The rain had started without warning that afternoon, a quiet drizzle at first, then a full downpour that pressed against the windows of the safe house. The sound of it filled the silence between Kael and Sai as they sat beside the hearth, letting the soft crackle of fire stitch its warmth into their bones.
Sai had barely spoken since morning.. She sat curled into herself, Kael's hoodie draped over her shoulders, her gaze locked on the flames. Her hands were busy with a box she'd brought from the mansion, an old metal chest, rusted at the edges, with her mother's initials engraved faintly into the top: R.A.
Kael watched her carefully, sensing the weight behind her quietness. Sai didn't talk much about her mother, not deeply, and never with softness either, But there was something different in the way she held the box today. Almost reverent..
"She left this in the closet behind her wedding gowns," Sai said finally, her voice low, almost lost in the fire's hum. "I think… she meant for me to find it. But not yet." Kael leaned in slightly. "You sure you want to open it now?"
Sai didn't answer. Her fingers found the latch and clicked it open
The lid gave way with a soft sound. Inside, among old perfume bottles and faded lace, was a thick envelope sealed with wax. Crimson wax. The seal… was the three-eyed crown.
Kael leaned closer. "Your mother was part of it?"
Sai pulled the envelope out, her fingers trembling slightly. "She knew things. I always suspected. But I didn't think she'd write it down."
She broke the seal.
The letter was long, handwritten in neat, looping strokes that looked oddly fragile for a woman so precise and cold. Sai began to read aloud..
"To my daughter, Sai.
If you are reading this, then I have failed you in more ways than I can explain. But I hope, even in the betrayal you must now feel, that this letter gives you clarity, if not comfort.
Your father and I did not come together by accident. We were chosen. Arranged, not just for political gain, but to protect a lineage older than this city itself. One marked by power, and danger, and the risk of ruin if left unguarded.
I was tasked to watch. To report. To hold the secrets of bloodlines not my own, especially the boy born of fire and forgetting. Kael.
He was never supposed to come into your heart. But I see now that love, true love, cannot be arranged. And perhaps… that is what saves him now."**
Sai paused. Her hands had begun to shake, and she folded the letter onto her lap, staring blankly ahead.
Kael said nothing. He couldn't. His mind was a whirlpool of realization and ache. To hear her mother speak of him, like a file, like an assignment, stung more than he expected.
Sai took deep a breath and kept reading.
---
There are things I regret. I did not want you to grow up in a house of deception, but I told myself silence was protection. Perhaps that was cowardice.
The pendant is real. The legacy tied to it even more so. Kael is not just a boy caught in the cracks — he is the crack. The reason things split in the first place. He holds memory in his veins, memory that people like Madam Elsie have spent decades trying to erase.
If he unlocks the full truth, the city will not remain as it is. It may rise. Or burn.
You must decide, Sai.
Will you be like me? A keeper of secrets and safety?
Or will you walk with him — into light or into ruin?
Sai let the letter fall into her lap and wiped her cheek. She hadn't realized she'd started crying,
Kael looked at her, his chest rising and falling slower than usual. "You don't have to answer that right now."
She turned to him, her expression unreadable. "It's not about the answer. It's about the knowing. All this time, I blamed her for being cold. And maybe she was. But I think... she thought she was saving me from becoming her."
Kael reached across the space between them and touched her hand. Gently. Firmly. "You're not her."
"I know," Sai whispered. "But I'm also not who I used to be."
They sat like that for a while, the rain continuing its rhythm against the windows, as if echoing the truth that had just broken open between them.
---
That night, while Sai slept curled beneath Kael's jacket, Kael sat awake beside the fireplace. The letter sat on the table, weighed down by the pendant.
He read it again, each line threading itself into the doubts that had always lived inside him.
He is the crack, he holds memory in his veins… he hadn't asked for this. He hadn't wanted to become a symbol or a secret. He just wanted peace. To live without being someone else's prophecy.
But he realized now that peace wouldn't come from hiding. Not for him. Maybe not for Sai either.
They had been abandoned — by family, by legacy, by choice.
But maybe that was what made them dangerous.
They had nothing left to lose.
And maybe, just maybe... that was what made them powerful..