The loud bang at the door came just after sunset.
Kael had barely touched the noodles he bought from the roadside stand, the steam curling up toward the ceiling of the run down room he was renting on the edge of Westbridge. He stared at the door without moving, body tensed but he held his breath.
Another loud knock followd suit, although slower this time... He stood up and stepped toward it, slowly and cautiously, his eyes scanning the floor for anything off. There were no footsteps in the hallway, no voices.
Just silence.
Then something was slid under the door. A folded envelope, thick, Old-looking.
He crouched slowly, picked it up, and noticed the faint stain on the corner, dark red, almost brown.
Blood?
He opened it with a surge of anger surging in him.
Inside was a single sheet of paper. Cream-colored, Heavy, no signature, no stamp, no apology.
Just five words.
"Give it up, or burn."
His hand clenched the paper... he was fuming with anger.
He dropped the paper on the floor and stepped back, it lay there like it had a life of its own, his eyes darted toward the window, no shadows, no figures.
His fingers moved unconsciously to the paper again, wondering who might have sent it, he reached for the pendant, but he recalled he had forgotten it at Sai's mansion when he ran away,
He hadn't worn it until now.
Tonight, it felt like it was calling out to him..
The words on the letter tugged at something old in him. Not a thought or a feeling.
And then, just like that, it came flashing back to him, he remembered the fire...
He was seven.
His mother had sent him to the cellar during a storm. Said to wait there with his toy soldiers. Said she would come get him in a while.
But she didn't make it on time and the smoke got to him sooner than his mother did.
He remembered the way it clawed into the cracks of the door. The way he screamed her name and kicked the wooden trapdoor with both legs until he was hoarse. He remembered thinking he would die. Alone.
Then the door opened.
A man's hand not his father's reached out to him and pulled him out.. The hallway behind the stranger was blazing, orange and roaring. His eyes couldn't see the man's face, only a seal on the stranger's wrist, a crown made of thorns, three eyes staring blankly forward, just like the one he had seen on the pendant.
And that night… the pendant had been slipped into his pocket while he slept. He never knew how. But it was there.
Even then.
Kael sat on the bed, he recalled the fire... he had spent years forgetting, now it was all coming back too fast, too loud and fierce..
He picked up the letter again, Flipped it over again.
This time he noticed something. The back corner of the page had faint ridges like someone had written over another sheet on top of it. A pressure mark.
He held it to the lamp, tilting it back and forth.
"The vault remembers. The key still breathes."
He stared at it.
The vault? Key?
His mind raced, Was this some sort of puzzle? A warning? A code?
He thought about Sai's grandfather's journal, the whisper about "walls remembering what blood forgets." The seal, the broken mirror, all of it pointed to something deeper older.
And someone else clearly wanted it silenced.
There was a knock on the door again this time, more gentle, Kael jumped to his knees.
He reached for the old metal rod he had found under the bedframe earlier that day, he was tired of hiding, that was his only defense... but he was prepared to bring down whoever it is and however..
Another knock.
But this time, a voice followed.
"Kael."
Soft. Familiar, he paused, the rod lowered slightly, the voice again: "It's me."
He swung the door open and there she was.. Sai. Windblown, hoodie up, her eyes tired but burning.
"Sai?" he heaved a sigh of relief, stepping aside to let in to the room, she walked in quickly, closed the door behind her, and leaned against it, "Someone is following me," she said. "I think… they know I found the hidden room." Kael's jaw tightened. "I just got a letter." "Let me guess," she said, pulling out her copy. "No signature. No seal. Just threats?" he held up his page, she held up hers.
Same handwriting. Same message.
"Give it up, or burn."
They sat on the floor, knees bent, backs against the wall... Sai brought out the pendant the looped around her neck and placed it in Kael's hands, this rightfully belongs to you, you left it behind.. Kael took the pendant from her and said... thank you and dipped it into his pocket, Kael passed her the blood-stained letter, She passed him the one she found stuffed in her backpack.
"So we're both targets," she said, half-smiling like it was a twisted joke.. so, what are we now? Hunted?
"Or we're both keys," Kael replied, voice low.
They were quiet for a long time... but then they burst into laughter, what a twist!! Kael mumbled, Then Kael asked, "Do you ever regret it?"
Sai turned to him. "What?" "Getting close to me."
She didn't answer immediately, her eyes searched his "No. I regret not seeing the truth sooner." he turned his face away, staring at the envelope again.
"I remembered something today," he said. "From when I was a kid, I was trapped in a fire, someone pulled me out. I think… they belonged to whatever this pendant means." Sai leaned her head gently against his shoulder. "Then maybe it's time we stopped hiding and go find the vault." He chuckled under his breath. "You say that like it's a bus stop." Sai smiled, tired and dry. "Well, I brought my grandfather's map." He turned to her. "Map?"
She pulled it out from her hoodie, a folded sheet tucked between the journal pages. He stared at it, at the bottom was a scrawled phrase: "Westbridge holds the breath of kings." Kael looked up... wait what? Westbridge? He exclaimed.
"I think we need to go back to the place I tried hardest to forget." maybe it is time I stopped running and face all that there is, if I don't, I might be running for the rest of my life Kael muttered.