Sebastian left the palace before the sun had fully risen.
No guards noticed. No servants whispered. No bells rang.
One moment, the crown prince of Nacrifa existed within the safety of marble walls and enchanted barriers. The next, his presence simply… vanished. As if the world itself had agreed not to remember the exact second he departed.
By the time the city stirred awake, Sebastian was already far beyond the kingdom's borders.
Far beyond safety.
The land he stepped into was not claimed by any crown.
The sky here was a sickly gray, thick clouds rolling endlessly as though trapped in a slow, eternal storm. The air smelled wrong, sharp, metallic, layered with sulfur and ancient rot. Trees stood warped and twisted, their trunks blackened, veins of dim red light pulsing beneath bark that looked more like charred flesh than wood.
This was a place mortals avoided instinctively.
Sebastian walked through it like he belonged.
