The prince didn't come to the garden the next day.
Neither did the sun.
The palace sat heavy beneath a curtain of pale gray — not storm, not shadow. Just stillness.
Like the world was holding its breath.
I wasn't assigned to clean.
I wasn't assigned at all.
No orders.
No summons.
Just silence.
And that worried me more than anything.
Silence in the palace isn't absence.
It's design.
It means something is happening — and no one's telling you yet.
I stayed in my room.
Stared at the wall.
Tried not to think of Kael.
His name hadn't been spoken in days.
But I could feel him moving again — not in footsteps.
In the walls. In the weight of things.
The creak in the air when I shifted too loudly.
The pause in a candle's flicker when I breathed.
When I looked toward the window, I half-expected him to be there.
Mask on.
Eyes still.
Watching.
There was nothing there.
Just gray light… and the outline of the southern tower in fog.
At noon, a servant I didn't know came.
Young. Silent. Pale.
He handed me a folded black robe and left.
No instructions. No seal.
But I understood.
I was being summoned.
I washed.
Dressed.
Didn't ask where to go.
My feet moved without needing to be told.
The halls were too still.
Every third pillar guarded. Polished spears. No one spoke.
As I walked, no one looked me in the eye.
But I could feel it — not on my face.
On my back.
Like they were memorizing it.
A priest was waiting at the Western Wing.
She used to teach Kael. She had never looked at me.
Now she did.
Her eyes were soft.
It made me nervous.
"This way," she said.
The room was part of the old sanctum.
Used for rites. Cleansings. Quiet rituals.
The scent of ash and sage lingered in the stones.
The walls glowed faintly with runes — fresh, deep, still humming.
A basin of warm water stood in the center.
A folded towel. Two cloths.
And a robe the color of dusk.
"You're not being punished," the priest said.
I didn't answer.
She stepped closer and brushed hair from my eyes.
I flinched.
"There's nothing to fear," she said.
"You're being… prepared. Marked. Bound by rite."
"Marked for what?"
She didn't reply.
When she left, I didn't move.
I stared into the basin.
The boy reflected back didn't look afraid.
Just… hollow. Still.
I stepped into the water.
Not hot. Not cold. Just there.
Time passed strangely.
Hands came and went.
They anointed my arms. Whispered words I didn't understand.
Drew runes along my spine.
No one explained.
No one asked how it felt.
When they finished, I was dressed in the dusk robe and led to a smaller room.
Stone walls. One bench.
And a glowing red sigil on the far wall.
I'd seen it once — scribbled on a scroll I wasn't meant to read.
Ash-class.
But now it pulsed. Like a heart.
They left me alone.
I sat on the bench.
And waited.
Not because I wanted to.
Because I knew this was what came next.
The silence here was… different.
Not cruel.
Not even cold.
Just quiet. Heavy. Unmistakably familiar.
The kind of silence that watches.
I didn't know how long passed.
But eventually… the air shifted.
No footsteps.
No voice.
But I knew.
Kael was near.
And I understood something without anyone needing to say it:I wasn't being punished.I was being bound.