Morning settled cold over the estate.
Not quiet. The northern halls were never truly quiet anymore.

Servants moved in lowered voices.
Guards changed posts in measured silence.
Steel echoed somewhere distant beneath the stone.

Everything continued.

As if nothing underneath it had begun shifting.

--

The discussion had already started by the time Cael entered the study.

Kaeliath stood near the long table by the window, one hand resting against its edge.
The eastern division commander of the Claudian Army stood across from him,
papers spread open between them.

“Five villages,” the commander said.

“Disappearances across all routes surrounding the forest line.”

Kaeliath’s eyes remained on the documents.

“How long before the investigation was closed?”

The commander hesitated briefly.

“Three days, Your Grace.”

Too fast.

The silence that followed carried the answer on its own.

Cael stepped forward then, gaze lowering briefly toward the reports.

“Any bodies recovered?”

“No, Sir.”

“Witnesses?”

“None willing to speak.”

The commander’s jaw tightened slightly.

“Whatever happened there.. the villages were abandoned before we arrived.”

A pause.

Then-

“Two tracing groups were sent before ours,” the commander continued.

“The investigation was closed after the second failed to return.”

Silence settled heavily after that.

Kaeliath turned another page.
The report was clean. Too clean.

Routes recorded. Numbers aligned.
Civilian losses documented with perfect precision.

As if someone had wanted the matter buried before anyone could look closely enough to ask why.

His gaze stopped briefly near the seal at the bottom of the page.

“Requests for further tracing were denied before anything substantial was recovered,” the commander said carefully.

Silence followed.

Cael’s expression did not change immediately.
Then, slowly-

"That’s inconvenient,” he said lightly.

But something unreadable settled behind the ease in his voice.

Kaeliath closed the file.
Precise. Controlled.

“No village is abandoned that cleanly without reason,” he said.

“Someone made sure whatever remained could no longer speak for itself.”

No emotion. No accusation.
Just fact.

The commander lowered his head once.

“I can prepare soldiers immediately.”

“No.”

Kaeliath’s response came before the sentence fully settled.

“We move quietly.”

A brief pause followed.
Then Cael spoke again.

“You’re going yourself?”

“Yes.”

The answer was immediate.

Cael leaned slightly against the edge of the table.

“And her?”

Silence. Short.
Measured.

Then-

“I’m taking her.”

The commander’s eyes lifted briefly.
Cael watched Kaeliath for a moment before speaking again.

“You do remember what happened at the temple.”

Kaeliath’s gaze did not shift.

“That is precisely why.”

Nothing more followed it.
Because there was nothing else to explain.

--

Anastia was called at break of dawn.
She entered without sound.

The chamber was larger than most rooms in the estate,
though it never felt that way with Kaeliath standing inside it.

His presence reduced space.
Condensed it.

She stopped before the desk.
Still. Waiting.

Kaeliath regarded her briefly.

“There is a village near the eastern forest routes,” he said.

“We leave within the hour.”

Anastia nodded once.

“Understood.”

His gaze stayed on her another moment.

“Observe the surroundings carefully this time.”

A pause.

“The people. The structures. What remains.”

“Yes.”

That was all.
The rest was explained during the journey itself.

Kaeliath returned to the papers on the desk.
Dismissal without saying it.

Anastia turned immediately and left the room.

--

The ride took most of the morning.
No large escort followed them.

Only a handful of soldiers rode behind the carriage.

Enough for protection.
Not enough to announce presence.
No one in the carriage required protecting.

The roads grew quieter the further east they traveled.
Villages became sparse. Then gone entirely.

By the time the forest appeared, even the wind felt different.

Still.

The carriage slowed.
Cael pulled the curtain aside slightly, gaze shifting outside.

“There.”

The village stood beyond the trees. Or what remained of it.
No smoke. No movement. No sound.

The gates hung partially open, crooked against broken hinges.
One house near the entrance had collapsed inward entirely.
Another still stood, though black stains marked the walls beneath its windows.

Kaeliath stepped down first.
The ground beneath their boots was damp from old rain.

Nothing greeted them.
No animals. No voices.
The emptiness felt deliberate.

Anastia stepped down after him.
Her gaze moved across the village slowly.

Observing.

Doors left open. Abandoned carts.
Cloth still hanging from lines untouched by weather or wind.

Everything looked interrupted.
Not ruined. Simply left behind.

A soldier moved toward one of the houses carefully.

“Your Grace,” he called after a moment.

Kaeliath approached without hurry.
Cael followed beside him.

Inside, the room was untouched.
Bowls still sat on the table.

One chair had fallen sideways near the doorway.
A ledger near the wall had been torn apart hastily,
several pages missing while others remained untouched.

There were no bodies. No blood.

And yet-

something remained.

Scratches marked the wooden floorboards near the back wall.
Thin. Repeated.
Metal restraints.

Anastia stopped.
Her eyes lowered slightly.

A rusted chain sat near the corner.
Beside it-

tools.

Old surgical instruments.
Instruments laid in precise alignment.

Something behind her eyes pulsed sharply.
Pain arrived without warning.

Violent.

Her hand closed instantly against the side of her head.
The metal tray beside the wall rattled from the force of it.

Cael turned immediately.

“Anastia?”

The pain sharpened further.
Not memory. Not thought.

Something worse.

Her hand pressed harder against her temple.
Too hard.

Her breathing had started to change now-
uneven beneath the stillness of her posture,
like the body reacting separately from the mind controlling it.

Kaeliath reached her first.
His hand closed around her wrist before her balance could shift further.

“Look at me.”

The command came low. Exact.

Anastia’s eyes lifted immediately.
And that was the disturbing part.

Her face had not changed at all.

No fear. No distress.
Nothing.

Only her fingers digging hard enough into her skin to leave marks.

Cael’s expression lost its ease entirely now.

“What happened?”

Silence stretched for a second.

Then Anastia spoke.

“It hurts.”

Calmly.

Like commenting on the weather.
As though the pain splitting through her skull belonged to someone else entirely.

Cael stared at her.

Because her expression never moved.
Not even slightly.

The pain continued tearing through her head silently while her face remained perfectly still.

Something cold settled beneath the room after that.
The kind that did not leave easily.

Kaeliath’s gaze rested briefly on the instruments scattered across the floor.
Long enough.

Then returned to Anastia.

“Enough,” he said quietly.

Not to her.

To the room itself.
To whatever had been left behind here.

Anastia’s hand lowered slowly after a moment.
The pain did not disappear.

It only dulled enough for movement again.

Her expression remained empty.
As though nothing had happened at all.

And somehow-
that made it worse.

Much worse.

Behind them, the abandoned house remained silent.
The tools still rested where they had been left.

Waiting.

Like the people who used them had believed they would eventually return..