The dawn broke dim over the city, light fighting its way through the iron-grey clouds. The Helios Tower stood above it all, its glass windows cold and watchful. Inside, silence ruled — too perfect, too heavy.
Helios sat in her study, the glow of the holographic reports painting her face in sharp blue light. Her fingers moved with calculated grace across the console, approving shipments, rerouting guards, signing alliances. Every keystroke echoed authority.
But under it — beneath the calm, beneath the mask — was a rhythm too sharp, too uneven.
She hadn't seen Eform since the night of the council. He'd left with that quiet smile of his — too polite, too practiced. And since then, every message she sent returned unread.
The first day, she ignored it.
The second, she convinced herself he was busy.
The third, she started listening — really listening — to the silence around her.
"Where is he?" she asked, eyes locked on the city skyline.
A shadow shifted near the door. Kael, her chief of intelligence, bowed low. "His last recorded entry was to the Western Division, my Empress. He left before dawn, unescorted."
Unescorted.
Eform never traveled without protection.
Helios rose, her long coat whispering against the marble. Her reflection in the glass looked almost foreign — the perfect figure of composure, with eyes sharp enough to command nations, but colder than winter itself.
"Find him." Her voice was low, steady — the kind that made even the wind hesitate. "If you must tear apart the Western Division brick by brick, do it."
Kael bowed again and vanished through the door.
The moment it shut, the Empress turned to the window. From her tower, the city sprawled beneath her — her empire, her creation. The people saw a ruler made of iron and flame. None saw the woman standing there now, staring into the fog, feeling it pull at something inside her chest.
A soft chime interrupted her thoughts — a secure channel request.
Her hand hesitated only once before she accepted.
"Report," she ordered.
Static. Then a trembling voice answered, "My Empress… we found him."
Her heartbeat stopped for a single, endless second.
"Alive?"
A pause. "Barely."
The sound that followed was something no one in the empire had ever heard — the scrape of her chair falling as she moved faster than reason, faster than fear.
The next moment, the doors of the Helios Tower burst open, and her convoy roared into the streets.
As the city watched their empress vanish into the morning storm, none could guess what weighed heavier — the empire she ruled, or the one man who could make her heart break its own laws.