Elara didn't return to her chambers immediately.
Instead, she wandered the garden's outer edge, notebook pressed tightly against her chest as if it could steady the riot of thoughts inside her. Sira's voice still echoed in her head:
"Bringing down the people who've rewritten history and buried the truth beneath power."
She hadn't realized how heavy it was, carrying the ghosts of her past life, the betrayal, the shimmer, the lies. Now, with the notebook in hand, it felt like the weight had shape. Edges. Pages.
By the time she crept back into the estate, the corridors were mostly dark, lit only by wall sconces and the occasional flicker of magic-sealed lanterns. She kept her head down, listening for footsteps, voices, anything. But the house was still.
Deceptively so.
In her room, she bolted the door, dragged a chair under the handle, and lit only a single candle. Shadows crawled across the walls, but she welcomed them. They felt honest, at least.
She set the notebook down gently and opened to the first real page.
"Entry One: The Breach
We should not have followed her into the ruins. That was the first mistake. The shimmer pulsed too strongly there, untamed, ancient. When Serah vanished, she left behind no body, no echo. Only silence. We think the Breach opened again that night. A tear in time. A door not meant to be opened twice."
Elara's breath caught. Her mother had vanished inside a Breach? What even was that? A shimmer portal? A void?
She read on.
"Entry Two: Bloodlines
Of the known Shimmerers, only six remain. Three are loyal to the Order. One has vanished. One is dead. One is dormant.
We had hoped Elara would never shimmer. That the sleeping Gift would protect her. But if she remembers… something has changed."
There was a small inked note beneath that line, scribbled hastily.
"Kaelin suspects. She watches too closely now."
Elara's heart clenched. Even in this life, Kaelin was playing her part.
She flipped through more pages, fingers trembling.
Maps, Names, Secret meeting points, Code phrases, Symbols, Sketches of ruins and diagrams of shimmer formations. And in the margins, always, that sigil: the three interlocked circles. Fire. Eye. Veil.
Then, near the middle of the book, a page with a header in bold script.
"The Names of the Unseen."
It was a list.
Each name followed by a symbol and a status.
Serah Aerlyn – Flame – Vanished
Nira Aerlyn – Veil – Exiled
Soren Vell – Eye – Deceased
Elara Aerlyn – Veil/Flame – Dormant → Active
Cael Danthra – Eye – Unknown
Kaelin Vire – Veil – Monitored
Thane Aerlyn – Flame – Presumed Disloyal
Thane.
Elara's uncle.
She stared at his name. She had barely seen him since she returned. He'd always kept his distance, always too "busy" with council matters.
She whispered aloud, "Presumed disloyal to whom?"
The house or the Order?
The flame beside his name matched her mother's. And hers, partially.
She flipped quickly to the back, searching for any mention of Thane. When she found it, it was buried deep in a fragmented account.
"Thane once argued with Serah over the use of shimmer near the children. Said the risk of rupture was too high. But he helped her vanish the first time. Then withdrew. We don't know if he still watches… or if he waits."
Elara pressed her palm to the page.
If Thane helped her mother vanish once… maybe he knew what really happened. Maybe he wasn't just a council puppet.
A knock jolted her upright.
Not again.
The knock was firmer this time.
"Elara?"
Aven.
Her heart settled slightly, though tension still curled around her spine.
She tucked the notebook under her mattress and crossed to the door.
"Yes?" she said softly, not opening it yet.
"I know you said you wanted space earlier," Aven said from the other side, "but… something happened. I think you should see this."
She hesitated. "What is it?"
"Come down to the west courtyard. The guards found something. Something strange."
Strange. Of course.
She unlocked the door and stepped out. Aven stood there, arms crossed, a thin line etched between his brows. He looked troubled. Not performative, not polite. Troubled.
"Lead the way," she said.
They made their way through the side halls, avoiding the main staircases. Aven didn't speak much. Just walked briskly, glancing around corners like he expected to be followed.
"What did they find?" she finally asked as they neared the door.
He hesitated. "You won't believe me unless you see it."
That didn't help her nerves.
They emerged into the cool air of night, the western courtyard wide and silver under the moonlight. A few guards stood to one side, clearly disturbed. They parted when Aven approached.
In the center of the courtyard was a message.
Scorched into the stone tiles.
"To bury the truth is to bleed by it."
The words were burned cleanly, not with fire, but shimmer. Controlled. Deliberate. And beneath them, in the lower right corner, was the symbol Elara now knew by heart.
The Veilkeeper sigil.
"Someone broke into the courtyard unseen," Aven said. "The patrol didn't catch anything. No shimmer trace. Nothing."
Elara crouched, brushing her fingers lightly over the scorch marks. The edges still pulsed faintly.
Whoever had done this had power. Skill.
And a message.
"They weren't trying to hide," she whispered. "They wanted to be seen."
One of the guards stepped forward. "Forgive me, my lady, but this… this doesn't feel like a threat."
"No," Elara agreed. "It's a warning."
Aven knelt beside her. "Elara… you know what this means, don't you? This is about the Order. The ones grandmother warned us about."
Elara looked at him carefully.
"And what if everything we were warned about was a lie?"
Aven's gaze sharpened. "What do you mean?"
She hesitated. Then made a decision.
"I need to show you something. But not here."
He looked at her, uncertainty flickering in his expression, then nodded.
Back in her chambers, with the door locked once again, Elara retrieved the notebook.
She handed it to him, open to the names.
Aven read in silence. And when he looked up, his face was pale.
"This… this changes everything."
"Yes," she said. "It does."
"And grandmother?"
"I don't think she's told us the truth. About any of it."
Aven sank into the chair near her desk, flipping through the pages slowly.
"Is this why you've been distant lately?"
She nodded.
"I didn't know who I could trust."
"And now?" he asked.
Elara looked at him for a long moment. "Now, I trust you."
Aven's mouth twitched. "Then we'll need a plan."
She smiled faintly. "Yes. But first… I need to find Thane."
"Why?"
"Because if he helped mother disappear, he might help me do the same."
Aven exhaled. "Then let's hope he's still disloyal."
Outside, the scorched words in the courtyard still glowed faintly under the moon.
Inside, Elara knew:
The house was no longer just a cage.
It was a battlefield.
And the first blow had just been struck.