Chapter 13: The Cipher's Voice
Side Plot: Ciphered Heir Awakens
The first time it happened, Julien thought it was just a fever.
The heat built slowly from the inside, a coil of warmth just under his ribs. At first, he chalked it up to the stress of escape—the rogue Collectors, the violent departure from the Academy, the overwhelming presence of Veldaric just down the corridor. But as the hours passed, it worsened. The warmth turned to heat. Then to fire.
And then came the voice.
At first, it whispered behind his thoughts. A woman's tone, gentle but firm, layered with meaning he couldn't fully decipher.
> "El'tarai," it murmured.
Again. Again. Until Julien found himself repeating it aloud.
"El'tarai…"
He didn't know the meaning. He didn't have to.
The word settled under his skin like it had always been there.
By the second night aboard Veldaric's stealth-class flagship, Julien was no longer sleeping. Not really. He drifted in and out of dreamspace, sweating through his sheets, fingers twitching with phantom code, ancient glyphs flickering behind his eyelids like afterimages from another life.
The cipher card was no longer glowing. It was humming—a soft, mechanical thrum that resonated in his bones.
He didn't dare tell Veldaric. Not yet.
The Marshal had eyes sharp enough to sense the shift anyway.
"Your pulse rate has changed," Veldaric said when he entered the mess hall that night. His voice was low, unreadable. "So has your temperature."
Julien looked up from his untouched food. "What are you, my doctor now?"
"No." The marshal didn't smile. "I'm the man who put a territorial mark on you. I can feel when you change. Your body's transitioning."
Julien's eyes narrowed. "Into what?"
"Not what." Veldaric stepped closer, his presence overwhelming. "Who. Into the one you were supposed to become. You're synchronizing with the Cipher. With her."
Julien blinked. "You mean Aureline."
Veldaric nodded once. "You're remembering her. But more than that... you're inheriting her."
That night, Julien collapsed in the ship's sanctum. His skin felt like burning glass. When he managed to crawl to the mirror, he almost didn't recognize the face that looked back.
His irises had turned a deeper gold. And under the collarbone, layered over the faint echo of Veldaric's claim-mark, was something new: a glyph, etched in heat and light, burning in the same shape as the cipher seal from the card.
Julien reached for it—
The voice erupted.
> "El'tarai'ven."
You are the heir. You cannot run.
His body convulsed. His breath caught. Words he didn't recognize poured from his mouth in a chant that set the walls vibrating.
The air grew thick with flickering code—strands of golden script weaving like flame from his hands. Sigils floated in the air, responding to his pulse. His entire being had become an interface. Living code.
That was when the sealed chamber hissed open.
Veldaric stood at the threshold, weapon half-drawn—until his eyes met Julien's.
He froze.
Julien turned to him slowly, the air still swirling with old fire.
His voice was layered now—his, and something older beneath it.
"Aureline," Veldaric breathed.
Julien blinked.
"No." His lips parted. The layered voice rang out:
"We are both. I am Cipher and Heir."
Veldaric stepped forward, slow and reverent.
"What do you remember?"
Julien looked up.
> "Enough to burn the empire down."