Master Torin. He oversees the guard when Father is busy. And he's very strict about discipline. He says a knight without honour is no better than a thief."
Kael saw genuine panic cross Aldric's face. Because it was true. Torin was unyielding about the rules, and if there was one thing he despised more than incompetence, it was the abuse of power.
"What do you want?" Aldric finally asked, his voice hoarse.
"Money? I don't have much, but I can..."
"I don't want money," Kael interrupted.
"I want candy."
There was a long, bewildered silence.
"What?"
"Candy. After dinner. Every night. Mira can bring them to me. She works in the kitchens, she knows where they keep them."
"Is that all?" Aldric sounded almost relieved.
"Just candy?"
"Just candy," Kael confirmed.
"But every night. And if you forget, or if Mira forgets, then I'll have to remind people what I saw here."
Aldric stared at him for a long moment, his brain clearly struggling to process how an eight-year-old child was successfully blackmailing him.
"You're a little demon," he finally said, but there was a note of, was it respect?, in his voice.
"Who the hell taught you to think like that?"
'No one,' Kael thought. 'And everyone. Every person who ignored me. Every meal where I was invisible. Every day where I didn't matter. You taught me.'
But out loud he only said:
"Do we have a deal, Ser Aldric?"
The knight grunted, running a hand over his face.
"Yes. Damn it. Yes, we have a deal. Mira will bring you your bloody candy."
"Excellent," Kael smiled, and it was genuine this time, because it had worked. It really had worked.
"Good night, Ser Aldric."
He slipped back toward the mansion before the knight could respond, leaving him standing in the stables with an expression of utter disbelief.
And Kael felt something warm and intoxicating expand in his chest.
Power.
Not the kind of power Rylan had, made of muscle and Aether. But something more subtle. More dangerous.
The power of knowing things. Of using those things. Of making people do what he wanted without even lifting a finger.
'Other ways to be strong,' he remembered telling Sareth.
He had just found the first one.