Chapter 7: The Mission
Lucien POV
"A two-week ride took a month," Lucien muttered as he dropped into the chair beside the window.
"You can't complain," Cerion said with a grin. "On horseback, riding nonstop, it would've taken two months."
The upstairs room of the tavern was cramped and dim. Rain tapped against the shutters while the noise of the common room below drifted through the floorboards.
"All right, kids," Mckye said, leaning against the wall. "Ready for the mission?"
"The Emperor is smarter than people think," Maria said, arms crossed. "Getting all the Great Houses out here at once lets us investigate without anyone realizing."
"Exactly."
Mckye stepped toward the table. The grin on his face vanished.
"In one week, the Great Houses leave. Each of you will follow one of them. Stay masked. Stay far back. Do not get caught."
"Do we have any clue who we're looking for?" Lucien asked quietly.
"Well..." Mckye smirked. "They're meeting us here in five... four... three... two... one..."
The door opened.
Two hooded figures stepped into the room.
Even before they pulled back their hoods, Lucien recognized the dark silver hair.
"By the hair," Cerion muttered, "educated guess says princes of the Empire."
"You'd be correct," the younger one said with a grin.
Prince Cassian.
Beside him stood Crown Prince Kalen, calm and unreadable.
Kalen spread a map across the table.
"In one week, the Great Houses return to their lands. Each of you will follow one house head."
"For the exception of House Leonhart," Cassian said lazily. "Kalen and I will handle them."
Kalen pointed to the western road.
"House Serathyn. High Lord Sylas Serathyn."
"I'll take him," Lucien said immediately.
Everyone looked at him.
Lucien did not care.
House Serathyn was near the borderlands. Near Rhunovar. Near the Dominion.
Near where the first war would begin.
He wanted that.
No—he needed it.
All his life, Lucien had listened to stories of the great warriors of the Veyrion Clan. Men and women whose names still lived hundreds of years later.
He did not want to spend his life hidden in shadows, watching while other people became legends.
If war came, he would prove himself.
He would make his name impossible to forget.
Kalen studied him for a moment, then nodded.
"Fine. But be careful. Sylas Serathyn is clever."
"And he isn't acting alone," Cassian added.
"We've intercepted letters between House Serathyn and nobles from the Kingdom of Rhunovar."
"Rhunovar wants war," Lucien said.
Maria looked at him.
"How do you know that?"
"Because they have to," Lucien replied. "The Dominion grows stronger every year. If Rhunovar waits, they'll face them alone."
Kalen's expression tightened slightly.
"He's right."
"The Kingdom of Rhunovar wants to drag the Empire into the war now," Kalen said. "Before the Dominion becomes too powerful."
Cerion snorted.
"The fools in the Grandclave want to strike before they are threatened," Lucien said quietly.
And part of him agreed.
If war was coming anyway, why wait?
Why sit in safety while the Dominion grew stronger?
Why not meet it head on and carve your name into history?
Cassian watched him carefully from across the room.
For the first time, the prince saw something in Lucien's expression.
Not fear.
Not concern.
Hunger.
And Cassian knew that look.
He had seen it in himself.
⸻
Three nights later
Lucien crouched atop the ruined wall of the abandoned watchtower, rain dripping from the broken stones around him.
Below, firelight flickered through the tower's open doorway.
Inside stood High Lord Sylas Serathyn.
Beside him was a noble from the Kingdom of Rhunovar, silver wolf clasp glinting against his cloak.
"The princes are already suspicious," Sylas said.
"Then move faster," the Rhunovar lord snapped. "The Dominion grows stronger every year. If we wait, Rhunovar will stand alone."
Lucien's fingers tightened against the wet stone.
Part of him understood.
No.
More than understood.
Agreed.
War was coming whether anyone wanted it or not.
The Empire could either wait to be forced into it...
...or strike first.
"The fools in the Grandclave already want war," the Rhunovar lord continued. "Give them a reason."
"You promised House Serathyn would not stand alone," Sylas said.
"You won't."
Another figure stepped from the shadows.
No colors.
No sigil.
Only a ring shaped like a black sun.
The moment Lucien saw it, pain stabbed behind his eye.
The Half Eclipse opened.
Darkness spread across half his iris.
His breathing caught.
The world sharpened.
The rain seemed to hang motionless in the air. The fire crackled slower. Lucien could hear every heartbeat inside the tower.
And for a moment—
He saw flashes.
Sylas reaching for his sword.
The Rhunovar lord stepping back.
Men hidden in the forest beyond the tower.
An ambush.
The stranger with the black sun ring looked directly toward the wall.
Toward him.
"A single war is not enough," the man said softly. "We need generations to hate each other. Princes raised on vengeance. Children who inherit battle before they inherit names."
Lucien froze.
That was wrong.
He wanted war.
But not this.
He wanted glory. A chance to prove himself. To become a legend.
This man wanted endless war.
An entire world drowned in it.
"The Empire and the Dominion will bleed each other dry," the stranger continued. "Rhunovar, Serathyn, all of you will take what you can."
The Half Eclipse burned hotter.
More flashes came.
Hidden archers in the trees.
A man behind him.
A branch breaking beneath his foot.
"No..." Lucien whispered. "There's more..."
Crack.
The branch snapped.
"Someone's there!"
Lucien moved before the shout had fully left the man's mouth.
An arrow shot toward the wall—
—but Lucien was already gone.
For the briefest instant he slipped into shadow, vanishing from where he stood.
The arrow struck empty stone.
Lucien emerged several feet away atop another section of the ruined wall, landing lightly as if he had always been there.
The men below stared.
"What—"
Another arrow flew.
Lucien saw it a heartbeat before it happened.
He twisted aside.
The arrow passed through where his head had been.
Then he leapt from the wall.
He landed among the first two guards just as they raised their swords.
The Half Eclipse showed him every movement before it came.
One man slashed high.
Lucien ducked before the blade even moved.
The second thrust low.
Lucien stepped aside and drove his dagger into the man's ribs.
The first guard spun.
Lucien vanished again.
Only for an instant.
One moment he stood before the man.
The next he appeared behind him, emerging from the shadow cast by the tower wall.
His knife flashed across the guard's throat.
"You really are terrible at staying hidden."
Cassian dropped from the trees beside him, sword in hand and grinning like this was all a game.
Lucien blocked another strike.
"What are you doing here?"
"Saving you."
More men poured from the forest.
At least twenty.
Lucien's eye burned brighter.
He saw them all.
An axeman charging from the right.
An archer taking aim from the rocks.
A spear meant for Cassian's back.
"Down!"
Cassian dropped instantly.
The spear passed over his head.
Lucien stepped into the shadow beneath the ruined wall and emerged beside the spearman almost impossibly fast.
His dagger buried itself in the man's throat.
Cassian blinked.
"Well. That's new."
Lucien barely heard him.
Across the clearing, Sylas Serathyn and the Rhunovar noble were retreating toward their horses.
But the man with the black sun ring did not move.
He only watched.
Watching Lucien.
Watching the Half Eclipse.
Then Vaerith roared overhead.
The young silver-black dragon swept low through the clearing, his wings scattering men like leaves. Fire exploded across the ruined watchtower courtyard.
The ambushers broke.
Some fled into the forest.
Others burned.
Lucien looked back toward the tower.
The man with the black sun ring was still standing there in the flames.
Impossible.
The fire did not touch him.
For a single second, Lucien's Half Eclipse met the stranger's eyes.
And Lucien saw something terrible.
Not surprise.
Not fear.
Recognition.
As though the man had been waiting for him.
Then the stranger smiled—
—and stepped backward into the shadows.