BLOOD AND VOWS
Then the thing shifted again—and it was Alessio himself, younger, afraid, cornered, pointing a gun at a boy who would not fight back.
The vault wasn’t memory. It was punishment.
It moved like it knew the deepest parts of you—and hated them.
The walls pulsed.
Then the whisper returned.
“One blood must break for the rest to live.”
Alessio turned to Emilia.
Her face had gone pale, but not from fear.
From recognition.
“What does it mean?” he asked.
“It means what it always meant,” she said. “We were never meant to survive each other. This war... it was designed.”