Kieran didn't sleep that night.
He left the tavern behind and drifted through alleys like a phantom—no path, no destination. Only instincts. Shadows watched, doors creaked open and shut without invitation, and voices echoed without bodies.
He was being followed.
Then suddenly, he wasn't.
The Invitation
A folded card was waiting in the center of his bed when he returned.
He hadn't left the window open. He hadn't left the lamp lit.
"House Noctis requests your presence.""Refuse, and the city will refuse you in turn."
Below the message was a sigil—black ink shaped into a spiraled thorn around a flickering flame.
Kieran said nothing.
He left immediately.
House Noctis
The path took him deep into the cliffside heart of Varneth, where towers curved unnaturally and stars felt further away. A building loomed—ancient, quiet, carved into obsidian itself.
Servants in veils said nothing as they led him inside.
At the highest floor, behind a circular chamber with no windows and a domed glass ceiling, sat a woman in a throne of onyx and smoke.
She wore no mask like the others. She needed none.
"You've made quite the stir, Kieran of Eldoria," she said, her voice slow as a drawl through silk.
"You are?"
"Lady Elowen Noctis. I keep balance in the city's night."
She didn't rise.
Didn't need to.
Her presence was colder than winter steel, and her eyes shimmered not with cruelty—but precision.
"I sent the warning," she said. "To see how you'd respond. Not all threats are meant to harm, Voidborne. Some are reminders."
"Reminders of what?"
"That this city does not tolerate loose fire. And you burn, boy."
The Offer of Chains
"You will not survive here alone," she continued. "But I can offer you protection. A place among the web. No more random eyes watching. No more knives in the dark. Only purpose. Direction. Obedience."
Kieran stood still, watching her, unmoving.
"What do you want in return?" he asked.
She smiled.
"Only that when the time comes, and this city begins to bleed, you bleed for us."
Refusal, and Consequences
Kieran turned to leave.
"I don't bleed for threats."
"You will," she said behind him, voice quiet now. "Because even the gods obey the city when its mask falls away."
As he stepped through the threshold, the doors slammed behind him. Not by force.
By warning.
Outside
The air hit him harder than expected. The sky had turned violet. Somewhere, the streets howled.
House Noctis had made their move.
And now… the game had begun.