---
The air was cold in Gravewinter, but it wasn't the kind that bit skin.
It crept beneath it... the kind that made Kael's blood feel like it might freeze mid-pulse.
He was standing in the remains of the forgotten crater, still the sigil faintly suspended on the back of his hand. He had his Grimoire closed, and humming with power at his waist.
The fight against the bounty killers was finished, their bodies were burned or dissipated. But then something still lingered on. Not grief. Not fear...
> "I didn't hesitate."
That realization scared him more than the fight.
---
Kael followed the ridge down, into the east and to the hollow lands ruled formerly by small clans of vampires. Smashed courts where overthrown lords still muttered their rights to rule.
The Crimson Grimoire flickered open on its own.
> [Path Advisory: Domain of House Vel'mar, Status: Extinct (Unverified)]
▸ Possible relics detected within 5km
▸ Caution: Energy signature matches Progenitor-class echo
Kael paused.
> "Another court?"
His blood pulsed. Not a warning. A call.
---
It took half a day through the ruined woods.
The deeper he walked, the more the trees bent unnaturally, as if leaning to listen. Strange birds circled overhead. One of them watched him with silver eyes.
He ignored it.
At the forest's edge, he found them:
Six stone thrones, each broken in different ways. A shattered crown. A melted sigil. One still burning faintly.
And sitting on one... was someone alive.
---
The figure looked young, maybe Kael's age, with pale skin, short black hair, and a bloodstained coat.
He was polishing a false crest of House Vire, carved in bone and badly painted in red.
When Kael stepped closer, the boy didn't flinch.
He just said:
> "Don't try to take it. It's mine now."
Kael blinked.
> "What is?"
The boy gestured to the crest.
> "The Vire name. You want it too, don't you? So do the others. You think if you wear the ashes long enough, people will forget what they looked like."
Kael's eyes narrowed.
> "You're not Vire."
> "Neither are you."
---
Silence.
Then a grin. The boy's fangs were jagged... unnatural.
> "Or maybe we both are. What's in a name, anyway? Just a tombstone you get to keep carving."
He got slowly to his feet, and Kael saw his coat lined to the glyph-scars. Vampire brands were branded in the skin. Obtained not by mutation.
A blood imitator.
A mockery.
And yet... his aura pulsed wrong.
Like something old was whispering through him.
---
> "Tell me, boy," the stranger asked. "If the name Vire comes back, who's going to kneel first?"
"The world?"
"Or you?"
Kael said nothing.
The Grimoire opened again.
> [Alert: Blood Echo Resonance Detected, Category: Inverted Lineage]
▸ Subject: Rejected Progenitor Project - Status: Unstable
▸ Warning: Possible mirror anomaly
---
The boy's voice dropped.
> "I was made to be the heir. You? You were just born wrong."
His hand moved.
Kael moved faster.
Their fists met in air, and the world cracked like glass around them.
---
End of Chapter 31
---