Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

Alan opened the door first.

What waited on the other side wasn't a throne room, a palace, or a fancy hall.

Just wood, warm light, and the smell of dried sap and clean cloth. The air felt… Light. Kind. It had all kind of flower Aromas Raizen couldn't really distinguish.

He stepped in behind Elin and immediately slowed down.

Not because he was afraid.

Because the walls stopped him.

They weren't covered in medals or trophies, like Atman's office. No trophies polished so hard they begged for worship. No giant banners or carved symbols praising the Ruler.

Just photos. Tens. Hundreds, even. So many photos that the wood behind them barely showed.

Frames of different sizes, hung close together like the room had slowly turned into a living archive. Some were old and faded at the edges. Some were newer, the colors still sharp. A few had been repaired, corners fixed with tiny metal brackets, like someone refused to let a memory rot.

Raizen's eyes moved from one to the next as his brain tried to understand what he was seeing.

The Ukai Ruler was in almost all of them.

Not always centered. Not always posed like a king. Sometimes he was half turned, laughing at someone outside the frame. Sometimes he was petting a beast's head like any other man. Sometimes he was standing in front of a construction site with sawdust on his sleeves, pointing at a beam while a group of workers listened.

There were photos of him with summoners, too. Men and women with wonderful beasts at their sides and tired smiles, hands marked from work, standing in front of platforms and bridges like they'd built the whole city with stubbornness and raw power.

One photo caught Raizen's attention because it didn't look like Ukai.

The Ruler was shaking hands with a woman with braids, dressed in white, official-looking clothes. The kind of clothes that didn't belong in a tree. And the background had a weird, blue-ish kind of light. Ukai's ruler had a soft, respectful smile, like he was greeting an equal. The thing that amazed Raizen the most was the woman's skin color. It was dark, brown-ish, like freshly cut wood. Like Obi's, but darker. He thought it was beautiful.

A small brass plaque beneath the frame read:

"Kelperion's Ruler"

Another, older frame held a younger version of the Ruler with a young girl.

Sixteen, seventeen maybe. Thin shoulders, bright eyes, dark red hair pulled back. That was Elin when she was younger. Her face had something in it that made Raizen's attention catch: The same energy.

The same calm that looked like it could turn into a storm with one wrong comment.

Raizen's gaze drifted again.

Then he saw it.

It was at eye level, like the room wanted you to notice.

A slightly bigger frame than the others, the wood around it prettier, polished with slightly more care. Not flashy, just… Chosen. Important.

The Ukai Ruler stood in that photo as well, younger than in most of the others. Beside him was a young woman with long brown hair and tanned skin, wearing a simple outfit that looked ready for movement.

Her smile was wild. The kind of smile that said she'd jump from a branch just to prove she could.

At the bottom of the frame, a small plaque read:

"Beast Sovereign"

Raizen felt Elin slow beside him.

She stopped.

Just for a second.

Her eyes landed on that photo, and something in her face went dark and quiet, like a door closing.

She didn't say anything. She didn't even change her posture much.

But Raizen saw it anyway, because he was standing close.

Then, suddenly, Elin moved on silently, without even looking back.

Raizen swallowed and forced his eyes away, continuing his slow scan of the walls.

Another photo made his chest tighten.

The Ruler was standing with Solomon.

Not the Solomon Raizen knew now.

A younger Solomon.

Maybe eight years old, small and serious even in a moment caught on camera. Beside him stood a young man with his hands resting on Solomon's shoulders, smiling down at him with a protective ease.

The resemblance was clear.

Solomon's jawline, but softer. Solomon's eyes, but warmer.

Raizen's mind remembered the name like it had been waiting for the chance.

Nathan.

The brother who had vanished in the fight against the Nyx Queen. The brother who'd become a shadow in stories and a weight in Solomon's silence.

Raizen stared at that photo a heartbeat longer than he meant to. Then he looked around

A room full of memories.

A room built out of people, not power.

Only then did Raizen notice the center.

A bed.

Simple. Clean. Well-kept.

And on it lay an old man with long white hair and beard, resting against stacked pillows like someone who refused to look weak even while lying down.

Ukai's Ruler.

But he didn't look frail.

He looked tired.

There was a difference.

His face carried lines that weren't just from age. They were from difficult decisions. Heartbreaking sacrifices. Endless wars. Years of hearing other people's fears and having to pretend he was untouchable.

His eyes were open. Clear. Watching.

And next to the bed stood Atman.

Raizen's brain stumbled for half a second.

Atman? Here?

He'd last seen him in Ukai. After Elin took down the winged lizard beast.

Now he was standing by the Ukai Ruler's bed like he belonged there, one hand resting near the old man's shoulder, the other slightly raised.

Around Atman's forearm drifted the same dark smoke that had wrapped Ukai outside.

It moved like a living curtain, dense and controlled, curling and tightening as if it listened to his pulse.

Raizen's breathing slowed.

So it really was intentional.

Atman turned.

For a brief moment, no one spoke.

Raizen heard the tiny creak of a frame settling on its nail. The soft hiss of lantern flame. The faintest sound of wind outside, muted by the black cloud like a hand over the city's mouth.

Then Atman's face broke into a grin.

"Well" he said warmly, like they'd walked into a friend's house for tea. "Look who decided to come back."

The smoke around his arm thinned as he spoke, loosening like it no longer needed to keep strangling the sky.

Atman's eyes flicked to Raizen and widened just slightly.

"Raizen?" he said, genuinely surprised now. "Where the heavens have you been?"

Raizen blinked.

He hadn't even realized how long it had been since he'd left Atman's line of sight. Hours. More than half a day. Enough time for people to start asking questions.

"I…" he started, then stopped, because there was no clean way to explain any of it. He couldn't tell him that he went into the Sky Domain, Jumped off a window, rode a four-winged dragon to a secret cave, witnessed a whole forest stripped off it's life, then was pushed off the same dragon because he wanted to save someone that didn't need saving...

Atman's gaze slid past him and landed on Elin.

His grin widened.

"And you" he said, bright as morning. "Elin Ciela. You vanished for quite some time."

Elin didn't smile back, but she didn't look hostile, either.

Just… Guarded. Like the room's warmth had to get through a layer of security first.

"Hello there, Atman" she said, with a low tone. Then, she carefully added: "Old friend..."

Alan stepped in last and quietly shut the door behind them. He didn't move. He didn't speak. He just stood a little behind, posture straight, like he was waiting for the next order.

The Ukai Ruler watched all of them.

Then, slowly, he smiled.

Not a grand smile.

A small one. Personal.

He gave a slight nod toward Alan first.

"Alan" he said, voice calm and steady.

Even sick, even with his body failing, the man sounded like a ruler without trying. Like authority lived in his bones, not his chair.

Alan bowed his head.

"Ruler" he replied.

The old man's gaze moved to Elin.

"Oh, and our Sky Sovereign" he continued, and there was something almost fond in the words, like the title held more history than politics. "You finally decided to stop hiding."

Elin's mouth twitched, but it wasn't quite a smile.

"You called" she answered simply.

The Ruler's eyes shifted again.

Just a quick glance at Raizen.

Not suspicious or distrustful.

Just the sharp curiosity of a mind that has seen more than it wants to admit.

His gaze lingered no more than it had to, then returned to Elin.

"And this young gentleman?" he asked, polite. "A student?"

Raizen felt his spine straighten without him actually wanting to.

Elin answered before Raizen could.

"He's with me" she said, like that ended the discussion. "I picked him up... Midair."

It was technically true.

Just… Missing several details, including a dragon, a fall, and a couple of humiliating rescues that Raizen refused to think about.

Atman's eyebrows raised at the same time.

He looked at Raizen, then at Elin, then back at Raizen, as if trying to solve a puzzle.

Raizen could almost hear the question forming in Atman's head.

"How?"

But Atman didn't ask it. At least not yet.

The Ukai Ruler's gaze softened slightly.

"Very well" he said.

Raizen took that moment to look again at the room, because it felt safer than staring at the old man's eyes.

The photos made more sense now.

This wasn't a Ruler who wanted to be worshiped.

This was a Ruler who wanted to remember.

Or maybe a ruler who wanted other people to remember him as a person, a human, before the world reduced him to a title.

Atman's warmth didn't change.

He stayed near the bed, smoke around his arm thinner now, but it still drifted, slow and controlled, like a reminder that Ukai's sky was currently being held shut on purpose.

The Ruler's eyes moved between them once more.

Alan. Elin. Atman. Raizen.

His smile stayed.

Then his voice turned a shade more formal.

"Well, then." he said, calm as ever,

"Let me tell you the reason why I've summoned you today."