{VLADIMIR}
"We have not found it, my lord. The world is vast—it could be anywhere."
"Tales of your incompetence do not interest me, Kaelvar."
My voice cut through the chamber like a cold blade, sharp enough to make the candlelight tremble. "What I require are results."
Kaelvar faltered. His eyelids fluttered, as though a great weight pressed upon his throat. "I—I am sorry, my lord."
"It lies in the Pacific," I murmured, gaze drifting toward the map sprawled open on the table. "Or the Arctic seas. My visions are sparse, fractured… yet they always end in water. An endless drowning beneath dark waves."
Fragments of memory—slipped through my grasp like smoke each time I closed my eyes.
I shut the ancient book resting in my hands, its worn leather whispering against my fingers, and turned fully toward him. My stare pinned him where he knelt, frozen under its weight.
"Do not show yourself before me again," I said softly—too softly—"until you find it."
