Chapter Text
“Ughh, my head.” It feels like someone took my skull and bashed it against a wall a few too many times. My eyes stay shut, but I’m aware of everything around me. I hear the faint shift of fabric nearby—too close. Instinct seizes me before reason does. My hand shoots out, clamping against someone’s throat, and a blade forms in my hand, conjured as naturally as breathing. Except the moment I raise it to hover threateningly, the knife disintegrates in my hand. My eyes snap open. “Hi, Ryland. It’s been a while,” a voice says—calm, soft, far too unbothered for the situation. Alden. My dyad. I freeze, disbelieving, before instinct breaks through and I crash into him, clinging tightly. His arms wrap around me holding just as tight and for a moment I can’t let go. But then I pull back, searching his face. “What happened? Where are we?” “Northgate.” “Your kingdom? How did I get here—and why don’t I remember?” “You were asleep, you’ve actually been sleeping for a while now and… um well….” Something in his eyes tells me that he’s about to say something that I won’t like. “Don’t stall, Alden. How long is ‘a while’?” This is said with increasing suspicion and hidden nerves. He looks anywhere but at me. “Almost two decades.” The words tumble out in a single breath. “What?!” I rip the blanket off and surge to my feet. “Two decades? What do you mean two decades?” Alden rises too, hands raised in a placating gesture that somehow just makes me more furious. “To be fair, two decades isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things… when you’re immortal.” “Not that long?” My voice cracks with fury. “Says the one who hasn’t been unconscious for twenty years!” I force myself to inhale, steadying the edge in my tone. “How did I get here? Last thing I remember, I’d just come home from a job.” The sudden calm must have been slightly unnerving after the furious tone I had before, if Alden’s slightly terrified expression is anything to go by. Slowly, I sit back down on the bed and after some hesitation, likely from worry that I’ll start yelling again, he joins me. “I felt it when you fell asleep,” he says quietly. “Our connection dimmed. It was still there, but… muted. Not as vibrant as before.” “You felt the bond weaken?” My voice lowers to a near whisper. “That’s never happened before.” “I know.” The dyad bond that Alden and I share, the link that lets us read each other’s thoughts, share emotions, and shields us from each other’s magic, rests silently between us. “It doesn’t feel different now,” I say uncertainly. “I know. That’s how I knew you were about to wake up. It feels normal again.” “This wasn’t normal sleep. Not even close. Twenty years under?” “Yes.” Alden’s voice carries a weight I can’t ignore. “As soon as I felt the change in the bond, I started searching. I thought something had happened, I still do in fact. I found you in a hospital on Earth about two years ago, your lucky your glamour didn’t collapse when you entered your coma otherwise they might have started to question why you weren’t aging.” Before I get a chance to respond there’s a knock on the door and a guard slips in, head bowed. “Your Highness, an emergency Council of Six meeting has been called in three hours. Full attendance is required.” The door shuts again, leaving silence in its wake. I turn to Alden. “Council of Six? Last time I was here, a council was just an idea but it looks like you went through with it.” “He nods, “Yeah. I did. And it’s been… what? Nearly sixteen thousand years since you last came back, it’s not surprising that things changed in that time. Not that you were ever good at remembering to visit even before that.” He smiles faintly, joking on the surface, but I catch the emotion beneath. I’m sorry,” I say simply, letting the sincerity sit in my eyes. “I’ll try to work on that.” His smile takes on a more genuine edge before he continues, “this is the second council group. Terms last seven millennia, at the end of which they are required to step down. In fact, we’re nearing the end of the seven millennia, in about eight months we will be hosting the Ascension ceremony in which the council’s heirs will be taking up their new positions.” “Is that what the emergency meeting’s about?” I ask. “Maybe. That… or the terrorist attacks.” His voice drops, almost too quiet to catch. “Terrorist attacks?” My head snaps toward him. “What do you mean? How long has this been going on?” For a heartbeat he looks startled, as if he hadn’t realized he’d spoken aloud. His face takes on a complicated expression before responding. “Almost a year. Civilian casualties keep climbing. Ten successful attacks in nine months, no suspects. The only one we stopped was eleven months ago, when it all started.” He gets more and more frustrated as he speaks before he starts running his hands through his hair showing just how much these attacks were getting under his skin. I let the silence stretch before asking abruptly, “Do you have my bag?” Alden blinks, thrown by the sudden shift. “If you mean that raggedy backpack you drag along everywhere—the one spelled so no one but you can open it—then yes.” he says with no small amount of scorn. I smile slightly, despite myself, “that’d be the one.” He gets up and walks over to a shadowy corner where my backpack sits, unnoticed before now. He tosses it over to me. “I’m going to go get us some lunch. Don’t go anywhere.” He walks out the door ignoring my indignant mutterings about his ‘don’t go anywhere’ comment. Once I see he's gone, I open my backpack and pull out my computer, setting search parameters for terrorist attacks, Northgate, and King Alden filtering everything from the local dark web to my old contacts. I also pull up an algorithm to start working on getting around the encryption on the council and Alden’s private devices. While that works in the background, I take a moment to stand up and look around. The bedroom is spacious but not overdone: a four-poster bed, the chair Alden was in, a nightstand, dresser, and tall windows that spill light across polished stone floors. One door leads to a bathroom, the other into a common room. The sitting room beyond is circular, anchored by couches, armchairs, and a massive flat-screen on the wall. Several doors branch off—most appearing to be unused guest rooms. One, though, proves to have more interesting findings, it’s yet another bedroom but this one was definitely lived in. There weren’t any obvious clues like a messy bed or clothes strewn across the floor. It was the little things, like the dresser cracked open revealing clothes inside, and frequent footsteps having worn indentations into the plush carpet. I close the door not want to intrude on the resident's privacy. I’m completely unsurprised to find when I open the final door that it leads out to a long hallway. Moving back to the room I had come from, I check the laptop to find it still processing then move to the floor length window that overlooks a large lush garden filled with plants that I couldn’t even begin to name. In the distance I can see a courtyard filled with people going about with their normal lives. A beep from my computer tells me that the results are in and making my way over to it I click on the first relevant result. An article dated June 6th, yesterday. It reads, “There have been two bombings that we are aware of throughout the kingdom, one on the planet Silverden, the Shifter planet, during their annual celebration of the Wolf Moon in January. The other bombing happened right here in the Capital, Oriellan, in April. As there was no event during that month the reason behind the attack remains a mystery. There were almost two hundred casualties during the bombing on Silverden and a hundred and twelve as a result of the one on Oriellan. King Alden and the council members are insisting that the two events are unrelated but there is discontentment brewing among the people with many saying that not only are the two events connected but that there have been more that we have not yet been informed of.” The article continues on to talk about what the people think is happening, but I just skim over that part before moving on to the other results. I skip over the other articles and go straight to the classified documents my algorithm had gotten from hacking into the secured server that only Alden, the Council, and a few other officials had access to. I make a mental note to tell Alden how easy it was to hack into before I begin reading. One document lists the bombing sites and exact timestamps. I put it into a research file for later analysis before opening the next. This one catalogs the types of attacks: six bombings, three shootings, and one cyberattack. The cyberattack draws my eye. According to the report, over four hundred people were trapped in a research facility when the failsafes locked down. Before they could escape, the building was set on fire. No survivors. I move the file into my research folder and open the last document, hoping it will explain how they identified that all of these incidents were connected. It does but it gives no further information. Just two sentences and a series of photographs: “There have been over five thousand casualties with no suspects. The only clue is a sign left behind after every attack, what it depicts has not been identified.” I copy the text and all ten images into my folder just as I hear movement outside. Quickly, I start a trace-cleaning program. One final result pings—too late to read. I dump it into the folder and let the program wipe my activity. The door opens. Alden steps in as I shut my laptop, the screen dark. “What were you doing, Ryland?” Suspicion colors his tone—not about the attacks, more a general expectation that I’ve been up to something. Fair enough. He’s usually right. “I was bored. You took forever. What were you doing that took so long?” I deflect the attention away before something occurs to me. “Wait don’t tell me you got lost in your own palace.” He looks away embarrassed. “It’s a big palace, okay, I’d like to see you not get lost. Besides it’s not like I’m the one typically going to the kitchens, I’m the king.” I grin, the laugh slipping out before I can stop it. “You did get lost! How? You’ve lived here for thousands of years.” “Shut up, Ryland” he says as he hands me what looks like a to go box, but it is actually filled with delicious food from the palace kitchens. I open mine to see that he had gotten my favorite, this rich creamy pasta that only the palace kitchens ever made correctly My chest tightens for just a second. “Thanks, Alden.” “Welcome”, he says around a mouth full of food.“ I smirk. “You know, for a king, your manners are pathetic.” He shoots me a glare but doesn’t answer, unwilling to prove my point by talking with his mouth full again. After a few moments of silence, I let out a sigh. Time to start asking the questions that matter. “Who knows I’m here? You couldn’t have kept it secret for almost two years.” Alden hesitates, weighing his answer. “Not many. Just my guards, the head healer, and myself. That should be… twenty people, give or take.” “Not the council?” I press. “No. The council doesn’t get involved in my personal matters—despite what they like to think.” “Then what do they do exactly?” He leans back, thoughtful. “Officially? They assist me in ruling, and they’re responsible for providing insight on the planet and species they represent. Realistically…” he grins, “…most of the time they argue for hours before ending up right where we started. Still, they’ve been useful. They’ve helped unify the kingdom and given each species more of a voice.” I nod slowly, letting that settle before asking, “How are the heirs chosen? Is there a system for that?” Alden shoots me a sharp look. “You’ve been awake less than an hour and you’re already digging for information?” He says it like a reprimand, but after a pause, he answers anyway. “Heirs need to be chosen exactly 1000 years prior to the Ascension ceremony this way they have plenty of time to learn what they need to do. When picking the heirs there are only three basic requirements: heirs must be between one and two thousand years old, approved by me, and of ancient bloodlines. Beyond that, it depends on the species. Shifters and vampires inherit through their royal families. Humans…” He exhales, almost amused. “They elect theirs by popular vote. Brutal process. Honestly, I pity their heir—the public was vicious.” I sit quietly for a moment, weighing my next move. “Would you mind if I tagged along to the Council meeting?” I ask casually, though the request is anything but. It’s the perfect chance to study the council members and their heirs—and maybe get insight on the upcoming succession. Alden arches a brow. “Why you’d want to, I have no idea. They’re painfully dull. But… you’re not a security risk, and the only sensitive matter on the agenda is the terrorist attacks. You already know about those. So… fine.” “Good.”