Lady Seraphyne was no exception.She had been trained in isolation, her dominant field honed to suppress lesser minds with instinct alone. Intimacy was nearly impossible.
Her presence bent rooms, silenced crowds, and shattered weak-willed Espers with a glance. Which was why the Imperial Lord Thaurion had turned to black technology.
The serum was designed to rewrite her genetic code, to soften her field, to make her pliable. But Seraphyne was fierce. She refused to submit. Not even the agony of mutation could break her.
Until she bore her first son, Jian Rui. With him, Thaurion had leverage. A tether, a weapon she could use against her. Then came Jian Wei, the seventh prince.
After his birth, Thaurion's obsession waned. He turned to newer concubines, bewitched by fresh blood and political distractions.
Seraphyne returned to the vanguard. She rebuilt her strength in silence, commanding fleets, reclaiming her title. Her aura grew darker, sharper.
She had believed, for a fleeting moment, that she was free thus she filed for separation, citing irreconcilable psychic incompatibility, a formality in Virelia's imperial courts. To her surprise, Thaurion had seemed to agree and he even signed the preliminary documents.
But that night, he summoned her under the guise of finalising their separation. She arrived in ceremonial armor, guarded but hopeful. He crushed her with his aura before she could speak.
The chamber warped under his psychic pressure, flame pillars bending inward, runes flickering like dying stars. She collapsed, her dominant field overwhelmed. Then came the syringe an overdose of the serum that had weakened her. This time, it didn't seek control. It sought destruction.
That night, Seraphyne was assaulted by the beast she once called husband. And Jian Ci, the tenth prince, was conceived in violence.
When morning came, Thaurion signed the final separation and told her to "get lost." But not before humiliating her before the entire Virelian court, stripped of her title, mocked and discarded.
She left the imperial capital in disgrace but she did not break. Seraphyne returned to Crown Blade, commanding her vanguard with the same cold fire as before. She led like nothing had happened.
Until the incident. It was a last-minute pursuit that wasn't scheduled. Headquarters had requested a quick interception since Crown Blade was already nearby. The explosion tore through SS Venus. Seraphyne died in the blast.
Thaurion seized the moment, attempting to dismantle Crown Blade using the other elite Vanguards. But they refused because today it was Crown Blade and tomorrow it might be them. Instead, they issued a warning to Crown Blade.
A few arrests were made but the rest of Crown Blade went into hiding. Their insignia, a veil of starlight wrapped in a bleeding eye, was stripped from the headquarters without ceremony. There was no announcement, no trial or reasoning behind the decision. It was just silence as if they had never existed.
Jian Rui remembered the day the symbol was removed. The marble walls had looked naked, ashamed. For years, he had worn a mask of docility, smiling for diplomats, bowing to nobles, playing the obedient son. All for the sake of his brothers. All to keep them safe. But in the shadows, he was rebuilding.
One by one, he gathered the scattered remnants of Crown Blade. Veterans, tacticians, mech pilots. He placed them in his personal security detail, cloaked in civilian ranks.
The most dangerous among them, those who had once led battalions, were hidden deep within a mercenary group operating in Calamity Alliance territory. They were outlaws to the Empire and loyal only to him and his brothers. His patience was thinning.
Each time his father summoned him, it was another test. He was looking for another excuse to erase Lady Seraphyne's legacy.
Jian Rui knew the summons would soon come for Jian Ci, his youngest brother as he was fficially an A-rank Esper. But secretly, he was a rare SS-rank and they had concealed it for years. Otherwise, they would be in hiding right now.
Jian Rui could control his emotions and pretend to be docile but Jian Ci couldn't. He was impulsive, unyielding and he would not take his father's provocation without retaliation. When Thaurion saw him, truly saw him, all hell would break loose.
Jian Rui exhaled, calming the storm swirling in his chest. His voice was quiet, but firm.
"Are my brothers back home?"
The man beside him, who had been trying not to breathe, finally nodded. "Yes, Your Highness."
Jian Rui's eyes narrowed.
"Good."
The spacecraft descended in silence, its hull gleaming with residual starlight as it settled atop the modest landing pad built into the sloped roof of the Jian brothers' home.
On the southern edge of Velithar Prime, where the golden spires of the imperial capital surrendered to whispering groves and low hills, stood the mansion. It was not grand nor imperial but it was sacred.
The house had five bedrooms, quiet and still. Around it stretched a courtyard made of pale memorystone, smooth and soft underfoot, as if it could speak. Above, duskstone tiles covered the roof, glowing faintly in the moonlight like a lullaby long forgotten.
It was their home left to them by their mother. The brothers had refused the palace assigned to them. Its walls were too heavy with bad memories. Its corridors echoed with the footsteps of a father they did not trust. Here, they had peace and didn't have to look over their shoulder constantly.
The grounds were enclosed by a shimmering shield woven from Esper silk and memory glyphs. It pulsed gently, translucent and rose-gold, responding to threats.
Beyond the veil, the garden bloomed with rare flora. Ashroses curled like flame, bleeding crimson dew at dawn. Whisperlilies grew in silence, fragrant and pale, thriving only where secrets slept.
And Starshade Vines clung to the walls, their leaves absorbing moonlight and releasing soft hums that echoed through the night like lullabies for the broken.
The swimming pool lay nestled between the garden and the west wing, its surface dark and glassy, reflecting the moonlight like a memory too sacred to touch.
It had once been Lady Seraphyne's sanctuary where she taught her sons to float, to breathe, to listen to silence as if it were a language only they could understand.
Now, it was a place of quiet communion. The brothers often sat alone at its edge, watching the stars ripple in the water, as if waiting for her voice to return.
Inside, the mansion glowed with warmth. Wooden beams arched overhead, carved with old family sigils that whispered of lineage and loss. Velvet drapes in deep blue and silver framed the windows, and a hearth pulsed with gentle heat even when no flame danced within.
Each room bore her touch. An embroidered cushion left on a bench, a half-finished poem etched into the wall with a stylus of light, the lingering scent of lavender and ash.
Jian Rui stepped out of the elevator, expecting to find them bickering. But the house was silent. He walked through the halls, then out into the garden.
There, at the pavement near the pool, he found Jian Wei and Jian Ci.
They stood still, tense, as if caught mid-motion like they were about to race each other.