BLOODBOUND: Fated To The Beast

The Strange Book

Rina did not slow down. She turned into a corridor and pulled Yvaine down into another corridor.

"Rina,” she said, trying to match her pace, “you’re going to explain where we’re going.”

"You'll see. In a second"

"That's not an answer."

"It is. Just not the one you want right now," Rina said, now cheerfully, still walking.

Yvaine frowned but she didn't pull her hand free. She let the girl pull her down two more corridors. The castle seemed larger the faster they moved through it.

Yvaine’s irritation built slowly. She didn’t like being led without explanation. She didn’t like not knowing where she was going.

They reached a narrow staircase. Rina took it without slowing, pulling Yvaine up with her. By the time they reached the top, Yvaine’s patience was thinning.

“Rina, if this is not worth—”

"It is,” Rina cut in, pushing open a heavy door. The lights spilt through. Rina dragged her forward and stopped at a high window set into the stone wall.

She positioned herself beside it and gestured for Yvaine to come over.

Look.”

Yvaine stepped closer to the window, her breath still uneven from the pace. Then she looked down.

The training grounds stretched out below them. Soldiers moved across the open space, sparring with a focus that looked too serious for practice.

At the centre of it was Kael.

He had no armour on, no crown. He stood there with the sleeves of his dark shirt pushed up and a sword in his hand.

Just then, three men came up to him. He stepped aside, caught the arm of one man, and threw him to the ground in one move. Another came from behind and he turned at the last second, blocked the strike and returned it hard enough that the man stumbled back three steps.

Yvaine’s brows pulled together slightly. He was with her a few moments ago, showing her around the castle and had left before she could ask him a question. There was no reasonable way he had reached the training ground, changed and already deep into something that looked like it had been going on for a while.

It just didn’t make sense.

"You can watch,” Rina said beside her, leaning casually against the wall. “Everyone does at least once.”

Yvaine didn’t respond.

Below, one of the soldiers lunged again at Kael. He shifted, twisted the soldier's wrist, forcing the man’s weapon aside, then stepped in close and knocked him off balance.

The man hit the ground hard.

More and more soldiers came at him again.

Yvaine folded her arms slowly across her chest. She told herself she would just watch him for a short moment and after that, she would go.

"His Highness trains every morning,” Rina started. “It doesn’t matter what happened the night before or if there’s a war meeting or a feast or someone trying to poison someone else. He’s here. Some mornings he's done by the time the rest of the castle wakes up. Other mornings he goes until midday."

Yvaine nodded, her eyes still on the ground below.

Below, Kael took one step and turned. His blade came up, then down, stopping just short of a man’s throat.

The man froze.

Kael stepped back, already turning toward the next. There was nothing extra in the way he fought.

One of them came in too fast. Kael stepped to the side, caught his arm, and used his own momentum to throw him to the ground.

It was over in seconds.

Yvaine’s fingers tightened slightly against her arm.

“They don’t go easy on him,” Rina said, almost proudly. “At least, they try not to.”

Yvaine let out a quiet breath. “They’re failing.”

Rina grinned. “Yes.” She went on. "He has favourites,” nodding toward a broad-shouldered man with a scar across his jaw, who was currently circling Kael with his guard up. "That's Commander Deimos. He’s the one who tested him when he first came here.”

Yvaine glanced briefly in the direction Rina indicated. “Tested him how?”

Rina straightened a little, clearly enjoying this part. “Challenged him. It's not because he wanted to take his place. He just wanted to see if His Highness was worth following. But well, he lasted less than a minute.”

Yvaine looked back down at the ground. That didn’t surprise her.

"He swore allegiance that same day," Rina said. "He's never left."

Yvaine watched Deimos move. He was faster than the other men and careful. But still Kael stayed a step ahead of him without appearing to try.

Her gaze lingered on him for a long time. This was not the same man who sat across from her at breakfast.

"Interesting, isn’t it?”

The voice came from her left. She startled and turned sharply.

A man was leaning against the stone with his arms crossed and a grin on his face.

"Good place to stand,” he said, glancing out the window. “Best view without getting hit.”

Rina waved a hand. “Aeron, don’t start.”

Aeron grinned wider. “I haven’t even started yet.” He looked back at Yvaine.

“Aeron,” he said, as if that explained everything.

“Yvaine,” she replied.

“I know, My Lady.” He said, giving a short bow that was both respectful and completely casual at the same time. "I serve under Commander Deimos."

Yvaine looked at him for a moment. "You appeared from nowhere."

"I came up the south staircase," he said pleasantly. "I do it every morning. Good view of the grounds from here when I'm not training." He glanced at Rina. "Though usually it's just her."

Rina said nothing. She had found something interesting to look at on the opposite wall.

Aeron turned back to the window. "His Highness has been training every morning since before Noctris had proper walls. Back when this was just land and a plan and a group of people who had decided to follow him anyway." He was quiet for a moment, watching below.

Yvaine listened without looking at him.

"He trained in his father's dungeon too. Before all of this." He said it the same way he had said everything else, lightly, like it was a small and ordinary fact. "With nothing but the dark and whatever they hadn't taken from him yet."

Yvaine’s gaze didn’t move from the ground below, but something in her expression tightened.

Aeron didn’t wait for a response. He pushed himself off the wall and rolled his shoulders. "Anyway." He gave another easy nod to Yvaine, "You'll get used to it." He started walking back toward the south staircase, already humming something low and tuneless.

Rina watched him go, then looked back at Yvaine. "Don’t mind him,” she said. “He talks like that about everything.”

Yvaine turned back to the window.

One by one, the men stepped back, breathing harder now. Some of them had stopped and were drinking water or recovering. Kael had stepped back from the centre and was standing still, his chest rising and falling.

Then he looked up, directly at the window where Yvaine was standing. Like he had known she was there the whole time and had simply been waiting for a long pause to acknowledge it.

Their eyes met and Yvaine did not step back. She held his gaze for a long moment and he did the same.

Just when she was about to look away, one of the soldiers below said something and Kael turned his head toward the man and the moment broke.

Yvaine exhaled slowly, letting out the air she didn't realise she was holding.

Beside her, Rina went quiet. Then, when she spoke, her voice was softer.

"He never looks up at that window. Not once since I've been here."

Yvaine said nothing. She stepped back from the window and turned away from the view.

"Come on," she said, walking towards the door. "We should go."

Rina blinked. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Rina followed without another argument

...

Yvaine spent the rest of the day not thinking about the window. She was mostly unsuccessful.

She sat through a brief meeting with Maelis about the schedule for the following days and nodded at the right times.

She walked the inner corridor near her chamber because the movement helped her think. She stood on the small balcony outside her room for a while and watched the kingdom below until the cold made staying there impractical.

By the evening, she went back to her room. She pushed open her chamber door and stopped.

A package sat on the small table by the window. She didn't remember it being there when she left. She stepped inside and crossed to the table.

Behind her, a maid moved quietly through the room, gathering cloths from where she had been cleaning. Her back was turned.

Yvaine opened the package. Inside was an old book. The edges were worn just enough to show it had been handled many times. The titles were written in letters she didn't recognise. She ran her fingers across them slowly.

Then, she opened the first page. The words shimmered slightly, just long enough that she blinked and leaned closer, certain she had imagined it.

Then, it settled back into what she almost knew.

She frowned. The letters still didn’t make sense. But the language looked like it was sitting at the edge of her memory, like something she should be able to read but couldn't.

She closed it slowly and turned.

The maid was gathering the last of her things, already moving toward the door.

"Who left this here?" Yvaine asked.

The maid paused and turned. "A warrior brought it, My Lady. He said you had requested it."

Yvaine looked at the book. Then at the maid. "I didn't request anything."

The maid blinked once. "That is what he said, My Lady." She gave a quick bow and moved toward the door.

"Wait," Yvaine said.

But the maid had already slipped out, closing the door behind her.

She stood alone in the quiet room with the book in her hands. She hadn't asked for this. Yet it was delivered in her name.

She sat down, opened it and turned the pages slowly. The texts were strange and unreadable and there were diagrams she couldn't make sense of. But she kept going, turning the pages.

Then she stopped.

One page had no text. Just an illustration in ink so dark it looked fresh. A woman, standing straight with her chin lifted, surrounded by symbols arranged in a circle.

Yvaine stared at it.

Then slowly, she brought the book closer.

Her hands had started to tremble before her mind caught up with what her eyes were seeing.

The woman in the illustration was her. It was her exact face.

She turned the book over. Checked the cover, the spine, and the worn edges. It was old. Older than anything she had ever held.

She opened it again and looked at the illustration again, because she needed to be wrong about this.

She wasn't.

She had never been to Noctris before the wedding. But someone had drawn her face in a book before she arrived.