By the time the fifth bell tolled, Kael Varros was no longer within the safety of his estate.
The governor's presence surged through Nexus like a storm-front. His convoy cut through the night air in sleek mana skiffs, armored guards bristling with weapons of star-forged steel. The streets, already half-empty at this hour, emptied faster as citizens recognized the crest of House Varros blazing across banners of silver and black.
Kael stood at the bow of the lead skiff, cloak snapping behind him, eyes fixed on the glittering sprawl of the Alchemists' Quarter ahead. He had not summoned the guild's representatives. He had not written a petition. He came himself, and that fact alone sent whispers racing through the city's veins.
They found the first blockade at the Moonveil market.
Where once vendors would cry their wares until dawn, silence reigned. Crates stood sealed, stalls shuttered, shadows whispering behind locked gates. At the entrance, a dozen guild enforcers waited—robes trimmed with the sigil of the Alchemy Guild, expressions carefully neutral.
"Governor Varros," their leader said, bowing slightly. "Forgive us. The blossoms you seek… there has been difficulty. Stocks are exhausted. Shipments delayed."
Kael descended the skiff without a word. His boots struck the stone, his aura pressing outward in a wave that made the air itself heavy. The guild men stiffened as though iron bands had locked around their chests.
"Do you think me blind?" Kael's voice cut like thunder cracking mountains. "The blossoms grow under Nexus skies. The roots coil in Rift Gardens under this very district. Exhausted?" He stepped closer, and the man flinched though he tried to stand tall. "Or withheld?"
"Governor, I—"
Kael's hand snapped up. Not in violence, but in sheer command. The man's words died in his throat.
"I will say this once," Kael said, his voice dropping lower, dangerous. "If another breath is wasted on lies, I will drag the Guildmaster from his gilded tower and make him watch as I burn his vaults to ash."
Mana surged around him, raw, unrestrained—a Dominant Alpha's force. It pressed against the enforcers until their knees buckled. One dropped entirely, choking on air too thick to breathe.
"Open the gates."
The silence that followed was broken only by the groan of metal as locks disengaged. The stalls opened under trembling hands, and the truth lay bare: crates of Moonveil blossoms, fresh and glowing faintly under the starlight, stacked and untouched.
Kael's eyes narrowed.
"Exhausted." The word left his lips like venom. He turned his back on the men, already signaling his guards. "Take them. Every crate."
The enforcers sagged in relief as his aura receded, but none dared move. They knew—they had crossed a line.
Yet Kael was not finished.
By the seventh bell, he was at the Rift Gardens, where crystal ferns grew in carefully maintained mana fields. Once more, he found guild interference: workers suddenly absent, gates barred, excuses waiting like rehearsed lines.
And once more, Kael shattered them.
When word reached Karren that the governor himself had stormed two of the guild's strongholds and walked out with what he wanted, her blood ran cold. The sabotage that should have been subtle now risked exposure.
She rushed to Draven's chambers before the eighth bell, breathless, desperate. "He's tearing through everything! If he learns it was us—"
Draven's glare silenced her faster than any Alpha's aura could. The Guildmaster's face was shadowed, his temper fraying.
"You meddled without sanction." His voice was a hiss, dangerous in its restraint. "You dragged my name into this, and now you bring the governor's wrath to my doorstep."
"I only sought to prove my loyalty—"
"Loyalty?" Draven stood, slamming a hand onto the table. Vials rattled, parchments scattered. "You've endangered us both. Do you think Kael Varros will forgive this? Do you think his patience stretches so thin it can be toyed with?"
Karren's lips trembled, but she had no answer.
Draven leaned close, eyes hard as obsidian. "Pray he does not trace it back to us. Or your ashes will be the first I scatter to the Rift winds."
But even as he spoke, the shadows of Kael's retaliation already stretched toward them.
....
The ninth bell was striking when Kael Varros left the Rift Gardens.
The crates of crystal fern roots were secured, his guards loading them into mana-sealed vaults. The blossoms already waited at the estate. All that remained was marrow bark, and Kael knew where it had to be hidden.
The Alchemy Guild's central spire loomed ahead, a tower of glass and steel rising into the night sky, its veins of mana-light pulsing like a living heart. The city whispered about this place, about the vaults beneath it where rarest stock was hoarded. It was no secret—only untouchable, because none dared challenge the guild.
But Kael was not none.
The skiffs cut across the sky, their engines roaring with condensed mana. Kael stood unflinching at the prow, cloak snapping in the gale, his eyes hard. His will spread ahead of him like a blade, and the closer they drew, the quieter the spire seemed to become, as though the very walls felt his approach.
Inside, Draven paced. He had dismissed Karren with a venomous hiss, though she lingered in the shadows outside his chamber, pale and trembling. His mind raced with contingencies, yet each one collapsed beneath the same weight: Kael Varros had seen too much.
The first tremor reached them as the governor's aura swept through the spire. Windows rattled. Vials cracked on their shelves. Apprentices clutched at their throats as pressure like a storm pressed down on their lungs.
By the time Kael entered the guild's great hall, the enforcers lining it were already on their knees. Not by choice. His aura demanded it.
"Draven."
The governor's voice rolled like thunder through the chamber, and even the marble seemed to shiver.
The Guildmaster descended the stairs with practiced calm, robes flowing, expression smooth as glass. "Governor Varros," he said with a bow that was neither deep nor humble. "Had I known you would grace my halls tonight, I would have—"
"Spare me." Kael's tone cut him down mid-sentence. "Your men barred markets that belonged to Nexus. They sealed gardens that belonged to Nexus. They hoarded what they dared call delayed shipments." His eyes narrowed, molten steel beneath his brow. "Tell me, Guildmaster—since when does Nexus bow to your ledger?"
The silence cracked like ice underfoot.
Draven's mask held, but his fingers twitched once at his sleeve. "Misunderstandings, nothing more. I assure you, the guild's loyalty to Nexus remains unwavering."
Kael took one step forward. The air grew heavier. Enforcers around them collapsed entirely, gasping. Karren, hidden in the shadows of a pillar, whimpered before she bit it back.
"Misunderstandings," Kael repeated, each syllable sharp as a blade. "You mistake me for a man with patience for excuses."
His gaze flicked past Draven—straight to the sealed vault doors below. "Open them."
Draven stiffened. "Governor, those are guild property—"
Kael's aura surged. The chandeliers trembled, the very floor cracking in veins beneath his boots. "Open them. Or I will tear this spire stone from stone and scatter its ashes into the Rift."
It was not bluster. Every soul in that hall felt it—the truth of an Alpha whose will was law.
Draven's mask slipped, just for an instant. He raised a hand, snapping his fingers. The vault doors hissed, sigils flaring, then groaned open.
Inside, stacked like treasure, lay rarest stock: vials of marrow bark sealed in crystal, glowing faintly with Rift energy. The cure Jade had named.
Kael's men moved without waiting for command. Crates were hauled out, secured. The governor did not look away from Draven.
"You think Nexus forgets," Kael said low, voice more dangerous for its calm. "You think this city is yours to leash with secrets and scarcity. But hear me now: as long as I draw breath, Nexus bows to none but its people. Cross me again, and I will not come knocking. I will come burning."
Draven forced his jaw not to clench. "Governor, threats—"
Kael leaned closer, eyes cold as the void. "Not threats. Promised futures."
Then he turned on his heel, cloak whipping as he strode from the hall, his guards carrying the marrow bark behind him.
Only when the thunder of his presence receded did the guild breathe again.
Karren slumped against the pillar, sweat slick on her palms. Her eyes darted to Draven, searching for assurance, but what she found instead froze her blood.
For the Guildmaster's composure had fractured, his teeth bared in a snarl he had never shown before. His eyes burned with something more dangerous than fear.
"Kael Varros…" Draven whispered, the words like a vow etched into stone. "You will regret this night."
Karren shivered. She realized, too late, that her reckless sabotage had not just angered the governor—she had lit the first spark of war between two titans.
...
...
The tenth bell had not yet struck when Kael Varros returned to his estate.
The convoy swept down into the landing court, mana skiffs trailing banners of silver and black, their cargo sealed in shimmering containment fields. Guards disembarked swiftly, lowering crates glowing faintly with starlight: Moonveil blossoms harvested under the open skies, crystal fern roots still alive in mana-soil, marrow bark thrumming with Rift energy.
Kael strode through the grand doors, his aura still sharp as a drawn blade. The household staff parted in silence, fear and awe mixing in their eyes. He ignored them all. Only one figure mattered now.
Jade was already waiting.
He stood in the center of the marble hall, posture straight, long silvery-white hair spilling over his shoulders. Though his appearance was disguised, the boy still carried that strange weight Kael could not name — something that felt older than his seven years, older than most men Kael had commanded.
Behind him lingered Lio, restless energy coiled tight in his small frame. The boy's wide eyes darted between the governor, the crates, and Jade, but he held his tongue.
"I have what you asked," Kael said, voice low but carrying through the chamber. His hand swept toward the supplies as they were lowered onto the polished stone floor. "Blossoms. Roots. Bark. Pure and untouched."
Jade's gaze flicked over them once. He stepped forward, fingertips brushing against the glowing petals of a blossom, the cool pulse of the roots. He nodded slowly.
"This will do."
Kael folded his arms, his presence filling the hall. "Tell me what must be done. I'll summon healers, alchemists—"
"No." Jade's refusal was calm, not defiant. "They don't even know the first thing about what we're dealing with. Plus, I don't do well with others hounding me while I work."
For a moment, silence pressed against the walls.
Kael studied him, this boy who spoke with the certainty of a master craftsman, a battlefield veteran. He could not deny the truth of Jade's words; no healer had come close to seeing what he had already uncovered.
Finally, Kael inclined his head. "Then it will be you."
The weight of the governor's acceptance settled over the hall like a decree.
Jade gave no outward sign of satisfaction. He simply reached again for the herbs, gathering what he would need. His movements were precise, as if guided by memory rather than thought.
Lio's throat worked as he swallowed, stepping closer. "You'll… really save her?" His voice trembled, not with doubt, but with awe.
Jade glanced at him briefly. The look was enough. Lio's questions died on his tongue, replaced by something fiercer — pride. He straightened his back, shoulders squaring. Whatever Jade carried, he would guard it as if it were his own secret.
"We'll need an alchemy chamber," Jade said at last. "Quiet, secure, untouched by other hands."
Kael gestured sharply, and servants scrambled to obey. "One of my vault-labs. Empty it. Seal the doors. No one enters but us."
The command spread like lightning. Within minutes, the way was cleared, corridors lit by runes guiding them down into the inner estate. Guards and staff fell away at Kael's order until only he, Jade, and the wide-eyed Lio remained.
At the threshold of the chamber, Kael halted. The great doors loomed before them, carved with sigils of containment and silence. He looked down at Jade, this boy who walked into shadows without hesitation.
"My wife's life rests with you," Kael said quietly, but his words carried the weight of an oath. "If you succeed, House Varros will never forget."
Jade only nodded, stepping into the chamber as the doors swung open, lantern light spilling across cold stone and waiting instruments.
Behind him, Lio hesitated, then followed — small, determined, ready to watch and learn.
The doors closed with a heavy finality. Outside, Nexus shifted uneasily, whispers already spreading of the governor who had stormed the Guild's vaults.
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Here you go , the last chapter for today 😊