The throne room was quiet when I returned.
Too quiet.
No herald. No chamberlain. Not even Joseph waiting by the marble pillars. I stepped past the gold-inlaid doors, past the statues of my ancestors and the arcane braziers that burned without smoke. Every echo of my boot fell like a hammer in an empty cathedral.
Something had changed.
System Notification: Royal Presence Detected
Mana signature discrepancy: +3.5% fluctuation detected within the central throne quadrant.
Possible tampering or foreign spell residue.
I didn't like that.
The last time I left this throne unattended, I was still crawling.
My steps slowed as I reached the center of the chamber.
There, carved from skystone and dragonbone, stood the Throne of the Heir—where I had sat in judgement over nobles and fools alike. Where I gave my first royal edict, despite being only ten.
Now I was eleven. And in that single year, I had grown beyond any ruler in recorded history.
Yet the throne felt alien.
Cold.
Wrong.
And when I reached for it—just barely—I saw it.
A mark.
Barely visible under the main seat.
A rune, pulsing faint red.
New Object Detected: Spellbrand Sigil – Type: Memory Tether
Casting Intent: Surveillance / Emotional Leech
Origin: Unknown (Encrypted Signature)
Someone had been watching me.
Feeling me.
And feeding off the presence of the throne.
The rage didn't come loud. It came cold.
A clarity. One I had learned from a dead version of myself.
I burned the sigil without hesitation.
The flame was silent, violet in color, and utterly consuming. But before it faded, I heard a sound—not in the chamber, but in my head.
A whisper.
"You left the door open… prince."
Then gone.
System Update: Surveillance Thread Severed
Unknown Entity Disconnected (Location Trace: FAILED)
Royal Throne Integrity Restored
Emotion Sync: Blocked
Trust Threshold: -10 to all non-verified court officials
I knew what had to happen next.
A purge.
Not of blood.
Of loyalty.
Of intent.
I summoned the Inner Circle that evening.
Only seven were allowed in.
Joseph. My mother, Queen Aelira. The High Artificer. The Court Scribe. The Royal Seer. Kaethe. And… my sister.
Elira. Now barely one year old, but seated beside our mother like a flickering star in the shape of a girl. She stared at me with those silver, storm-touched eyes.
And I realized something then.
She'd seen it.
All of it.
"Speak freely," I said, locking the chamber.
No one moved.
Until Kaethe did.
"It was the Seer," she said. "He's been slipping dream fragments into the court since your birth. Whispering that your power is unnatural. That your mind… came from somewhere else."
My eyes flicked to the Seer.
He smiled—sadly.
"I was trying to protect us."
"From what?"
"From you, James."
The confrontation didn't end in blood. Not that night.
But I stripped the Seer of his title. Bound his mind to a truth lens. Banished him from my tower.
I would find the source of his corruption later.
For now, I had learned enough.
Later that night, I sat beside Elira's crib.
She reached out with her tiny fingers and touched my temple.
Just once.
Skill Activation: Telepathic Trace – Passive Connection Detected
Elira of House Vael: Innate Talent – Cosmic Resonance
Emotional Sync: 100%
Bond Status: Primordial Link Formed
Effect: Shared Memories in Dreams (Locked until Elira is age 3)
So that was it.
Her power. The quiet force I'd felt since her birth.
Not magic. Not psionics.
Something older.
She would be my greatest ally—or my undoing.
And it would begin with dreams.
Level Up: 37 → 38
+5 Stat Points – Assigned: Mana +5
Frame Zero Progress: 24%
Cosmic Thread Detected near Lower Orbit Rift (Quarantine Active)