FAZER LOGINThe Cathedral of St. Jude was bathed in a light so pure it felt like a judgment. Today was the day of the Royal Investiture, the moment Leo Draven would officially become the Protector of the Realm. Thousands gathered outside, their cheers muffled by the thick, ancient stone walls, while the high
The weeks following the "Great Glitch"—as the official palace records called it—were the most delicate in the history of the realm. While the public celebrated a swift recovery of the kingdom’s infrastructure, the Draven estate became a high-security sanctuary for a population that didn't officially
The North Wing of the palace was a place of soft carpets and muted sunlight, designed to be a sanctuary for the future of the realm. But as the Dravens sprinted through the gilded corridors, it felt like a labyrinth of ice. The silence here was worse than the screaming of the machines in the High Co
The High Court chamber, usually a sanctuary of measured speech and ancient law, became a slaughterhouse of chrome and code. The grey smoke was so thick that the only things visible were the glowing blue optics of the Twelve Judges. "Lucien, get down!" Kaiser’s voice boomed over the hiss of the gren
The surface of the harbor was a churning cauldron of black grease and freezing foam. Kaiser, Izora, and Caspian collapsed onto the swaying deck of the salvage barge, the massive crane still groaning under the tension of the warehouse roof it had just ripped away. "Leo!" Izora scrambled to the edge
Benedict paused by the tall window, the rain casting streaks across his reflection. He stared at himself, at the monster he had willingly become, and smiled. Monsters did not regret. Monsters survived. Let her mother protect her now, he thought, a sneer tugging at his lips. Let her husband shield
Kaiser had a private palace hidden deep within the European Capitan estate, a secluded stronghold wrapped in ivy-covered walls, black stone, and veiled iron gates. It wasn’t listed on any map, wasn’t known to the press, and was protected by a perimeter of armed loyalists trained in silence and fire.
Morning crept into the royal suite on hushed feet. Pale golden light slipped through the silk curtains, kissing the edges of the sheets tangled at the foot of the massive bed. Rain had stopped sometime before dawn, but the soft dripping of water from the eaves was still audible beyond the tall windo
The air outside the Royal Palace was velvet-dark, thick with the scent of magnolia and something colder, like rain that hadn’t fallen yet. Kaiser stepped into the backseat of his obsidian Maserati, the engine humming like a secret, low and lethal beneath the silence of dawn. He didn’t wake Izora whe
The servant’s voice still echoed in the marble walls of the royal dining room. “Lady Odeliah Eryx… she has awakened from her coma.” A pause. A breathless kind of stillness. Izora’s silver fork clattered against her porcelain plate, the sound sharp, splitting through the heavy silence. Her hands t







