The throne room was dark, lit only by the cold glow of enchanted moonstones set high in the pillars. The Emperor, Aldric, stood with his back to the room, looking at a vast, star-filled map of the empire etched into the far wall.
The heavy doors opened and closed with a soft thud.
"My liege, she survived."
The voice was female, steady but edged with tension. It was Selene, Guildmaster of the Silent Step, the most feared assassin's guild in the capital. She knelt on the cold marble.
Aldric didn't turn. "How?"
"We sent Lynx. Our best shadow-walker. Every approach was planned, every escape route secured. The arrows were tipped with Dreamer's Bane. It should have been a silent, clean end in the gardens." Selene's report was clinical, but a thread of disbelief ran through it. "The princess is no longer alone."
"Go on."
"She is protected. Closely. The first is the girl, Rebecca. The Avatar of the Death God. Her legend is not exaggerated. She moved faster than sight, nullified Lynx's talent completely. But the second… the second is a problem."
Finally, Aldric turned. His face was that of a man in his late forties, handsome, lined with the weight of rule, his eyes a piercing grey. "What second?"
"A young man. He arrived with the princess. No records in any archive. No aura our scouts could detect. It's… it's like he isn't there. But he is. He caught Lynx's arrows out of the air without looking. He looked directly at her perch from three hundred yards. He told her to send a message."
Aldric's expression remained impassive. "A message?"
"To… to the Lionhead. He said, 'a ghost says hello.'"
A flicker. Something dark and cold passed behind the Emperor's eyes so quickly Selene wondered if she imagined it.
"And yet you failed," Aldric said, his voice still calm.
Selene lowered her head further. "I did. The contract is compromised. Lynx is shaken. The Guild's reputation—"
"I don't give second chances," Aldric interrupted, his tone conversational.
Selene's breath caught in her throat. She could feel the invisible pressure in the room thickening, a killing intent so refined it felt like the air itself might turn to blades.
"But," Aldric continued, "I'll allow this one."
She didn't dare exhale in relief. That would be a sign of weakness.
"The Lionhead returns to the capital tonight," Aldric said, walking slowly toward his throne but not sitting. He rested a hand on its carved lion's head armrest. "My dear, revered brother. The Shield of the Empire. The moment he lays eyes on me, he'll know. He has always seen through pretense. He'll know I'm not the brother he left behind."
Selene kept perfectly still. This was treason of a kind that went beyond regicide. This was something older, stranger.
"I have to deal with him," Aldric murmured, almost to himself. "Fast. Before the cracks in this… costume… become too wide for even the court fools to ignore."
He looked directly at Selene, and his gaze was no longer that of a weary king. It was a predator's stare. "And if you want to keep breathing, Guildmaster, you will kill her. This time. No more shadows. No more arrows from a distance. Burn the academy down around her if you must. But make sure the girl dies, and the strange boy with her. Erase them."
The pressure spiked. Selene felt her bones ache. She bowed until her forehead touched the floor. "I swear on my life and my guild's honor. I will not fail you again."
"See that you don't," he said, his voice returning to its measured, royal tone. "You may go."
Selene rose swiftly and retreated, her footsteps silent. The great doors sealed behind her, leaving the Emperor alone in the vast, silent chamber.
Aldric stood motionless for a long minute. He lifted a hand and looked at it, turning it over in the faint light.
Then, his features rippled.
It was subtle at first—a darkening of the skin, a stretching taut over the cheekbones. Then the bones beneath began to shift, pressing outward in angles that were not human. For a second, his skull seemed to reshape itself, a jagged, hollow crown of bone forming a brutal diadem around his brow. Where his eyes were, two pits of swirling, hungry darkness burned.
A low, clicking sigh, like stone grinding on stone, filled the room.
Then it was gone. The skin settled. The bones receded. The handsome, weary face of Emperor Aldric was back.
He smoothed a hand down the front of his embroidered robe, a slow, deliberate gesture.
A smile touched his lips, devoid of any warmth.
"Big brother," he whispered into the empty throne room, the words echoing faintly. "You're late."
The Academy
Q
Alex's quarters were sparse. A few shelves of old scrolls, a simple desk, a window looking out over the damaged campus. It felt more like a monk's cell than the room of a powerful overseer.
Adam dropped into a chair, the wood creaking under him. "So. They call you the overseer now. Fancy."
Alex sat across from him, a faint smile on his face. "Yeah. When I woke up here, I was the son of the previous Academy Head. My mother. She was… kind. Tough. She passed the title to me before she died. Turns out running this place is a family business. I was just a kid, so they put the current Head in charge until I was 'ready'." He shrugged. "Then I awakened at five. To them, it looked like a weird, powerful S-rank talent. To me… well, you know."
"A weakened version of Existence," Adam finished, nodding. "So they could see something. Makes sense. They'd have lost their minds otherwise."
"Exactly. But it was still enough. Nobody messes with the mysterious overseer kid who can make things… be."
Adam chuckled, a dry sound. "You had it good. A family. A position. Me? I woke up in the body of a five-year-old slave. A few days ago. Starving in a cell."
Alex's smile faded. He studied his brother. "Let me guess. You couldn't stand the thought of going through childhood again. So you… what? Forced your body to grow?"
"Something like that," Adam said, not offering details. "Once was hell. Wasn't doing it again."
Alex shook his head, but there was understanding in his eyes. He didn't ask how it was done. With their natures, the 'how' was probably terrifying. He waved a hand, and a bottle of dark wine and two crystal glasses appeared on the low table between them, materializing from the air itself. He poured, passed a glass to Adam.
"Here. You look like you need it."
Adam took it, sniffed the contents, then took a sip. It was good. Rich. He looked at Alex over the rim of the glass. "How did you die, Alex? Back on Earth. Who got you? Don't tell me you grew old and died peacefully in your bed. I'd call you a liar."
Alex took a slow drink of his own wine. He stared into the dark liquid for a long moment. Then he looked up, his eyes meeting Adam's. There was no humor in them now.
"After I saw the news," he said, his voice quiet. "After I saw the footage of the missile strike on Lagos. The one that wiped out the Red Bandits' headquarters. The one that killed you and Rebecca… I waited. For a week. Hoping it was a mistake. That you'd crawl out of the rubble like you always did."
He set his glass down. "You didn't. So I took matters into my own hands. I had the resources, the connections you never wanted. I found out who gave the order. Who authorized the 'clean sweep' of the city's 'unmanageable elements'. I planned for three months. Made it look like an accident. A gas main explosion under a key government building during a high-level meeting. Took out the defense minister, two generals, and the head of the special operations committee."
A cold, grim smile touched his lips. "Got the revenge you would've wanted. The one you were probably planning yourself. Cost me my own life to make sure it stuck. No loose ends."
The room was silent. Adam didn't move. He just looked at his brother—the calm, calculating strategist he'd always been, even back when they were just two street rats with big dreams.
"You idiot," Adam said finally, but there was no heat in it. "You should have just walked away."
"And let them get away with it?" Alex's voice was soft. "They killed my brother."
Another silence, thicker this time. Adam drained his glass and held it out for a refill. Alex poured.
"So we're both here," Adam said. "And Rebecca's here. That's three."
"Three Absolutes from the same world, the same life, converging in this one," Alex nodded. "It's not a coincidence, Adam. It can't be. Something pulled us. Or sent us."
"Well, I'm not one for taking orders, so screw what brought us here and made us op beings, it made a mistake of choosing me."