The laughter from the hall still echoed in Adrian's mind long after the nobles had dispersed. Their sneers clung to him like shadows, mocking every step he took as he walked alone into the storm.
His engagement shattered. His family name stripped. His honor trampled.
Yet within his chest, something unbroken still burned.
Instead of returning to his courtyard, Adrian wandered beyond the estate, his feet carrying him to a place long forgotten—the Adeyemi ancestral shrine.
Once, it had been a sacred hall where generations of his bloodline paid respect to their forebears. Now, it lay in ruins. The roof sagged, the incense burners lay overturned, and cobwebs veiled the cracked altar. The family had abandoned it, just as they had abandoned him.
Adrian stepped inside, rain dripping from his hair, his boots crunching on broken tiles. For a moment, he stood in silence before the shattered altar.
"Ancestors," he muttered bitterly, his voice hoarse. "Do you see what your descendants have become? My father chose snakes over blood. My brother revels in betrayal. And now I stand here, discarded and mocked. If this is fate… then I spit on it."
Lightning split the sky, illuminating the shrine in a flash of pale fire. In that instant, Adrian's eyes caught something strange.
A faint glow pulsed from beneath the altar.
He frowned, pushing aside the rubble. Hidden in the dust was a compartment no one had touched in decades. Inside lay a withered scroll wrapped in black silk, its surface etched with patterns that seemed to shift like living shadows.
Adrian's heartbeat quickened. He reached out.
The moment his fingers brushed the scroll, warmth surged through his veins like molten fire. His vision blurred, and in the haze he saw fleeting images—armies clashing beneath a blood-red sky, a figure cloaked in darkness wielding power that shattered mountains, and a voice whispering words he could not yet understand.
He gasped, stumbling back, clutching the scroll tightly.
The shrine fell silent again, but Adrian knew—this was no ordinary relic.
His lips curled into a slow, fierce smile. "So, the world has stripped me of everything. But the heavens… the heavens have given me this."
He held the scroll to his chest, eyes blazing with unyielding fire.
"This is not my end. This is my beginning."
Outside, the storm roared louder, as though the heavens themselves had heard his vow.