Rhys walked out of the Mission Hall, the sealed scroll clutched in his hand. He was oblivious to the ripples his decision had just sent through the outer sect.
The moment he accepted the mission, the dusty wooden tablet on the mission board glowed with a faint light before turning to blank wood, signaling that the task was now active.
It was an open secret in the Azure Sky Palace, a truth that everyone knew but no one dared to speak aloud: the mission from the fallen princess of House Lyra was a trap.
It was a thin bridge built across an abyss, and everyone knew it led nowhere good.
The Crimson Sun family, a powerful noble house with deep ties to the sect's elders, had a long and bitter history with House Lyra.
When House Lyra fell, the Crimson Sun family had been the one to deliver the final blow.
They had taken the Lyra family's lands, their wealth, and their pride. But a single member of the main family, the young princess, had survived.
