The bus ride back to Westbridge felt like a crawl through memory. The landscape hadn't changed much, but Kael had. Every tree, every sidewalk, even the faded billboards seemed like ghosts whispering old truths. He sat by the window in silence, the pendant resting cold against his chest, a weight not just of metal, but of memory, Beside him, Sai sat wrapped in Kael's old hoodie, arms crossed, eyes scanning the road ahead. She hadn't spoken much since they left the rundown lodge. Kael glanced at her now and then, wondering if she regretted coming. Wondering if she could feel the same sense of return and reckoning tightening in his throat.
"We could've gone anywhere," she said finally, her voice soft but edged. "But we came here. Why?" Kael took a breath. "Because this is where it started falling apart, this is the place where it all began and maybe where it has to come back together."
Sai nodded, but the unease in her eyes remained. "Do you remember enough to know what we're even looking for?"
He hesitated. "No. But I remember the fire. I remember someone pulling me out. And I remember this town hiding too many secrets for how small it is."
The bus lurched to a stop, the brakes hissing like a warning. The sign read: Westbridge - Population 8,414. But to Kael, it might as well have said: Cemetery of My Past.
---
The town square looked exactly as he remembered it: the rusted clock tower, the bakery with the blue awning, the statue of a general no one really cared about anymore. But Kael's eyes were drawn to the alley behind the market, where he had once hidden during a thunderstorm because his father forgot to pick him up.
He felt Sai's hand brush his. "Where first?" she asked.
He pointed. "The old public records office. If there's anything left of what my mother tried to protect, it will be there."
---
The records office was quiet and dusty, tucked beside the library like an afterthought. An older woman with thick glasses looked up from behind the counter.
" how can I help you two?"
"I'm looking for building plans. From over fifteen years ago," Kael said.
The woman glared at him. "That long back? Most of those are archived. Not digitalised, You will have to go downstairs."
Sai followed as they descended the narrow staircase into the basement. Fluorescent lights buzzed above, casting long shadows on metal shelves stacked with boxes.
Kael paused before a row labeled 'Westbridge Development Permits: 1997-2010'. He pulled out a box and began flipping through the papers.
"What are we looking for exactly?" Sai asked.
"Anything with my father's name. Or Elsie. Or the Asoluka name. Anything that connects them to a vault or an estate."
Time ticked away as they pored through blueprints and permits. At last, Sai held up a folded sheet. "Kael. Look. This house plan… it has a sealed basement. It's not listed in the other drafts."
He leaned over her shoulder. "That's our old house."They exchanged a look.
---
Standing before his childhood home was like facing a tomb. The paint was peeling, the lawn overgrown, windows boarded up. It had been sold years ago to a holding company, and no one had lived in it since.
Kael walked up the driveway slowly, every step dragging memories behind it. He remembered the sound of his mother humming in the kitchen. The way the light used to pour through the hallway in the morning. The spot near the stairs where he scraped his knee and she kissed it better, he stopped at the front door..
"It's locked," Sai said.
Kael nodded. "Then we go in the way I used to sneak out."
He led her around the back to a loose panel in the fence, then to a cellar door half-hidden under dead vines. He pulled it open with much effort
---
Inside, the house groaned like it remembered him. Dust swirled in the shafts of fading daylight. The living room was bare, but Kael saw it furnished in his mind: the couch his mother refused to replace, the rug with the wine stain from a dinner party gone wrong.
They made their way carefully down the hallway, Kael guiding them by memory. He stopped in front of a door that had once led to the basement.
"This is it."
He reached for the handle. It was stiff but turned. The stairs creaked beneath their weight.
The basement was cold, darker than the rest of the house. Sai held up her phone flashlight. At the far end, behind some old crates, was a patch of wall that looked too clean. Kael moved toward it, He pressed the pendant against it. A soft click echoed.
A section of the wall slid back, revealing a narrow chamber lined with stone. At the center sat a pedestal.
On it, a book bound in red leather.
Kael stepped forward and opened it.
Inside were drawings. Diagrams. Letters. Maps. The same three-eyed crown again and again.
Sai stood beside him, whispering. "This is... a record. Of everything. Of who you are."
Kael nodded slowly.
"This is why they abandoned me. This is why they tried to erase me."
His hands shook as he turned the pages.
Not just a crown. A conspiracy.
Not just a pendant. A key.
And Kael? Not just a boy abandoned by his family.
But a threat to a throne that never wanted him to return.