The Duke stood alone in his private study, a sealed scroll clutched tightly in his hand. The candlelight flickered off the polished wood desk as he unrolled it, revealing a sigil—an eye encased in a shattered veil. He hadn’t seen this symbol in over a decade.
Footsteps echoed down the hallway. He turned as a figure cloaked in brown entered through a secret door behind the bookshelf. An old contact, a former intelligence officer now living in the underground, bowed slightly.
“They’re active again, aren’t they?” the Duke asked.
The contact nodded. “The ones who call themselves R.I.S.K. have returned. Quiet movements in the capital. Whispers in the clergy. Your wife’s plague—it matches a forbidden spell from their vault.”
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The Duke’s hand clenched into a fist. “And the boy?”
The agent paused. “We believe… he’s connected to the prophecy. Their eyes are on him.”
The Duke paced the floor. “I suspected as much. His healing, his intellect… no child should possess such things.”
“But he saved your son. And your wife.”
“I know,” the Duke muttered. “And I owe him my life. But if R.I.S.K. truly seeks him…”
“They will manipulate. Corrupt. Or eliminate him.”
Silence fell between them.
The agent slid a leather-bound book across the table. “This contains all we know of the Shattered Veil and R.I.S.K. Use it carefully. They erase those who look too deeply.”
As the contact vanished back into the hidden corridor, the Duke stared at the sigil again.
Elsewhere…
Kazuki stood alone on the outskirts of the town, the moonlight catching the edge of his dagger. His expression unreadable. His cloak swayed in the wind, the silence around him nearly deafening.
In his mind, fragments of a dream returned—an ancient voice whispering beneath the surface of memory:
"Child of the Veil… choose your path… before it chooses you."
Kazuki’s eyes narrowed slightly.
He didn’t know who the voice belonged to. But something told him…
They were watching.
