Aurelia slept beneath a restless moon, the air heavy with unease. Somewhere deep within its marble veins, the city sensed the awakening of something it could not name — a force that no longer belonged to gods or kings.
Bravo Lucien walked through the deserted streets, his cloak brushing against cold stone. Shadows trailed behind him, whispering in tongues long forgotten, guiding his steps like loyal specters.
He was not the same boy who had stood humiliated in the Hall of Inheritance. That boy was gone — buried beneath pain, loss, and something far darker.
---
At the edge of the training grounds, three familiar figures waited. Cassian. Darius. Renar.
Their faces, once warm with camaraderie, now reflected only fear and confusion. The flicker of torchlight painted their armor in uneasy gold.
"You shouldn't have come back," Cassian said. His voice was sharp, though his hand trembled on his sword hilt. "You're not one of us anymore."
Bravo stopped a few paces away. The air around him seemed to bend — alive with silent movement. "You're right," he murmured. "I'm not."
Renar scoffed, though his laughter rang hollow. "Still pretending to be something you're not? Still chasing ghosts?"
The ground darkened at Bravo's feet. From the cracks between the cobblestones, shadows poured forth — twisting, curling, alive.
Darius took a step back, his eyes wide. "What... what is this?"
Bravo's gaze flicked toward him, calm and merciless. "Power," he said. "The kind that doesn't ask permission."
In a single motion, the shadows lashed forward, coiling around their blades and wrists like serpents. Cassian's sword clattered to the ground as terror replaced defiance.
"I was nothing once," Bravo said softly. "But now… I am everything you fear."
---
When it ended, the courtyard lay silent. His former friends stumbled away, shaken and pale, unable to meet his eyes.
Bravo stood alone beneath the flickering torchlight, his breath steady, his heart colder than before. He reached for the pendant at his neck — Lyra's pendant — and closed his hand around it until the edge bit into his palm.
"She's still out there," he whispered. "And I will burn the world to bring her back."
The wind stirred, carrying the faint echo of laughter — Selene's laughter. Somewhere in the dark, she watched, unseen and pleased.
Bravo raised his head toward the moon, eyes glinting with the reflection of something vast and unholy.
> "Let them call me cursed," he said. "Let them call me monster. I'll show them what a monster truly is."
The shadows tightened their grip around him, whispering in voices only he could hear.
And in that moment, the boy without a bloodline became the heir to something far greater — and far more terrible.