The sixth morning at the Asoluka mansion began like the others, with the sound of Kael's alarm clock blinking in the dark, the soft rustle of his uniform, and the weight of silence that greeted him in the mirror.
He adjusted the collar, combed his hair, and checked his shoes for dust, He had learned not to walk too loudly in the halls, not to stare too long at the marble busts or portraits on the walls, and to nod respectfully at anyone who nodded first.
At exactly 7:58 a.m., he pulled the black sedan up to the front steps, Sai emerged, quiet as always, dressed in a navy blouse and black pants, her fingers wrapped around a canvas portfolio, she rarely spoke before noon, and Kael didn't mind, her silence had layers, but not edges, It left room for thought.
As he drove her toward CityPoint, she tapped gently on the window frame and said, "You learn fast."
Kael glanced at her in the rearview mirror.
"The way you take the corners now, you are more confident," she said.
"Or maybe the car and I have an understanding," he replied with a faint smile.
She smirked, then went quiet again.
When they arrived, she stepped out without another word, but something stayed behind, her scent, maybe, or just the quiet hum of curiosity that lingered after her presence.
That evening, Kael returned the car to the garage and reached for his jacket on the passenger seat, that's when he saw it.
A pendant?
Small, blackened silver, shaped like a teardrop. It had a symbol carved into it, a spiral tucked inside a crown, so delicately etched it looked like it had been pressed in wax, wasn't there in the morning, he picked it up.
It pulsed, not in light, but in weight, like it was heavier than it looked, cold too, like it had been pulled from deep water.
He turned it over, no clasp.... No chain.
Just the symbol.
As he walked back toward the servants' quarters, he passed the eastern wing of the mansion, that side was darker, shuttered with thick curtains even during the day. He hadn't been given any instructions about it, but every staff member seemed to ignore it deliberately, like it didn't exist.
Tonight, something was different.
The door at the far end , old, wooden, cracked with age, was slightly left ajar.
Kael stopped.
A breeze passed by, warm and strange, carrying a scent he couldn't place, It wasn't flowers or polish, It was older, the way books smelled when you opened them after years. Earthy..Quiet...Powerful.
And then he heard it.
A whisper.
Not from the wind, not from the staff.
It came from behind the door.
"Kael..."
He froze.
The pendant in his pocket glowed and grew colder, he felt it, he turned to leave, but then the gardener's voice rang out from behind a bush nearby.
"You heard it too, didn't you?"
Kael spun. It was the old gardener Uzo, his skin dark and wrinkled like tree bark, eyes sharp like he hadn't missed a thing in fifty years.
"Heard what?" Kael asked carefully.
Uzo stood up straight, slow but steady, "Not all doors are closed, boy. Some are waiting."
Kael stared. "Waiting for what?"
"For the right one to open them."
Uzo nodded toward the pendant. "That didn't come from the back seat."
Kael didn't respond. His fingers clenched around the pendant in his pocket.
"Your blood remembers," Uzo said. "Even if you don't."
Kael didn't sleep much that night, the whisper echoed in his head, not harsh, not cruel, just… waiting.
And when he finally closed his eyes, he dreamt, he stood at the foot of a staircase carved from ash-colored stone, the sky above him swirled with silver clouds, all around him were doors tall, ancient doors made of obsidian and gold. One by one, they opened. Each revealed a face from his past, Ava, Tobe, Sai, his father, Junior, even Madam Elsie. Each face looked at him, then turned away, until the last door opened.
And there, cloaked in shadows, stood a woman he had never seen, yet somehow knew, she had Kael's eyes. She spoke no words, but reached out and touched his chest, when he looked down, the pendant was glowing.
He woke with a gasp, sweat clung to his skin.
The pendant lay cold again, quiet, but something had shifted, that morning, Sai noticed it too.
"You look like you didn't sleep," she said in the car.
"I didn't," he replied.
"Nightmares?"
He didn't answer right away.
"Not nightmares. Just… something old trying to speak."
She raised an eyebrow, but didn't press.
That afternoon, while polishing the hood of the sedan, Kael saw Uzo again. The old man looked at him with something like approval.
"You're not just here to drive," Uzo said.
Kael tilted his head. "No?"
"You're here to remember. And to return."
"Return to what?"
Uzo smiled, almost sadly. "To the crown that was never made of gold."
Kael didn't know what that meant, but he felt it in his bones, something was waking.
Something tied to his mother's silence.
Something tied to the name his father erased.
Something older than the estate, older than the Asolukas, older than the city itself.
And it had waited long enough.