Riella sat by the window in her room at Chloe Manor, watching the rain streak down the glass like the silent trail of tears. The sky was a smudged grey, heavy and cold, but the room was warm — too warm. It didn't match her thoughts.
Amelia was sprawled across the couch behind her, snacking on candied nuts and flipping through a dusty old journal she found in the manor's library. The two had been quiet since their return. Not because they didn't have anything to say, but because there was too much they couldn't yet explain.
Riella turned from the window finally. "Do you think we'll ever get real answers?"
Amelia raised a brow, tossing a nut into her mouth. "From the Empire? Or from the general who doesn't like being called an emperor?"
Riella let out a small laugh, but her fingers clutched at her necklace again — the one Angela said was with her when she was found.
"I keep hearing the name Leonardo," Riella murmured.
Amelia sat up. "Leonardo?"
Riella nodded. "Kael mentioned it. Just once. I didn't ask... but I've heard it before, I think. A whisper. A memory." She stared ahead. "I don't know if he's part of what happened to my mother, or part of what's still to come."
The room fell into silence again, only broken when a maid knocked and entered politely. "Lady Riella, Lord Kael requested your presence in the garden. He said it's not urgent… but worth the rain."
She looked to Amelia, who shrugged, then followed the maid down the corridor, heart hammering in her chest. Every step away from her past seemed to bring her closer to it.
Outside, under the still-drizzling sky, A woman stood by the fountain, an umbrella in one hand and something else in the other — a folded piece of parchment sealed with red wax.
Where was general kael she wondered.
"You're not afraid of getting wet again?" She asked with a crooked smile.
Riella tilted her head. Who are you? And why are you here . Where's general kael.
Do you not want to know what's in my hand
"Depends on what's under that seal." Riella said
The woman held it out. "A letter. From someone who claimed to have known your real mother."
Once her hands touched it, the woman left immediately.
The letter trembled in Riella's hands as she stared at the wax seal, now cracked and forgotten on the floor. The handwriting was strange—elegant, but uneven, as though the person had written it in a hurry or with a shaking hand. No name. No return address. Only the words that turned her heart into thunder.
> "You are not who you think you are. Your name… is Calistar. The most beautiful. She loved you."
She read it again, eyes wide and unbelieving. It was addressed to no one, but it felt like the writer had known her better than she knew herself. She remembered the face of the strange, tanned woman who handed her the envelope just before leaving and disappearing into thin air. She hadn't said a word. Only smiled—sadly, knowingly—and then vanished like smoke.
Riella clutched the paper to her chest.
The storm outside grew louder, thunder rolling through the night like a warning.
---
In the west wing of the imperial quarters, General Dimitri stood in his private study, the warm firelight painting shadows across his face. He was a man made of silence, his blue eyes deep with memory. His hands rested on the edge of the polished desk, but his mind was elsewhere. That girl... the one called Riella.
No… Calistar, he corrected himself inwardly.
He was sure now she was the one. At least that's what his mind keeps telling him.
She had her mother's face. Her nose. Her fire.
A name long buried stirred in him—a promise he'd once made to a dying woman in blood and ash. He had failed her. And now her daughter had returned to the empire, walking among the very men who had once betrayed her family.
He sighed heavily.
"Still thinking about her?" came a voice from the doorway.
Dimitri didn't look up. "Kael, don't you ever knock?"
Kael strolled in, his signature smirk in place, wearing his usual tailored coat with the collar popped just slightly too high. He looked too light for a man carrying a thousand secrets.
"You look like you're about to burn the whole palace down. Again."
Dimitri shot him a look. "I'm not in the mood."
"That's because you're always in the mood to suffer," Kael teased, picking up a glass and pouring himself some amber wine. He glanced at the open folder on the desk. "Is that about her?"
Dimitri said nothing.
Kael sighed, his smile fading. "You're not going to tell her, are you?"
"She doesn't need that burden."
Kael leaned back against the wall, swirling the wine. "She's already carrying a burden. What's one more truth?"
The flames crackled.
"She deserves answers," Dimitri said after a moment. "But not yet. Not until I'm sure she's safe."
---
Somewhere near the outer gardens of Chloe's manor, Riella sat beside her best friend Amelia, both of them now dressed in comfortable silk robes, their tea half-sipped, the letter still clutched in Riella's hand. Amelia looked at her, concern etched across her delicate face.
"You're shaking," she whispered.
Riella handed the letter to her.
Amelia read it, her lips parting in shock. "Calistar?"
Riella nodded slowly. "Do you think it's real?"
Amelia frowned. "I… I don't know. But I do know you. And I know something's happening, Riella. Something bigger than either of us."
The candlelight flickered.
"I think I have to find her," Riella said quietly. "My mother. The truth."