The morning light in Rivergate was thinner than Adrian remembered.
He stood at the window of Sebastian's study, looking down at Copper Row. Merchants were already open. An apprentice swept the steps of the apothecary across the way. A woman with a basket of bread called out to a neighbor from her doorstep. Rivergate had been awake for hours.
His father had brought him here once, years ago. He had sat in a chair much like the one behind him while Lucian and Sebastian talked late into the night. He didn't remember what they talked about. He remembered the sound of their voices, low and serious, and the way Sebastian laughed, a laugh that filled the room.
That was before.
Sebastian came in with a tray loaded with tea, bread and dried meat. He set it on the desk between them and sat heavily in the chair across from Adrian. Lilith had settled into the corner, still and silent like she wasn't there.
"You look like him," Sebastian said, his eyes focused on the tea he was pouring. "Lucian. The same face when you're not saying anything."
Adrian didn't respond. He didn't know what to say to that.
Sebastian pushed a cup toward him. "Eat. I can tell you still have a long road ahead of you."
He offered Lilith some but she shook her head.
Adrian took the bread without hesitation. It was fresh and warm. He hadn't had fresh bread in weeks.
He ate while Sebastian watched, an uncomfortable silence hanging between them.
"I should have come for you," Sebastian said finally.
Adrian stopped chewing and turned to the man.
"After Lucian died. After Isolde. I should have—" Sebastian's jaw tightened. "I knew something was wrong. I knew it, and I told myself I was being paranoid. That Rowan was the grieving brother. That the boy was better off with his family."
He set his cup down and met Adrian's eyes. "I was a coward."
Adrian swallowed the bread. It sat heavy in his chest. "You're helping me now."
"Now," Sebastian repeated, and there was old grief in his voice. "Now, when you've already survived what they did to you."
He reached into his coat and brought out two things.
The first was a thick, worn journal. The leather cover was cracked with age, the edges of the pages yellowed and soft from years of use.
The second was a sealed envelope. The wax was still intact, stamped with a crest Adrian hadn't seen in a while.
His father's crest.
"I found this journal in the days after," Sebastian said, setting it on the desk. "I started writing down everything Lucian told me about his work. Everything I suspected about what happened to him."
He touched the envelope but didn't pick it up. "This one he gave me himself. Years before. He said if anything ever happened to him, I was to hold onto it. That I'd know when to give it to you."
Adrian stared at the envelope. His father's handwriting on the front. The ink had faded but it was still legible.
At the top it wrote: For Adrian.
'So he knew,' Adrian thought. His father knew something might happen to him.
"I never opened it," Sebastian said. "There were nights I wanted to. But it wasn't mine to open."
He pushed both items across the desk. "They're yours now."
Adrian picked up the envelope first. It was lighter than he expected. He slid it into his coat pocket without opening it.
'Not here. Not yet' he told himself.
The journal was different. He opened it right away. Sebastian's handwriting was cramped but precise. It was filled with dates, places and fragments of conversation with Lucian.
Desolate Plains — southern Beltonia. Lucian said the energy deposits there weren't natural. Something below the surface. Drakul activity older than the current seal. He went back twice. The second time, he came home with something he wouldn't show me.
Felton's Edge — the Elmyra border. Thin boundary between our world and Elendor. Lucian spent three weeks there. Came back quieter than usual. Said the spirits knew something they weren't telling him. He wrote something down that night. I never saw what.
Adrian turned the pages. The other locations were mentioned in passing, names of places without the same depth of detail.
"You knew about his work," Adrian said. "The adventuring."
Sebastian nodded slowly. "He never hid it from me. The merchant work paid the bills. The rest... that was what he was doing when he thought no one was watching." He paused.
"He was looking for something. He never told me what, exactly. But whatever it was, it was important enough to die for."
Adrian looked up from the journal. "You think Rowan killed him?"
Sebastian's expression didn't change, but something behind his eyes tightened.
"I know Rowan took everything after Lucian died. The house. The title. The business. Imperial favor within a month of the funeral." His voice was flat. "But I can't prove it. I spent years trying to find someone who would speak against him. No one would. Rowan has friends in places that matter."
'Reynor' Adrian thought. That was the current Emperor of Beltonia. From what he could remember, his father was never on good terms with the man.
Sebastian set his cup down and looked at Adrian with fresh eyes. "So. Where are you headed?"
Adrian met his gaze. "Aurelis. The academy."
Sebastian's eyebrows rose. He sat back in his chair. "Soulmark Academy? You were branded Soulless, Adrian. In front of half of Rivergate. Everyone saw it. Why are you going to an institution where having a spirit bond is a requirement?"
Adrian's hand went to his chest, where the system interface waited at the edge of his vision. He could feel Lilith's attention sharpen from the corner.
"I found something in the Scar," he said carefully. "Something that… changed things for me."
Sebastian studied him for a long moment. His gaze moved to Lilith, still in the corner. "And her?"
Adrian followed his gaze. Lilith's face was still, her silver hair catching the morning light through the window.
"She's my bond partner."
Sebastian's eyes widened. He looked between them. "A spirit bond? You have a spirit bond?"
"Something like that."
Across the room, Lilith's expression didn't change, but Adrian caught the faint tilt of her head. Interest, or perhaps amusement.
Sebastian let out a breath. "Lucian always said there were things in the Scar that didn't fit what the empire taught us. I never knew if I believed him." He looked at Adrian with something that might have been wonder. "But you actually found one."
Adrian said nothing. The less Sebastian knew, the safer he would be.
"I'm going to need a cover story," Adrian said instead. "For the academy. Something that explains what I am without inviting questions I can't answer."
Sebastian nodded slowly, his mind clearly working. "Frontier boy. Border work. Found a spirit in the Scar. It's unusual, but not impossible. Spirits are drawn to unusual frequencies sometimes. No house, no name, just capability and a story that doesn't invite investigation."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a small notebook, thinner than the journal. "The examination. Do you know what to expect?"
Adrian shook his head.
"Three parts. First is the soul frequency assessment. They measure your composition, bond depth, and potential ceiling. It is more complex than the local Resonance Orb ceremony. This is where they'll see that your bond doesn't match any standard spirit profile. Stick to your story."
Adrian nodded.
"Second is combat assessment. Practical evaluation against constructs or summoned creatures. You have border work experience. Use it."
Adrian hadn't considered that the thing that marked him as lesser might be the thing that gave him an edge.
"Third is written knowledge. History, theory, world geography, combat doctrine." Sebastian tapped the notebook. "I put this together. What I remember from my own examination, what Lucian told me about his. It won't make you an expert, but it'll keep you from failing on the basics."
He handed it over. Adrian tucked it into his coat with the envelope.
"As for money…" Sebastian said. He produced a heavy coin purse. "This should be enough for the examination fee, your first month's lodging, and anything you might need before you find work at the academy."
Adrian stared at the purse. "Sebastian, I can't—"
"You can." Sebastian set it on the desk with finality. "Lucian would have done it for my boy. Let me do it for his."
Adrian's throat tightened. He took the purse and slid it into his coat.
"Thank you," he said, and the words felt too small for what he meant.
Sebastian waved a hand, but his eyes were bright. "Go. Before I find more reasons to keep you here."
---
They left some minutes later with Adrian's coat heavier than when he arrived. Sebastian had given him more than he'd ever wanted.
They were on the main thoroughfare, heading toward the northern gate, when Adrian saw him.
Flynn was coming out of the Grey Feather, the merchant house that had been one of Lucian's first ventures.
He was laughing at something the man beside him had said, his posture relaxed, shoulders set back. The Greystone coat—deep grey, threaded with silver—fit him perfectly, like it had been made for him.
He looked like the type of son any father would want to have. Comfortable and confident. A young merchant heir with the world revolving itself around him the way it was supposed to.
The man with Flynn was older, grey-haired, someone Adrian didn't recognize. He was laughing too, clapping Flynn on the shoulder like he was proud of him. Like Flynn had done something worth being proud of.
Flynn's hand was raised, a sheaf of papers in it. The Greystone seal was at the bottom. Adrian could see it from twenty meters away, the familiar crest, the one that should have been his father's, that should have been his.
'He's wearing the name like it was always his,' Adrian thought. 'Like I never existed.'
He stopped walking.
Lilith stopped beside him. She didn't ask. She just stood there, waiting.
Adrian watched Flynn shake hands, turn, and walk down the street with the easy stride of someone who had never doubted that the world belonged to him.
He didn't look at Adrian nor glance his way.
'Why would he? I'm no one. I'm nothing. The Soulless cousin who was cast aside to rot at the border. He probably thinks I'm dead.'
Adrian's hands balled into a fists at his sides.
He watched until Flynn turned the corner and disappeared.
He forced his hands open.
"You could kill him," Lilith said, disrupting his thoughts.
Adrian looked at her. Her face was calm, her eyes on the corner where Flynn had disappeared.
"I know," he said.
"It would be easy."
He shook his head. "For you perhaps, but not for me. Beneath that carefree attitude, he's way stronger than me.
She turned to him "What if I helped you?"
Adrian stared at her. The thought was tempting. He could easily remove one piece off the board.
He sighed and walked forward. "No, I'd like to kill them with my own hands. Besides that's not what I'm here for. I'll come back for them someday and make them regret ever going against me."
Lilith watched him go for a second, a smile finding its way to her beautiful red lips.
"The little bird is ready to fly…"