Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

Raizen's eyes widened.

"You… saw me?" he repeated, stunned. "From the window?"

The Ruler's gaze flicked toward the window, with amusement in his eyes.

"From my window, yes" he said. "You were on the street below. You even looked up once."

Raizen stared, speechless. This man's memory was flawless. Scary, even.

That was… One moment. One glance. One time, in an entire day, months ago.

And the Ruler had stored it like a human folder.

Raizen shook his head slowly.

"That's insane" he muttered. "You only saw me once."

The Ruler's expression shifted, now even more amused.

"In cities like this, while ruling it for years" he said, "you learn what is worth remembering."

The room felt suddenly smaller again, not because of pressure, but because of the intimacy of being recognized after such a long time.

The music played on, steady in the background.

Raizen's curiosity rose again, dangerous and insistent.

"The relic Solomon came after" Raizen said quietly. "The story on it… What was it's purpose? What did it mean?"

The Ruler didn't answer immediately.

He kept staring at the ceiling for a long moment, and in the silence, Raizen could hear the orchestra's slow, careful rise and fall in rhythm and pitch.

When the Ruler spoke again, his voice was softer than before.

"A story" he said, "is just like an orchestra."

Raizen was completely caught off guard.

The Ruler continued, eyes still on the ceiling.

"Every story has small pieces" he said. "Fragments. Motifs that repeat themselves. Parts that seem harmless until you see them differently."

His mouth twitched faintly. "If you hear one violin alone, it is, indeed, beautiful. But it never tells you what the whole piece is."

Raizen listened, heart beating slower now, drawn in despite himself.

"There are stories" the Ruler said, "found across nations. Across cities. Told to children. Whispered in corners. Sung in lullabies. Written in books that no one reads anymore. Some coincide. Some differ. But they all carry very similar pieces."

Raizen's skin prickled.

"Very similar pieces...?" he echoed.

The Ruler nodded faintly.

"A Queen of some sort" he said quietly.

Raizen's breath caught.

"Some... Children" the Ruler added, voice even.

Raizen's mind flicked instantly to the way the Ruler had spoken of it before - the vague myth, the strange cadence, the feeling that it wasn't only a children's tale.

The Ruler continued, still careful, still curious.

"Creatures of light" he finished.

Raizen's fingers curled.

Light creatures.

Queen.

Children.

Pieces. Motifs. Fragments.

The Ruler exhaled slowly, and for a moment, he looked genuinely tired.

"I do not think they are only stories" he admitted.

The words were quiet, but they landed with huge weight.

"They sound like… Knowledge" the Ruler said. "Passed down through generations in a shape that survives. A shape that can be repeated without being understood."

His eyes narrowed slightly. "As if someone wanted something remembered, but did not want the full truth to be easily found."

Raizen swallowed, the room colder around him in a way that had nothing to do with fog.

"So there's more" Raizen said.

The Ruler's gaze remained steady.

"There is always more" he said softly. "But only parts remain. Only pieces."

He fell silent.

The music played on.

Raizen waited, expecting him to continue, to offer one more fragment, one more clue.

But the silence that came wasn't empty. It was deliberate.

Raizen didn't push anymore. After all, it wasn't even his business.

Instead, he nodded slowly, as if accepting a gift he didn't understand. He decided to shut up, and be satisfied with the answers he got.

"I'm glad you're alright, your... Majesty" Raizen said finally, not knowing if "Majesty" was the right word.

He took a step back, and turned to leave.

The Ruler didn't stop him.

Raizen's hand reached the door.

And only then, the Ruler spoke again, eyes closing slowly.

"And please" the Ruler said quietly, "don't say anything about what you heard… When you were on the branch outside."

Raizen froze.

Heat rose into his face instantly, sudden embarrassment.

He turned his head slightly, not fully looking back.

So the Ruler had known from the start.

He was waiting. Spying. Listening.

And he didn't even mention it.

Raizen swallowed, then nodded once.

"I'll keep my mouth shut" he said, voice quieter than he intended.

The Ruler didn't answer. He didn't need to.

Raizen opened the door, stepped out, and closed it behind him as gently as he could.

The music stayed inside, but it leaked through the wood like a soft ghost, following him for a few steps down the carved stairs until the night sounds swallowed it.

Raizen's mind was full.

Too full.

Pieces of the day clashed together in his head - Elin's voice, the sphere's panic, the word - no, the order "Silence.", Alan's name, the gray forest being emptied, the Ruler's tears, the orchestra, the Queen, the children, the light creatures...

He walked without meaning to.

Down one bridge, then another.

He didn't pick any specific direction. After all, he didn't even know where in Ukai he was. The dragon brought him there. But he didn't even think about it. He just followed the lines of wood and lantern light like they were pulling him forward.

Ukai at night felt different. Quieter. More secretive.

Raizen kept walking anyway.

He didn't notice he'd left the district around the Ruler's home. He didn't notice how the bridges changed, how the lanterns spaced out differently, how the sounds slightly changed.

He only realized something was wrong when he stopped and looked around and couldn't recognize anything.

Raizen blinked.

"…Where am I?" he muttered.

No answer. Of course there no answer.

He started walking again, because stopping felt worse than being even more lost.

A corner appeared ahead, the bend of a bridge and the curve of a thick trunk. The space beyond was darker, lantern light weaker.

Raizen walked past it, not giving it too much attention.

Then suddenly, a hand shot out of the darkness.

It grabbed his collar with brutal precision and yanked him sideways so fast his feet barely had time to react. His back slammed into wood hard enough to pull the air out of him with a wheezed.

A second later, Raizen realized his position.

He was pinned against the wall.