Theron walked the ornate corridors of the Caelvaris mansion with Kael at his side, their footsteps softened by the plush runner beneath them.
The passage leading toward the study was less a hallway than a solemn gallery of the family's legacy, lined from end to end with relics that seemed to breathe of age, pride, and power. Framed portraits of archdukes and archduchesses watched from the walls with severe, knowing eyes, their gilded frames catching the light from the chandeliers above.
Between them stood glass cases displaying ancestral blades, ceremonial medals, and rune-etched tokens earned through centuries of service to Greenvale.
Everywhere Theron looked, the Caelvaris name had been preserved as if it were a sacred inheritance. The mansion itself seemed built to remind anyone who entered that this family had not merely lived in the kingdom; they had helped shape it.
