The salt winds roared over the sea as Kael stood at the prow of his black-and-gold ship, The Vireon, his cloak billowing like a banner of defiance. Behind him, the twenty mysterious soldiers—silent, masked, precise—stood in flawless formation. Beside Kael sat the old man, slouched and sipping from a cracked wine bottle as if this journey were a pleasure cruise instead of a diplomatic gambit toward the edge of the known world.
"Do you always look this dramatic when sailing, or is this a one-time flex?" the old man asked, squinting into the horizon.
Kael smirked. "Only when I know someone is watching."
The soldiers remained unmoving, like statues. Not a breath, not a twitch. The old man glanced back at them.
"I still say they're not normal."
"They're not," Kael replied. "They're... borrowed."
The old man raised a white brow. "From who?"
Kael didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on the fog ahead.
They had been sailing west for days, chasing rumors of a shattered empire with roots older than time, one that had once threatened the world with war and then disappeared without a trace. Kael had heard whispers of it in ancient scrolls, in the rants of dying men, and in the words of that strange oracle who had once said:
"The fire that forged your kingdom was not your own."
Just as the sun dipped below the waves, painting the sky in shades of blood and honey, land appeared—jagged cliffs and strange black trees that reached skyward like claws.
As the ship anchored, Kael turned to his men. "We land at first light. No weapons drawn unless I say so. This is not a conquest."
The soldiers bowed in eerie synchronicity.
The old man leaned against the rail and muttered, "You're too dramatic for your own good, you know that?"
"I get that a lot," Kael replied, jumping off the ship onto the stone dock with unnatural grace.
As he looked up at the towering, silent fortress on the cliffs, a strange feeling crawled through him. Not fear. Not excitement.
Recognition.
"The kingdom that vanished without a grave…"
And somewhere, far across the ocean, a raven flew toward the Forbidden City.
To Be Continued...