I. The Prince Cracks
The Empress's words echoed like glass.
"Some armor hides more than a sword."
But she hadn't meant Cladus.
She'd meant her son.
---
Auren stood alone in the Grand Hall of Mirrors.
Not for the first time.
But this time—he wasn't laughing.
His reflection looked tired. Gold-stitched robes, tousled curls, and eyes that no longer gleamed like wine in the sun.
"Smile, Auren," he muttered, mimicking his mother's voice. "Smile so they forget you're bleeding."
He ran a hand through his hair and stared at the ballroom ceiling, the painted heavens above it.
"Maybe if I die in here," he mused aloud, "they'll mistake it for poetry."
He almost laughed.
Didn't.
---
Footsteps behind him. Familiar.
General Vesryn—the warhound in court velvet.
"Your Highness. You missed council again."
"Forgive me," Auren said without turning. "I was busy being a disappointment."
The General said nothing.
"Tell her I'm still alive," he added. "Barely."
"She doesn't want you alive. She wants you obedient."
"Then I'll disappoint her twice in one day."
---
He turned.
And for the first time in weeks, his eyes burned.
Not from tears.
From rage.
I don't even know when I stopped choosing for myself."
General Vesryn flinched.
"Don't say that—"
"I just did."
Silence.
Auren clenched his jaw.
"You think I'm just a smile in a crown? That I don't know what she's done?"
"I think," the general said slowly, "that you were never meant to rule. You were meant to obey."
---
Auren's laugh cracked through the hall.
"Then maybe it's time I start disobeying."
II. The Knight and the Duke
Cladus stood beside Elara at a quiet courtyard banquet, swordless but never unarmed.
She spoke to a Lady from the Northern Isles. A small alliance forming.
He stayed silent. Watching.
Until someone joined him.
"Strange, isn't it?" a voice murmured at his side. "How a mere knight draws so many eyes."
Cladus didn't move.
Duke Altheon of House Drayden. Rich. Sharp. And dangerous.
"You've done well guarding her," the Duke said. "But tell me, Sir Cladus… are you truly just a knight?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Because I saw you once. Before the war. In the Western Court."
Cladus's eyes flickered.
"You're mistaken."
"Perhaps." A pause. "But if you ever tire of hiding—there are houses that would welcome a man of your… talents."
"I serve Lady Elara."
"For now."
The Duke stepped away.
Cladus remained still. Eyes shadowed.
You saw me once?
Then someone else will see me next.
---
Across the courtyard, Elara looked up from her conversation and met Cladus's gaze.
She smiled.
But inside, her thoughts shifted.
Why did the Duke choose to speak to him?
What is Cladus hiding?