"Ivan," Gareth said, his voice quiet but firm, like a tutor scolding a difficult student. "Let's go back to the palace. There is nothing worse than a child who does not know when to stop playing his games."
Ivan felt a chill run down his spine. It was not just the words. It was the fact that Gareth was *here*.
'How did he know?' Ivan thought. 'He followed me. Or he had someone follow me.' The realization was terrifying. His family was not just dismissing him. They were actively monitoring him.
He looked past Gareth. He saw two guards standing silently in the shadows of the hallway. They wore the silver and white of the Argent Hand. His mother's personal guards. This was an organized effort.
Defeated, Ivan nodded. "Alright, Gareth. Let's go home."
The walk back to the carriage was silent. Gareth did not scold him further. The silence was worse.
In the carriage, Gareth finally spoke. His voice was calm and cool. "Your concern for Alaric is noted, Ivan. But your methods are reckless. You are embarrassing the family."
"He's walking into a trap," Ivan said, his voice flat. He stared out the window at the dark city streets.
"And you are a fourteen-year-old boy with a library card," Gareth retorted. "Leave the war to the generals."
They arrived at the palace. Ivan was not taken to his room. He was escorted by the Argent Hand guards straight to his father's study.
The Emperor was there. Alaric was there. Their faces were like stone.
"You went to the academy," the Emperor said. His voice was dangerously calm. "You assaulted a Commander. You tried to interfere with a military operation."
"I was trying to save him!" Ivan said, pointing at Alaric.
"You are confined to the palace grounds until further notice," the Emperor declared. "Your training is suspended. Your access to the war room is forbidden. You are, for all intents and purposes, under house arrest."
Ivan was dismissed. He was trapped. His direct approach has failed completely.
As he walked out of the study, his shoulders slumped, he saw Gareth waiting for him in the hallway.
"Your behavior is illogical," Gareth said, falling into step beside him. "You present a hypothesis with no evidence, no sources, and expect the entire Imperial strategy to change."
"The evidence will be the bodies of my brother's soldiers!" Ivan retorted, his voice low
"An unacceptable outcome," Gareth agreed calmly. "Which is why you will cease this foolishness." He stopped walking. "About all that. You claim you read of these 'burrowing' creatures in a book."
"I did," Ivan lied.
"Then we will find it," Gareth declared. "Tomorrow morning. We will go to the Royal Library, and you will show me."
The next day, they were in the massive, dusty library. Sunlight streamed through the high arched windows, illuminating floating dust motes. Ivan pretended to search. He pulled random books off shelves, flipping through the pages without reading them. He was just playing for time.
Gareth, however, was systematic. He was in his element. He cross-referenced catalogues and ancient texts on a large wooden table.
"You said it was a bestiary from the First Age," Gareth said after an hour of work. "There are only three known copies of the 'Codex Monstorum' in the Empire. Let us examine them."
An assistant brought the ancient, fragile books to their table. Ivan knew they would not find anything. He felt a dull sense of dread. This was a pointless exercise designed to prove he was a liar.
They examined the first two copies. They were identical. The illustrations were faded, the text written in an old, elegant script. There was no mention of burrowing creatures.
As Gareth studied the third codex, he frowned. He leaned closer to the page, his finger tracing a line of text.
"This is strange," he murmured.
"What is it?" Ivan asked, his curiosity piqued despite himself.
"This copy is different from the others," Gareth said. He pointed to a small, almost invisible annotation in the margin. "The scribe who copied this volume added a note here. It's a reference."
He looked up at Ivan, his eyes bright with a sharp, predatory light that he masked as academic excitement. "It mentions the Seven Deadly Sins. Do you know what that is, Ivan?"
Ivan's heart skipped a beat. 'Superbia,' he thought. The name echoed in his mind.
"No," Ivan lied, his face a blank mask.
"It's a very old, very obscure heresy," Gareth explained, his attention already back on the book. He was watching Ivan from the corner of his eye. "A myth about seven primordial entities of immense power. Most scholars dismiss it as folklore." He kept reading the small, faded notes. "This is fascinating. The scribe links the creatures in this bestiary to these 'Sins'."
He looked up from the book, his mind clearly working on a complex puzzle. 'He reacted' Gareth thought to himself. 'He knows the name. How?'
"It's something long to explain," he said out loud, suddenly dismissive. He closed the heavy book. "Leave now. I will take my time to read this version well. Then I will teach you some stuff."
Ivan was dismissed again. He nodded and walked out of the library, leaving Gareth alone with the ancient text.
As he walked down the silent palace hallway, he felt a new kind of fear. It was not just that his lie had been exposed. It was that it had accidentally led to a piece of the real, terrifying truth.
Back in the library, Gareth did not continue reading.
He waited until he was sure Ivan was gone.
He walked to a different section of the library, a dark corner filled with books on forbidden Aetheric rituals and pacts. He pulled a specific, unmarked volume from the shelf. It was a book he had studied for years.
He did not open it.
He ran his fingers along the spine, his expression unreadable. He looked back toward the door where Ivan had left.
A small smile touched his lips, but it held no joy.
'So, my little brother has somehow come into contact with one of the Sins,' Gareth thought. 'and he's hiding it from me'
______
Yo guys it's been a while
I had circumstances after others
But I'm back now