A few hours later, Aaron, Pierce, and Kain arrived at their new home in Gaeti. The manor rose four stories high: three baths, six bedrooms, two studies — and a hidden cellar with a door painted a peculiar blue.
Aaron pushed the heavy front door and froze at the sight. The house was larger and more beautiful than he had imagined. Pierce and Kain followed behind, carrying their luggage.
"This place is… incredible. I want to see every corner," Aaron breathed.
Kain chuckled. "Patience. First we carry these bags inside, then you can explore."
Aaron hauled his few things up the broad staircase. Pierce led him to the second floor and showed him his room: a large bed, a drawing desk by the window. Aaron's chest tightened with gratitude — finally, a proper desk for his sketches.
"You may wander the estate for two hours," Pierce said. "After that, your duties begin."
Aaron wandered through the manor's halls. He found a training hall, a flower garden that smelled faintly of night-blooming jasmine, and, on the third floor, a library. There he pulled a slim volume titled Notes on the Nado.
He read: Nado are those who never awaken the mage-mark. They compensate with exceptional weapon skills. They are divided into three ranks:
Crimson Nado — ordinary Nado; slightly weaker than a Level-0 mage.
White Nado — average; comparable to a Level-0 mage.
Black Nado — the highest; stronger than a Level-0.5 mage.
Nado grow stronger through every battle they survive.
Aaron tucked that book under his arm and reached for another — How to Raise Your Rank as a Mage — when Kain called him. Kain handed Aaron a shopping list. Aaron left to buy the supplies and returned to find Pierce and Kain waiting by the door.
"We're leaving for somewhere tonight," Pierce told him. "We'll be back late. Take care of the house until then."
"And whatever you do," Kain added with a grave look, "do not open or approach the blue vault. Understood?"
Aaron swallowed. "Understood."
Left alone, he prepared a small meal and then practiced in the training hall for a while. At dusk he climbed to his new room and sketched the blue door from memory, the image tugging at him.
"I need to know what's inside that vault," he whispered to himself. "If it holds anything about my origin, I must see it."
He climbed down the stairs, heart thumping. Standing before the blue door, doubt crept in. "What if there's danger inside? Should I go in?" he asked the empty hallway.
Without waiting for an answer, Aaron pushed the door open.
The cellar was dim and cool. He walked forward until a faint light showed between cracked boards and dust. Bookshelves lined the walls, and old trunks lay scattered. He rifled through tattered letters and brittle maps, then found a small lacquered box.
When Aaron lifted the lid, a brilliant light burst forth and wrapped around him. Images collided in his mind: a cult circling a blue flame, people laughing and shaping that flame as if playing with a child's toy — then the vision twisted into horror: bodies strewn across stone floors, blood pooling into the cracks.
A man's voice echoed from the vision: "Flimbond—execute him." From the shadow behind the man something black unfurled, a shape like living smoke. It lunged.
Aaron jolted awake on the cellar floor, gasping. He slammed the box shut and steadied his hands. Beside the chest were two old books: one chronicling the history of Maro, the other a treatise on the Six Continents. He tucked them under his cloak and closed the blue door behind him.
Back in his room, Aaron slid the books into his drawing desk and took How to Raise Your Rank as a Mage downstairs. The training hall felt different now — a place that might somehow make sense of the terrible images.
He read aloud the manual's chilling instructions:
> First: adopt the meditative posture that allows the Naye to come to you.
Second: permit the Naye to enter your body one hundred percent — this will help increase your rank.
Third: let the Naye strengthen your spiritual force. Any mistake may lead to catastrophe.
A late bell interrupted him. He hurried to the door. Pierce and Kain returned, greeting him with tired smiles.
"How are you holding up?" Kain asked.
"All good," Aaron lied. Inside, his chest ached with the memory of the vision. Pierce patted his shoulder. "Rest. Tomorrow we begin fresh."
Aaron lay on his bed with his sketchbook open and drew the scene he had witnessed — the blue flame, the masked men, the name that burned into his head: Flimbond.
Flimbond… I need to learn more, he thought. But Pierce and Kain must never know what I found. I'll hide this.
He slid the papers under the mattress and closed his eyes.
Far away, in a vaulted room lit by moonlight, the queen watched her own face in a polished mirror and touched the scar the boy had left on her cheek. Her lips curled.
"He woke," she hissed into the darkness, "and he burned me. Next time, I will end him."
Her voice dropped to a whisper, sharp as a blade. "No one will stand in my way."