Sei woke with his hand already curled.

  Not clenched in pain—just held, as if his fingers had forgotten what “rest” meant.

  He stared at them for a long moment, willing them to loosen. They did, slowly, in small increments that made his stomach tighten. Nothing hurt. Nothing felt wrong in the way injury felt wrong.

  It was worse than that.

  It felt uncertain.

  The dull pressure behind his right eye pulsed faintly as he sat up. Not a headache. Not a migraine. Something steady and patient, like a weight placed there and never removed.

  He swung his legs off the cot and stood. His body moved smoothly, obediently. That almost scared him more. After what he’d seen—after where he’d been—he expected weakness.

  Instead, he felt… functional.

  Too functional.

  A soft knock came at the door.

  Eva stepped in without waiting for an answer.

  She took one look at his face and stopped. “You’re awake.”

  “Yeah,” Sei said. His voice came out rougher than he intended. He cleared his throat. “How long?”

  “Not long.” Eva’s gaze flicked to his hands, then to his eyes. “How do you feel?”

  Humor tried to rise out of habit.

  It didn’t.

  “I’m still sorting it out,” he said.

  Eva nodded once. She didn’t press.

  Then her posture changed.

  “We’ve been summoned,” she said. “The King. Private.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Sei blinked. “The council?”

  “No.”

  She held up the folded note. No seal. No ceremony.

  “This is about Rhen.”

  The palace corridors felt heavier than before.

  As they walked, Sei’s eyes kept drifting to people’s movements, their postures, the way guards favored certain sides of their bodies. He couldn’t turn it off. Training without magic still did that to him.

  By the time they reached the King’s chamber, he already knew.

  King Aldric Toren was still injured.

  Not visibly weak — but compensating. Weight shifted subtly off one leg. Breath controlled a fraction too carefully.

  Sei stopped just inside the doorway.

  “Your Majesty,” he said, then hesitated. “If you’ll allow me… I should look at those wounds.”

  The room went still.

  Aldric studied him for a long moment, then shook his head gently.

  “Not today,” the King said. “You are not in a state to treat others yet.”

  It wasn’t a rebuke.

  It was protection — for both of them.

  Sei nodded, swallowing the instinct to argue.

  Eva glanced at him, something unreadable in her eyes.

  Aldric motioned them closer.

  “This is not a council matter,” he said. “Too many voices make choices easier to avoid.”

  Then, calmly, precisely, he laid out the situation.

  Rhen’s Dominion origin. Severin’s leverage. The danger of detainment. The danger of release.

  Sei listened, the pressure behind his eye pulsing faintly with each word.

  “What do we do with him?” Aldric asked.

  Before Sei could speak, Eva stepped forward.

  “Your Majesty,” she said. “Before you decide, there’s something you need to hear.”

  She took a breath.

  “I was Dominion once.”

  The words hit Sei like a physical blow.

  He turned toward her sharply.

  Eva didn’t look at him.

  She continued, voice steady, recounting her past — leaving young, surviving by theft, believing the world was only what it took from her.

  Sei felt the ground shift beneath his understanding of her.

  She never told me.

  When Eva spoke of the King taking her in, of being seen for what she could become, Sei finally understood why she’d waited.

  This moment demanded it.

  Aldric listened without interruption.

  Then his gaze moved to Sei.

  “And you?” he asked. “What do you believe?”

  Sei’s mouth went dry.

  He said only what he could stand behind.

  “I don’t know what Rhen will choose,” he said. “But deciding for him guarantees the worst outcome.”

  The King considered that.

  Then nodded once.

  “Rhen remains unresolved,” Aldric said. “Under watch. Not condemned.”

  His gaze sharpened.

  “And you will share responsibility for that choice.”

  The weight settled onto Sei’s shoulders.

  Outside the chamber, silence followed them.

  Sei finally spoke. “You never told me.”

  Eva glanced at him. “I know.”

  A pause.

  “I wasn’t ready to,” she added. “And you weren’t ready to hear it.”

  Sei exhaled slowly. “I think I am now.”

  They stopped by a window overlooking the city.

  Below, Toradol rebuilt itself piece by piece.

  Sei flexed his hand.

  It obeyed.

  The pressure behind his eye remained.

  Waiting.

  Some choices did not ask to be explained.

  They only asked to be borne.