---
The Empire of Shadows
The halls of the Mikaelson mansion were silent, yet the air was charged with a tension that pressed against the walls like a storm waiting to break.
Rebekah clung to Sage, tears still staining her cheeks, finally finding comfort in the warmth of a maternal presence she had never known. Sage's hands rested gently on her shoulders, steady and calming, offering the protection of a mother who would not abandon her.
Finn stood nearby, his eyes dark, surveying his family with the weight of centuries behind them. Klaus paced, fists clenched, muttering under his breath about threats unknown and powers unseen. Elijah, calm as ever, observed quietly, calculating every potential move. Kol leaned against a pillar, restless, a mixture of curiosity and unease flickering in his eyes.
"You feel it too," Finn finally said, voice low, commanding. "Something stirs in the world. A force unlike any we have faced before. Stay within these walls. The night outside is no longer ours to command."
Rebekah tightened her hold on Sage, allowing herself to trust fully for the first time. Sage met her gaze, a silent promise passing between them. Finn's eyes swept the room, protective and calculating, the weight of his family pressing on him as heavily as the shadows of the approaching storm.
---
Far away, across distant valleys and shattered forests, Tatia moved like a shadow given form.
The vampire queen of Finn's bloodline commanded an army of loyal nobles, sweeping across the lands with a precision that left devastation in her wake. Over eighty clans of pureblood werewolves rose to challenge her, yet she did not hesitate.
Her dark hair streamed behind her, eyes glowing like cold flames. Shadows bent to her will, binding and breaking the alphas who dared oppose her. Families fell beneath her hand, more than twenty destroyed in a single night, their screams carried away by the wind like whispers of the fallen. Tatia's lips curved in a cold, distant smile — the power of her lineage reshaped into something beyond mercy, beyond time.
Yet beneath the calculated cruelty lingered memory: Finn. Centuries of love, loss, and betrayal had transformed into a disciplined cruelty, an empire forged from pain and ambition. Every strike, every shadow cast, carried the weight of history and the echo of a love she had once cherished and lost.
---
In the shadows of a distant city, Alexander Corvinus moved silently, a noble of Finn's bloodline unknown to the Mikaelsons.
His body was diminished, weakened by the year following the birth of his child, yet his mind remained sharp. His son, the first pureblood noble, rested safely against him, wide-eyed and unaware of the dangers that lurked in the darkness.
Beside them, the adopted werewolf padded quietly, muscles coiled and senses alert, a living shield and student in one. Alexander's thoughts were a storm of strategy, every shadow and whisper weighed against the potential for survival. Tatia's name lingered in the edges of his mind, a distant force reshaping the world, yet he remained focused. Protect the child. Protect the werewolf. Endure. Live to rise again.
"Hold fast," he whispered, pressing a kiss to the boy's forehead. "We endure. We survive. And one day… we will rise."
--
The end of frist vol