The Weight of Secrets
With a final, utterly baffled glance from the high-security medical team, Kael was wheeled out of the ward. His survival remained an absolute, unsolvable anomaly.
Slumping in his wheelchair, Kael rolled into his new room, offering a tired wave to Vrita. She was propped up in her bed, deeply engrossed in a book, but she looked up and returned a relieved smile.
The brief moment of peace vanished as the heavy wooden door swung open.
Adrian stepped inside. Ignoring the medical staff, he walked straight over to Kael, taking his son's hand in his. His sharp eyes immediately drifted toward the girl in the opposite bed.
"Kael," Adrian said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "She is the one who saved you."
Kael offered a slight, exhausted nod in her direction. "Thanks."
Adrian's brow furrowed, a strange, knowing glint dancing in his eyes. "You shouldn't just say a simple thanks, Kael. Do you know that she is a dragon?"
The words hung in the air like blocks of lead.
Vrita's fingers went entirely limp. Her grip failed, and her book clattered loudly against the linoleum floor. Adrian casually leaned down, picked it up, and handed it back to her with a completely unreadable expression.
Kael's knuckles turned white as he gripped his bedsheet. Inside his mind, Sara's voice practically shrieked in a panic he had never heard from her before.
"Damn it! How does your father know about her?!"
"I don't know," Kael fired back telepathically, a cold sweat breaking out across the back of his neck.
Meanwhile, Dark Smiler, who had been sitting quietly on the sofa, was now staring at Vrita with wide, unblinking eyes.
Adrian stood up straight, scanning the frozen faces in the room. "What happened? Why is everyone so shocked?"
Desperate to shatter the suffocating silence, Vrita forced a nervous, high-pitched laugh. "What are you saying, Sir? You're an adult. You should know that dragons are just fairy tales and imagination."
Adrian placed his hand firmly on her bedside table, leaning in. "Sister, you are mistaken. We already know for a fact that Gods are real. Why should dragons be any different? And Dark Smiler..." He turned his piercing gaze toward the sofa. "What about you?"
Vrita swallowed hard, the color draining from her face. "Sir—"
Before she could finish, Adrian cut her off. He leaned down, his breath brushing against Kael's ear as he whispered a sentence that made Kael's blood run cold:
"Son, we will talk about your System and your broken soul later."
Without waiting for a response, Adrian turned on his heel and walked out, the heavy door clicking shut behind him.
The Redgrave Legacy
The silence he left behind was deafening. Kael buried his face in his hands, trembling slightly. "My father knows too much. You guys didn't even know the extent of my power, but he does. He even knows about Sara."
Dark Smiler crept closer to the bed, his expression uncharacteristically grim. "Kael... something is seriously wrong here."
Kael took a deep, shaky breath, forcing himself to calm down. "Drakes, it's not an error. He gets his information from the books hidden in our family library. Only he and I have ever had access to it."
Drakes hunched his shoulders, completely bewildered. "But Kael, you never told me about that, and I don't remember you ever entering a library."
"He usually reads them at midnight," Kael muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "I barely ever saw them myself."
Sara's voice echoed in his mind again, sharper and far more intense this time.
"Kael, did you ever read their titles?"
"Nope. Never. The language was too ancient."
"It means... wait. Is your surname Redgrave?"
"You didn't know?" Kael raised his brows mentally.
"That explains everything," Sara whispered, a trace of genuine horror creeping into her tone. "That's why your father knows about me and Vrita. Those books contain the world's darkest secrets. Kael... you aren't 'chosen.' If I told you what you really are, what do you think would happen to you?"
Kael exhaled slowly, a dangerous spark igniting in his chest. "Sara, can you take physical form right now?"
"Alright."
A brilliant, blinding light flooded the room, forcing everyone to shield their eyes. When it faded, a young woman stood before them. She wore an ancient queen's gown that perfectly suited her majestic, ethereal aura. Her eyes glowed with an otherworldly light, and her smooth, emerald-green hair shimmered beautifully. Yet, her face was deathly pale.
Kael smirked faintly. "I wanted to see their reactions."
Right on cue, the door burst open. Azune and Renjiro rushed into the room, their faces completely drained of color. They froze, stunned by the sudden appearance of the beautiful, green-haired woman, but Azune quickly managed to gasp out her panic.
"His father... he knows about us!"
Sara's pale face tightened into a cold, knowing smirk. "Kael, listen to me. Power isn't the most dangerous thing in this world. Information is."
Kael raised his hand, giving her a firm thumbs-up. "Got it. Message received. It's time for me to start gathering information, too."
Shadows in the Night
The heavy tension slowly dissolved into an exhausting silence as the adrenaline faded. Everyone took a deep breath, and Kael finally closed his eyes, drifting into a deep, dreamless sleep.
When he opened them a few hours later, the room was dimly lit by the pale moonlight filtering through the window. Azune and Renjiro had already headed back to their homes. Vrita was lying still, seemingly fast asleep in her bed.
"Sara? Do you know where everyone went?" Kael thought into the void.
"Drakes is resting inside you. Azune and Renjiro went home," Sara's voice replied softly in his mind.
"You should take a rest too, Sara," Kael whispered back.
Silence followed. Kael called out again in his mind. "Sara? Sara?"
Receiving no answer, Kael assumed she had gone to sleep and closed his eyes. But a moment later, a soft glow illuminated the room as Sara materialized in her physical form. She looked down at Kael's sleeping face, her glowing eyes softening with an emotion she hadn't felt in centuries.
"For the first time... someone treated me like a human," she murmured to herself, her voice barely a whisper. "I've worked for so many people, even for Gods. But they always saw me as a tool. I was never allowed to rest. But he... he told me to rest."
She felt a strange, unfamiliar warmth stir in her chest and sighed softly. "You really are different."
Turning her gaze toward the other bed, her soft smile faded into a sharp, knowing look. "Vrita, I know you're awake."
Vrita opened her eyes, a sheepish, defeated expression on her face as she sat up. "Oh... you caught me."
Sara walked over and quietly sat on the sofa, the two women sharing a silent, heavy understanding of the storm that was brewing around them.
A few minutes later, the door clicked open again. Kael's parents stepped into the room. Adrian was holding his wife's hand, leading her gently toward the beds.
"Elara," Adrian said softly, looking at his wife. "These two are the ones who saved our child."
Overcome with raw emotion, Elara didn't care about her own frail, weakened condition. She immediately stepped forward, preparing to bow deeply in gratitude to the strangers who had kept her son alive.
Sara moved like a flash of light, catching Elara by the shoulders and gently pulling her upright before she could lower herself. "Please, don't bow to us."
Adrian stepped into the center of the room. The dim light caught the edge of his sharp, unsettling smile as he looked directly at the hidden dragon and the ancient spirit.
"Elara, let me introduce them to you properly," Adrian said smoothly, his eyes locking onto Sara's horrified gaze. "This is Vrita. And this... is Sara."
The room froze. Sara's breath hitched, a cold, paralyzing dread washing over her. She had never once encountered this man in her physical form, nor had she ever uttered her name aloud in his presence.
Yet, he knew exactly who she was.