The Duke did not act immediately.
That alone would have shocked anyone who knew him.
Instead, he watched.
From behind his desk, from behind layers of silence and routine, he reconstructed the event in the garden again and again. No forced entry. No disturbance to the servants. No magical residue strong enough to track.
Whoever the man was, he had passed through the estate like a thought—brief, contained, deliberate.
That made him dangerous.
The Duke dipped his pen and wrote three words on a private parchment:
Unknown.Aware.Interested.
Then, beneath it, another line.
Child noticed. Bracelet reacted.
He leaned back slowly.
That reaction should not have occurred unless Ariya had felt threatened—or recognized something.
And a child should not recognize anything.
The Duke closed his eyes briefly.
She is not normal, he thought.And someone out there knows it.
By morning, quiet orders were issued.
Not guards—too obvious.Not mages—too traceable.
Instead:
A second, unseen ward woven into the estate's perimeter.
Servants rotated at random intervals.
Reports rewritten twice before reaching him.
Countermeasures, layered and invisible.
If the man returned, he wouldn't be stopped.
He would be noticed.
Nolan, meanwhile, was not supposed to notice anything at all.
That afternoon, he sat on the floor of Ariya's room, building a crooked tower of blocks while she toddled unsteadily nearby.
"Careful," Lilian laughed. "Slow steps, my lady."
Ariya wobbled, then steadied herself—too quickly.
Nolan froze.
He had tripped before. He knew what falling looked like.
That hadn't been it.
"Did you see that?" he asked, frowning.
"See what?" Lilian replied, busy folding linens.
Ariya reached for the edge of the table—and the bracelet on her wrist glimmered faintly.
Just for a moment.
The blocks on the floor rattled.
Not fell.
Rattled.
Nolan's heart thudded.
That… wasn't wind.
"Ariya?" he whispered.
She turned to him.
Not smiling.
Just looking.
And for a split second—just one—Nolan felt something strange.
Like his little sister was looking through him.
That night, Nolan didn't tell Lilian.
He didn't tell the Duke.
But when he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, he remembered something his mother once told him.
Some people are born carrying more than they should.
And for the first time, Nolan wondered—
What exactly had his sister been born with?