The fire had dimmed to embers by the time Kaelen fully grasped the Duke's words.
"Beasts had awoken again."
The silence hung in the air like smoke.
In the worst nights, when shadows crawled beneath his skin and whispers tangled through his mind, he had seen the chasm. The crystal. The chains. Always glimpsed through water too dark for human eyes, always just beyond comprehension.
"A seal," he repeated slowly. "You mean... the one that held the beast, like the one beneath the capital."
The Duke rose from the bed.
His movements were liquid grace, the instincts of a man who had spent centuries surviving. The blanket fell away to reveal simple sleeping clothes that did nothing to diminish his presence. He crossed to the window where frost traced delicate patterns across the glass.
