“You look tense,” Viktor said.

  “Well, yes,” Rhea replied with a sheepish smile. “I’ve never been to this side of the town before.”

  What? Daelin was tiny. One just needed to take ten steps in any direction, and they were already on the outskirts.

  Looking around, the girl added, “I didn’t know we had farmnd here.”

  “Of course we do,” Viktor replied, furrowing his brow. “Where do you think the grain you eat comes from?”

  “Uh, the caravan? I thought trade was what kept the town running.”

  “Yes, the caravan is the lifeblood of this town. We import and we export. But if we can produce something ourselves, it’s much cheaper than buying it from somewhere far away and hauling it all the way here, right? Besides, the nd is fertile. It would be a waste to just let it sit unused.”

  In fact, in the Olden Days, all of Daelin and its surrounding nds were farmnd, cultivated to support the nearby city of Voskryn, and this continued even after the city got chosen to be the capital of his empire. He built the Imperial Roads, great stone highways that formed concentric rings around the city and extended outward to connect distant provinces from west to east and north to south. As a result, settlements sprang up along these roads and began to flourish. The farms grew even further, transforming the surrounding hills into patchworks of gold and green.

  But then, the Empire fell. Voskryn crumbled, and so did everything around it. The settlements were plundered and ravaged, the nd abandoned to nature, and the forest crept in, swallowing the ruins. Centuries ter, new settlers came and found the outpost of Daelin, positioned to take advantage of the old Imperial Roads that still cut through the wilds like veins of stone. Over time, the outpost grew into a town, and trees gave way to fields once more.

  Now, they walked the very same Imperial Roads that Viktor himself had once carved through the earth. Finding his old castle couldn’t be simpler. All they had to do was follow the paved road, and eventually, they would stand before its gates.

  A breeze swept through, ruffling Rhea’s hair, sending a few strands of brown flying across her face. She brushed them away, then pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders. It was a cheap thing, made of undyed coarse wool, yet for all its pinness, the cloak looked pristine.

  “You’ve just bought that?” Viktor asked.

  “Alycia bought it for me,” Rhea replied. “I told her that she didn’t have to, but she insisted. So I just picked the cheapest one in the shop.”

  Viktor chuckled. “You let her live in your house, cook her meals, wash her clothes. Buying you a cloak is the least she could do.”

  “Well, yes. But she’s been paying for the groceries, and that covered a lot of my expenses.” Rhea’s gaze dropped to his wrist. “Looks like you’ve got something new as well.”

  “This?” Viktor asked, lifting his right hand to show her the bronze bracelet. “Cire bought it. Birthday gift.”

  Why a bracelet, though? He had no idea. What the hell had gone through that woman’s head when she chose this? Oh well, whatever.

  “Your birthday?” Rhea blinked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “What for?”

  “I could’ve prepared a gift for you.”

  “That’s not really necessary,” Viktor said, waving a dismissive hand.

  Why did people insist on giving random items he didn’t ask for? If they really wanted to be nice, they could just give him money. At least then he could buy something actually useful.

  They continued down the road. The nd on either side stretched wide and bare, as most of the fields had already been reaped, leaving behind short stubble poking up through the soil. Lines of bundled wheat stood by the roadside, waiting to be hauled to granaries before the frost arrived. Off in the distance, the silhouettes of farmers could be seen moving slowly across the st uncut patch of standing grain.

  “This is a nice pce to live,” Rhea said. “I wish I had a house here, with a small field to work. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about anything anymore.”

  Viktor ughed. “Owning nd isn’t as simple as you think. Every patch of dirt around here already belongs to someone else. You want a piece of it, you pay. Well, you could always ask Alycia to buy for you. She can afford it.”

  “I won’t,” Rhea said with a frown.

  “It’s not just the farms,” Viktor continued. “See all those woods in the distance? They’re owned too. By the rich men in the town. I’ve heard half of it belongs to Rennald and his family. They’re going to cut down the trees and turn it into future farmnd.”

  Not all parts of Daelin’s outskirts were equal. On this side of town, nd was valuable, and it quickly became privately owned, so anyone who wanted to settle here would need to rent or buy from one of those ndowners. On the other hand, nd in the neighborhood where Rhea lived was practically free, but only the poorest or most desperate would consider living there.

  As they passed through the farms, the wheat fields gradually gave way to the winding curve of the Voskryn, the river from which the once-great city got its name. A bridge came into their view. It was also built during Viktor’s reign as part of the Imperial Roads. The arch of the bridge spanned wide, its stonework slightly cracked in pces, but it still stood strong against the current below.

  Rhea stopped before the bridge. “Is it safe to cross?”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “People say the river’s crawling with monsters under the surface.”

  “Not in these parts,” Viktor said, stepping forward. “I told you, didn’t I? I’ve been to the castle several times.”

  Rhea hesitated, but followed. As she crossed, she kept casting anxious gnces down at the water below, as if she was expecting something to leap up and drag her under at any moment.

  If she’s that worried, she should’ve walked in the middle instead of hugging the edge, Viktor thought.

  The stories Rhea just mentioned—about monsters in the water—he also had heard. And unlike the superstitions about his old castle, these tales were not so easy to shrug off. After the fall of his empire, the Central Pins had been cimed by wilderness. The nd went to the trees, and the rivers to the beasts. He wondered which had come first. Did the monsters rise because the people had abandoned the nd, or did the people flee because the monsters had risen? Either way, the rivers belonged to them now. Boats never made it through. In worst pces, they came to shore, and people vanished.

  In the Olden Days, the vast network of rivers that ran through the Central Pins—the One Thousand Streams—served as vital trade routes, connecting cities across the region, with Voskryn among the greatest of them. The flow of goods never stopped, and the cities prospered. Now, though, river trade was impossible. The waters were no longer passable, due to the unknown horrors lurking beneath. All trade had to move by nd, along the Imperial Roads that Viktor had once created.

  After crossing the bridge, they stepped into what had once been the urban area of the city that no longer existed. Trees had overtaken the ruins, great trunks rising where houses once stood, their roots creeping across the uneven ground. Rhea paused, pointing at a line of stones that ran perpendicur to the road, trailing off into the distance in both directions.

  “What’s this?”

  “The city wall,” Viktor replied. “What’s left of it.”

  “Everything here was destroyed after the Empire fell?”

  “Most of it. The rest was probably torn down for building materials when Daelin was founded.”

  He had heard that when the first settlers arrived, there had been a heated debate among them about where to pce the outpost, with some arguing for building directly on top of the ruins of the old city. But due to the fear of his castle, in the end, they chose to establish the outpost on the other side of the river, at a junction where the ring road met one of the outward-bound roads.

  Ironically, it turned out that the ruins were actually the safest part of the surrounding nd, as for some reason, no monsters ever dared to approach the castle. Perhaps, men and beasts alike were terrified of the Dark Emperor.

  Still, superstition ran deep. Even though the ruins were safe, the people continued to avoid them, unwilling to get too close. Nevertheless, when the town grew, it ended up expanding toward the river, and Rhea’s neighborhood, the part of town furthest from the castle, became the most dangerous, more prone to monster attacks than anywhere else in Daelin.

  Well, except that one time.

  Following the road, they made their way through what had once been the heart of a mighty city. The trees rose high on both sides of their path, towering over the ruins, and Rhea couldn’t help but stare at them in awe. To him, they were nothing special, but someone like her, who hadn’t even fully explored her hometown in all her fifteen years there, must have found them nothing short of extraordinary.

  “You look like you need a break,” Viktor said.

  The girl’s breath had grown heavier after all the walking, and her steps slower. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead, and she had loosened the cloak she wore.

  “Sorry,” she said with a faint smile. “I’ve never had to keep going this long before.”

  Viktor reached into his satchel and pulled out a waterskin. He twisted the cap off before handing it to Rhea.

  “Thanks,” she murmured, then drank. After a few sips, she returned it to him, wiping her mouth with her sleeve.

  He lifted the waterskin to his lips and took several swallows as well. Then he sealed it, pcing it back in the satchel.

  “You brought a lot of water for this trip. Is the castle still that far?”

  “No, we’ll reach it soon,” Viktor said, shaking his head. “I just like to be prepared. Better to be safe than to be sorry.”

  Rhea smiled. “You’re so reliable. I’m gd to be with you.”

  Viktor kept his gaze fixed ahead, chuckling darkly. It was a simple thing to say. Innocent, even. But coming from the sister of someone he had murdered, oh the irony. Well, she didn’t know. He wondered how she would react if she ever did. Would she scream at him? Attack him? Gre at him with pure hatred? It mattered not. She probably wouldn’t have much time to do anything at all. The moment she learned the truth would be the moment she got to reunite with her sister.

  Yes, that was what he was going to do if it ever came to that, for he was the man they called the Dark Emperor, and total annihition of anyone or anything that could pose a threat was his standard approach. He was not the weakling named Quinn. This body was nothing but the vessel that housed his soul. Khenemhotep was wrong. The soul dictated and the body obeyed, not the other way around.

  “Is something wrong, Quinn?” Rhea asked. “You look like you’re lost in thought.”

  “Nothing,” he replied. “Let’s go. The castle’s ahead.”

  They pressed on, walking through the ruins. The wind whispered around them, and leaves drifted down with every stir, scattering across the stone beneath their feet.