The silence after Nyreth's departure lingered like ash—thick, suffocating, timeless.
Reality had not fully recovered from his presence. The walls still shimmered faintly, as if his shadow had scorched into existence itself. Hairline fractures hummed with unseen tension, whispering of things far beyond the veil.
Jin stood alone beneath a ceiling of stars that no longer felt familiar.
In his hands rested the book.
Black as the void between dying suns, its surface shimmered with oily hues that shifted when one dared to look too long. No title. No author. Only a sigil—a sun torn in half—barely visible, like it was trying to forget itself.
He hadn't opened it.
Until now.
The chill wind brushed past his silver-white hair as he stood on the balcony, eyes scanning a landscape still healing from Olympus's fall. The Convergence had ended. The gods had died. The Gate was sealed.
But his war had only just begun.
"Aurevian's heir…"
Nyreth's final words echoed in the pit of his mind.
"Someone close to you."
His gaze tightened.
"Who?"
"Who among them could carry the blood of a Monarch?"
"Is it one who still walks? Or one I already buried?"
Too many names. Too many graves.
He turned away from the wind. Inside, the silence of the room was broken by a pulse—faint at first, then undeniable.
The book.
Still sealed within the satchel bound by divine chains… and yet it pulsed with a heartbeat of its own.
A whisper. No, a summons.
Jin unwrapped the seals cautiously, but they fell apart on their own—willingly.
As if the tome had decided he was finally ready.
He opened it.
The pages turned rapidly on their own—blurring ink and glyphs—until they froze. One page, one title. Words bled onto the parchment in shadow-ink that shimmered like memory:
---
The Heir Without a Throne
A girl, born of flesh, as any, no prophecy to guide,
Not crowned, but carved in silence, where shadows reside.
Her name, a secret, whispered soft on the breeze,
A name like a lily, in purity's embrace with ease.
A flower entwined with the abyss's deep song,
Yet her purity lingers, untouched and strong.
---
Jin read it once. Then again. The meaning sank deeper with each pass.
He whispered to himself, "A lily… purity and silence… No prophecy… no throne..."
His breath stilled.
Could it be…?
He clenched the book tightly, eyes blazing gold.
"I don't know who you are yet… but I will find you."
"Before the Monarchs awaken… before the balance is lost again."
Outside, the stars trembled.
Far away, in some hidden corner of the world, a girl walked unaware of the destiny surging beneath her skin.
And time… was running out.