The white-cloaked investigator did not look like the common thieves Lucas had learned to hate. He moved with the chill confidence of someone who expected the world to obey his commands. The House Meridia crest on his robe flashed as if lit from within, and the staff he held thrummed with a quiet, methodical power.
Lyra's jaw hardened. She stepped forward protectively—not a show for Lucas, but because the honor of her house, and her own sense of right, did not allow a nobleman to sweep into a private home and claim it as his own without reason.
"You come to my house and proclaim a search on a rumor?" Lyra said, steady and clear. "You will need a warrant signed by a representative of the city magistrate."
The Meridia man's eyes were merciless grey. He inclinded his head in shallow courtesy. "Dawnwhisper. I am dispatched by House Meridia's Recovery Directorate. We are authorized to investigate relic disturbances. The signature is not required for emergency recovery."
Elara's lips thinned. "Emergency or not, you will not rummage through private property without consent."
Meridia's smile tightened. "You misunderstand, young lady. This is not local police procedure. This is a matter of preservation and—"
"—and greed," Kael spat, stepping forward until Lyra's hand on his shoulder held him back. His chest heaved with the need to pummel the man, but Lyra's steadying palm grounded him.
The Meridia man's eyes flicked to Kael. "A runaway Dawnwhisper child in the slums. How poetic." He glanced at Lucas with a hungry curiosity. "If the Starlight lineage re-emerges, House Meridia must be certain relics do not fall into unstable hands."
Lucas felt like the world tilted. "I'm not—"
"You will answer later," Lyra said sharply, cutting him off. "For now he is under my roof. You may request investigation through proper channels. Until then, you have no right."
Meridia's gloved fingers tapped his staff. A slip of cold air brushed the room, as if the staff tested the curtains and walls. "Lady Lyra, your hospitality is noted. We will not force entry today. But we will be back with legal confirmation—and men."
The words were a blade.
Elara stepped forward smoothly. Her voice was low and dangerous. "If you bring soldiers into the slums to 'recover relics,' expect blood on Meridia's name. You will not be the only house interested."
At that, the Meridia man's smile thinned into a line. He inclined his head once more. "Then I will wait for the magistrate's signature. But know this: House Meridia will not be denied when a Starlight heir is involved."
He turned and departed as carefully as he had entered, like a predator deciding to retreat for now. Outside, the hush of the street seemed to swell with his absence. Elara watched him leave, fingers knitting together, thoughts sharp as broken ice.
When the door closed, the household exhaled in a dozen small noises. Kael's hands were fists of trembling fury. Lyra's face was still pale with concern. Lucas's stomach lurched, a pool of cold dread spreading from his core.
The system sent a terse alert.
[POLITICAL ALERT]
House Meridia — Interest Level: High
Action: Possible Formal Investigation Incoming
Lucas swallowed. The warning felt like someone had gone and labeled him with a target on his back.
"Why would they—" Kael started.
"Meridia collects relics," Elara cut in. "They sponsor expeditions and auctions. If the Starlight seal exists, they want it before others do. They'll use any excuse."
Lyra closed her hands into tight fists at her sides. "We cannot wait until men knock down the front gate. We must prepare."
"Prepare how?" Lucas asked, voice small.
Lyra met his eyes. "We relocate the relic. Hide it in a place Meridia cannot reach quickly. The vaults of our house are no good — Meridia can pressure the magistrate to open them. We will move it to a place outside noble reach."
Kael blurted, "So we shove it back into a ruin?"
Lyra shot him an incredulous glance. "No. We will move it to a neutral shrine — an old priest's sanctum outside the city. They rarely interfere. It is shielded by ancient wards."
Lucas felt the disk in his pouch like a hot thing. He imagined its power lighting up at the sight of Meridia's men. He imagined the cultists sniffing it out, and House Meridia sending a warrant, and the city guards arriving with orders. He imagined his life ending in the middle of the street while noble houses argued over who had claim to his heritage.
Kael slammed his fist against a table. "No. We move it tonight."
Lyra smelled the panic and cut it off. "We must be careful. The ritual that stabilizes a bloodline — the Dawn Ritual — creates a trace. We cannot create trails we cannot hide."
Elara paced once. Snow-white hair catching sunlight in its hem. "We will move it at midnight," she decided finally. "Lyra's sanctuary will shield us for a time. I will keep watch on the perimeter while Kael and Lucas escort the disk to the priest's gate. If Meridia returns with men, we delay and misdirect."
Lucas stared at their faces, his chest tight. He wanted to refuse, to hide the disk and go into the slums to train alone. But the truth was straightforward and cruel: it was not safe. He did not have the luxury of ego.
He nodded.
"Good," Lyra said. "Rest now. Train tomorrow. We will move tonight."
They moved after a meager dinner. Lyra arranged the disk inside a padded wooden box, wrapping it in multiple layers of cloth inscribed with Dawnwhisper sigils. The box sat on a low tray in the center of the room while Elara and Lyra prepared wards to shield the house from probing magic.
Lucas sat nearby, his hands flat on his knees. The box felt like a heart in the room, steady and dangerous.
Kael hovered, nervy and restless.
Elara stood by the window with concentration that could have split mountains. She murmured in low tones as frost-thread sigils spun out from her fingers and anchored to corners of the room: small wards to confuse shallow scrying, to muddle scent trails, to make a room feel older than it was.
Lyra moved with the light-steady precision of someone who had a dozen ways to deal with a problem and knew which ones were best. Her hands glowed faintly as she added a layer of Aurora thread over the cloth binding the box.
"All set," she murmured.
Lucas tried to breathe steady. "I'll go with Kael to the priest's gate," he said. "I'll carry the box."
Lyra's eyes stung with something she didn't show. "You must not display the seal under the open sky. Keep it closed and blind. Kael is to distract and lead. Elara will watch over the route."
They left under a hood of darkness, the city muffled like a giant sleeping beast. Little lanterns winked on in distant windows. The streets seemed emptier, as if the city knew something dangerous moved beneath the moon.
They passed the same ruined square where Lucas had first found the star emblem. The circle of stones that had housed the hidden stairway was now a gaping memory, and his skin prickled. The old ruin seemed quiet, but Lucas could feel a hum under the earth, as if something remembered him.
At the edge of the slums, where the priest's lane began, Kael stopped and looked at Lucas. "You sure you're okay?"
Lucas nodded. "Yeah."
He wasn't.
The system chimed a sharp, anxious warning in the back of his mind.
[Threat Detection]
Mana signatures: Two unknown observers detected — range 200m.
Lucas felt the hair rise on his arms.
A sound like whispering leaves came from above—the roofline. A shadow detached itself and fell behind them—a figure landing like a cat. For a slum boy, Kael's reflexes were quick. He spun, fist cocked.
A voice, familiar and cold, came from the shadow.
"Not tonight, Meridia's hands," Elara breathed.
She landed behind them, frost still on her cloak, as if she had been everywhere at once. Her eyes darted to the east.
"There," she said.
Two cloaked figures were slipping along the roofs at a distance—swift, professional. Meridia's scouts, perhaps; or a third party entirely.
"They're not Meridia," Elara whispered. "They move like hunters."
Lucas's heart hitched.
"Run?" Kael said.
"Hide," Elara replied. "We are not alone."
Kael dragged them into an alley, crouched behind a ruined cart, breath shaking. Lucas pressed the box to his chest, fingers digging into the wood. The weight was both comforting and terrifying.
From over the rooftops a soft, almost musical whistle passed—a signal.
The two cloaked hunters dropped a line and slid down to the street ahead of them as silent as death. Their boots touched the cobblestones with murderous grace.
Lucas felt the disk in his chest hum. A low, hungry vibration that seemed to sense the hunters' intent.
The disk's leather casing warmed, then flared.
A sharp light burst through the cloth.
The street lit up for an instant—starlight like a sudden blossom—and the two hunters shielded their eyes, stumbling back as if burned.
Lucas's breath caught.
Kael's eyes widened in horror. "Lucas—!"
The system screamed.
[BLOODLINE DEFENSE]
Starlight Seal Disk — Emergency Resonance Triggered
Effect: Radiant Pulse (Minor) — Repel nearby hostile entities
Cooldown: Active
Warning: Activation draws attention.
The two hunters had staggered, dim silhouettes recoiling from the light, but the flash had done something else: it painted a bright signature across the night sky that spread like spilled silver.
From a rooftop a dark figure turned his head, alarmed. A quick, precise silhouette slid away into shadow.
Lucas's face went cold.
"That light—" Elara said softly. "It will mark us."
They scrambled into motion.
"Elara!" Lyra hissed. "Now!"
Elara's hands shivered with cold fury. She cast a quick veil of frost across the lane, masking the light's trail. Kael sprinted with Lucas at his shoulder, the box clutched tight. They ran the last stretch to the priest's lane and disappeared into the sanctum's narrow doorway.
Behind them, the hushed city erupted with soft questions—the night had been bright in a way that was not meant for simple folk.
When the triple doors of the sanctum closed, Lucas slammed his back against the cool wood and dropped to his knees, panting.
He'd protected the relic—yet in doing so, the disk had called out like a bell.
Elara's voice was a whisper of ice and anger. "We have painted the sky with your bloodline, Lucas. This will not end quietly."
Lyra's hand rested on his shoulder. "It will not. But you are not alone."
Kael swallowed hard and clenched his fists. "Then we fight them when they come."
Lucas closed his eyes.
He did not know if they could win, but he knew he would not flee.
Not anymore.