Chapter LX
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Moonlight pierced through the chamber window, cutting a pale blade of light across the dark room.
Caesar sat forward on the edge of the bed, naked, facing the glass. At his side, Sera lay beneath the bedspread, sitting up slowly to watch his back.
"Caesar." A pause. "What's wrong?"
She held the sheet to her chest. "Come back to bed."
She moved closer, fingers tracing the line of muscle along his spine, measuring it with her palm.
"Talk to me." Her lips found his back, kissed a slow line up to his neck, then his ear, teeth grazing skin.
"Stop." His voice came out firm. He stood from the bed.
"We've only synchronized for one day."
He crossed to the window, letting the cold breeze move past him. Sera rose behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind.
"Talk to me, Caesar."
"I'm done with this." He dropped her hands away. "Indirectly playing their games."
She stepped back, confusion crossing her face. "What?"
"Go rest."
"Where are you going?" she asked, working hard to keep her voice level.
"Do you care to know Lora would be synchronized soon?" He pulled his sleeve into place.
"She's thirteen. Fourteen in a year." A beat.
"We started ours at eight. She's no different than we were."
"She's your daughter." His voice hardened. "Our daughter."
"We don't get daughters. Or children. You know that better than anyone." Sera's eyes held his steadily. "She's nothing but a student. The ones who came before us — our father, our mother — they meant nothing to us either."
Caesar's hand dropped gently from her face, where it had drifted without him noticing.
"She's paired with Hollow Bane," he said. "He'll be here soon to collect her. Say your goodbyes before then." He turned for the door, sword in hand.
"Your task today is to find the boy Ozym's so focused on."
He didn't look back.
"Take her with you."
"What?"
"It's an order." He opened the door.
"Caesar—"
The voice came sudden, pulling the room backward into memory.
"High Sovereign — this is him. Fastest elite we've produced." A man stood before a glass partition, watching children play in the small room beyond — grabbing toys, chasing each other, oblivious to the man on the other side of the glass discussing them like livestock.
"My blood." The High Sovereign turned, something close to pride moving across his face. "How old is he now?"
"Eight, High Sovereign."
"Pair him. We need more like him." He turned away.
Caesar watched from inside the glass — eight years old, still distracted by the toy in his hand, not yet understanding what had just been decided about his life.
To create an elite, the Allthing relied on a process they called Pair Synchronization — the High Sovereign's true blood passed down, gifting his offspring abilities far beyond ordinary limits. Abilities that didn't belong to anyone but the program that made them.
Puppets, all of them. Just with better strings.
"Captain Caesar." A Golden Cloak saluted, snapping him back. "Lord Eryl calls for you."
"Lead the way."
---
Midday — Deep in the Castle Pits
"He's gone already?" Sera asked the knight standing duty outside the cell.
"Yeah. Taken today."
"Who bought him?"
"Hey, Sera!" Lora called out from behind two Golden Cloaks, falling in beside her. "What are we doing here? The next fight starts soon."
Sera ignored her, eyes still on the knight. "What was the name?"
"Uhm." He fumbled, trying to recall. "I — I don't remember exactly."
"Forget it," Sera said.
"What about Reek?" Lora was already peering into the empty cage.
"He bought both," the knight said.
"Quick bastard." Sera stepped closer, studying the empty cell. "Saw worth in the freak, probably. The boy's less of a fighter, though."
"He's strong," Lora said.
"I have something." The knight pulled out a folded note. "He left this. Said to hand it over."
"Why?" Sera unfolded it.
The Thousand Name sends his greetings, elite.
He knew we'd come,* Sera thought, the words sitting heavy in her chest. *Who exactly is this?
"What's so special about the boy," she murmured.
Hours Earlier — Inside the Cell
Dot lay still, then suddenly not still at all — limbs jerking as the dream pulled him under.
He stood back in Hidenheim.
Children ran past him through a wide, sunlit field, laughing, chasing each other through tall grass.
"Hey—" Dot called out to one of them.
"They can't hear you." A man sat on a bench nearby, back turned, voice calm and unbothered.
"Who are you. Redman?"
"No. Something different entirely." A pause. "Long time no see, Dot." He gestured at the empty space beside him. "Come, sit."
Dot sat.
Mage nuns in dark habits ran chasing children through the grass. Overhead, strange winged creatures circled in slow loops.
"That's a Deobar," the man said. "This time of season, they leave their nests to mate. Hard to catch. Unless you're trying to die."
"Who are you. Where am I?" Dot asked, studying him.
"You feel it already. Same air. You just don't want to believe what you're looking at." The man turned slightly. "You're in Hidenheim."
"How is this possible. This has to be a dream." Dot stood, scanning the field — everything subtly wrong, every detail just slightly different from the Hidenheim he remembered.
"This isn't the Hidenheim you knew," the man said. "This is Hidenheim before the Great War."
"What do you want with me?"
"One question at a time, kid. You haven't even gotten an answer to your first." A faint, knowing smile. "Still a dummy, I see."
"Ah — sorry." Dot scratched the back of his head. "Do you know me?"
"They call me the Man with a Thousand Faces."
"Never heard of you," .
"You know me by one name." The man's smile turned strange. "Ser Rick."
"What—"
The ground opened beneath him.
Dot woke with a gasp, sitting upright fast. Reek sat beside him, chewing absently on something he'd found on the floor.
"Uhh—" Dot caught his breath.
"Hey." A voice from the cell door.
Dot's head snapped up. "How — that's not possible. How do you know that name. Answer me."
"It's me, Dot."
The man — somehow standing there, fully real — vanished and reappeared instantly at Dot's back.
"How—"
Dot spun.
The man was gone.
In his place sat a cat, watching him with bright, entirely too-aware eyes.
"Hey, Dot," the cat said.
"You — have to be kidding."
✦
— To Be Continued —