Rain had long stopped by the time Kaiser reached the surface.Kaelthorn was quiet, for once. Midnight lanterns burned along the walls like dying stars, their orange glow flickering against wet cobblestone.
Kaiser pulled his cloak tighter. The wound in his side pulsed with heat beneath the layers. He didn't stop to dress it.
He had questions.
And he knew where to ask them.
The Silver tongue District
This part of Kaelthorn was old, older than memory, older than records. Built on forgotten ruins and royal lies. Here, truth was expensive, and death cheap.
Kaiser moved silently through alleyways, past closed taverns and shuttered shops. No one dared speak his name here, but everyone watched.
He finally stopped in front of a narrow stone wall with no windows.
Just a door.
No handle.
No sign.
Just wood scorched black and sealed shut with molten wax.
Kaiser stared at it.
This was the Unmarked Door, a place that didn't exist on maps, known only to those with a death wish... or something worse.
He raised a gloved hand and knocked four times:Slow. Slow. Fast. Slow.
Nothing happened at first.
Then:
Click.
The door creaked open.
A breath of air touched his face. It smelled like burnt metal and dusted ink. Kaiser stepped inside.
Inside the Archive
The space inside was far larger than the building should allow. Endless shelves stretched beyond the light, stacked with scrolls, crystal tomes, and breathing stone tablets. Soft humming filled the air, like the sound of a dying machine praying.
At the center, behind a desk of bone and glass, sat Archivist Veln , a thin, withered man with copper eyes that never blinked.
"Ah. The King of Knives returns," he rasped, not looking up from his writing. "I wondered how long before you came crawling back."
Kaiser said nothing. He pulled out a bloodstained coin and placed it on the desk.
Veln's hand stopped mid-word.
He looked up.
"…That's old blood," the archivist whispered. "Yours?"
"Not all of it," Kaiser said quietly. "I need to know what an Echo is."
Veln blinked for the first time. Slowly.
"You saw one?"
"I fought one. It had my face."
The room fell silent. The shelves behind Veln shifted, as if reacting to that single word: Echo.
Then the System's whisper returned not in Kaiser's mind this time, but out loud.
[System Override Triggered]Accessing hidden archive: "Black Seed Protocol – Entry I"
The wall behind Veln slid open.
A hollow chamber stood beyond it, filled with broken mirrors, rusted weapons, and torn flags. At its center was a metal throne, cracked down the middle.
Kaiser had never seen it before.
But something inside him screamed.
Veln stood. "That throne was part of the First System—the version that failed. The one built to control the Crown slayers, not serve them."
Kaiser stepped inside, eyes fixed on the throne.
"There were others like me," he said, voice low.
Veln nodded. "Not like you. Worse. They broke the rules the System set. So the System made something new to contain them. It made the Echoes. Shadows of its own users. Killers made to erase their originals."
Kaiser turned. "So why am I still alive?"
"I don't know," Veln admitted. "But if your Echo is active… it means the System considers you unstable."
He paused.
"Or dangerous."
Outside, in Kaelthorn
Unseen from rooftops and towers, something watched.
The same pale figure from before.
But now, another stood beside him, a woman in black feathers, her eyes stitched shut with golden thread.
She whispered, "He has not awakened the second name."
The man nodded. "Then we have time. But not much."
They vanished, leaving no trace in the fog.
Back in the Archive
Kaiser stared at the broken throne.
[New Trait Unlocked: Echo-Linked]Passive: Increases resistance to System suppressionDrawback: You are now traceable by all Echo-class units
Kaiser's hand gripped the hilt of Vow breaker.
"This city doesn't sleep," he muttered. "And neither will I."
But as he turned to leave, the throne behind him pulsed once-A low heartbeat. Like something waking up.
Something old.
Something inside him.