Vaethelion of House Corvus walked beside me like he owned the street.
Not with arrogance.
Not with dominance.
With curiosity.
Dangerous, innocent curiosity the kind only someone born beyond consequence could afford.
Neon flashed across his porcelain mask as he took in every corner of Sin Rouge with childlike fascination. A flock of shimmering astral feathers drifted lazily around him, glowing faintly in the purple haze of the Lust Ring.
Aethervoid Plumage.
Signature magic of his branch of Goetia.
Beautiful.
Harmless-looking.
Lethal.
My people stayed two steps behind us, as if proximity alone might offend a noble bloodline. Dreg walked stiffly, Skit tried to disappear into his own jacket, Donnie observed every movement carefully, and Quill… Quill was staring at the feathers like they were puzzles he desperately wanted to reverse-engineer.
Liza, moved silently at my side graceful, alert, and fast enough to vanish behind debris at the first sign of danger. No magic. No illusions. Just training, instinct, and the kind of agility you only sharpen while surviving a slum life.
Vael stopped abruptly.
The feathers around him shifted, spiraling into a slow orbit.
"Oooh… There it is again."
I turned slightly. "The… sensation you mentioned?"
"Yes!" He nodded eagerly. "It's stronger here. The air feels so strange. Like"
He made a vague gesture with both hands.
"Like someone brushed all the emotions in this area in the same direction."
Behind me, Quill muttered:
"What the hell does that even mean?"
Donnie elbowed him sharply.
Vael continued, oblivious:
"It's calm. But not naturally calm. Shaped. Pressed. Balanced."
He leaned closer to the cracked pavement.
"Like a still pond someone smoothed with magic fingers."
His words were too close to the truth.
My cultivation had been warping the emotional density of this block for months creating a subtle resonance field that made the chaos… quieter. Not magically silent. Just slightly organized.
Goetia didn't detect Echo Rings.
But Vael's strange atmospheric instinct felt the difference.
He didn't understand it.
Didn't analyze it.
He merely followed it.
"Is that why you entered this district?" I asked carefully.
He nodded, feathers flickering like starlight.
"Exactly! I sensed a little 'ping' of oddness from far, far away. And I thought, 'Oh! Something delightful is happening down there!' So I flew down for a look."
"You flew?" Skit whispered, horrified.
Vael tilted his head. "Well, yes. Teleportation would have been faster, but I wanted to enjoy the view."
Quill's hands twitched like he wanted to strangle air.
Dreg leaned close to me, voice low.
"You sure he's not here to cause trouble?"
"He's not hiding hostility," I replied quietly. "Just curiosity."
Liza whispered from my other side:
"He's… weirdly harmless."
She wasn't wrong.
Vael didn't carry himself like someone seeking power.
No hunger.
No arrogance.
No political calculation.
Just youthful fascination wrapped in aristocratic elegance.
We continued through the narrow alleys.
Vael marveled at dying neon signs, cracked windows, rusted pipes, broken tiles treating each like a museum artifact.
"This place feels alive," he said softly. "And wounded. But also… hopeful? That's new. Slums don't usually hum with hope."
My people exchanged glances.
He could sense emotional shifts nothing more.
But even that was dangerous information.
Vael stepped past a broken lamppost and suddenly extended a hand.
A feather detached from his orbit.
It elongated.
Hardened.
Turned into a crystalline shard.
With a flick, he sent it forward slicing cleanly through a dangling metal chain three meters away.
The chain clattered to the ground.
Vael giggled.
"I love doing that."
Quill swallowed loudly.
"What… what do you call that?"
"Oh! Aether Shard Feather," Vael said proudly. "Father says I shouldn't weaponize my Plumage for fun, but it's so satisfying!"
He was powerful.
Extremely powerful.
But not focused.
Not strategic.
A storm without direction.
Still, accidents kill faster than intentions.
"So," Vael said, clasping his hands eagerly, "will you give me a proper tour? All the interesting places here? I want to see where the 'air-flattening' sensation is strongest."
I internally winced.
Alastor whispered:
"Charming child. Catastrophic timing."
I forced a smile.
Fine. But stay close. This district isn't safe.
Vael's feathers brightened.
"Oh, I know! That's what makes it exciting!"
Behind me, Skit fainted again.
Liza, even without magic, slid forward gracefully and whispered into my ear:
"We're babysitting a noble."
Worse, I murmured.
We're babysitting a noble who likes this neighborhood.
Vael spun once, letting feathers trail light behind him.
"Well then!" he said cheerfully.
"Lead the way, Malerion. I want to see everything."
And so the prince followed me deeper into Sin Rouge.
Bright.
Curious.
Dangerously fascinated.
A glowing royal bird wandering through a den of knives.
And for the first time in a long while,
I wasn't sure
which one of us was in more danger.