Bonus Chapter
289 Words
Ten years ago, the ruins of Elvyn District were a graveyard of forgotten tech and promises that never met the sun. Aurelian Vale stood there, soaked in cold light, fingers numb from clutching a sealed letter.
It was the day after Elias Vale, his older brother, died in an unexplained explosion—officially labeled an accident, privately buried with urgency. Elias had been Aurelian’s closest confidant, the only Vale who questioned their family's rise. But Elias left something behind:
A sketch. A note. A map to Elvyn.
“Look deeper. What Father built… wasn’t clean.”
So Aurelian came.
He expected metal and silence.
Instead, a shadow crossed his path—Kairo, then just a ghost in leather, contracted to extract a prototype from the forgotten vault.
They didn't fight.
They didn’t speak much either.
But something about the young heir's grief struck Kairo silent.
And something in Kairo’s gaze gave Aurelian pause. A spark of recognition.
“This vault belonged to someone who destroyed my brother,” Aurelian said.
“Then maybe I’ll help you find out why,” Kairo replied.
That night, the vault opened—not with codes, but with uneasy trust.
Inside were ledgers tying Elias's name to a scrapped AI surveillance initiative—funded by Vale Foundation but rerouted through shell fronts.
Aurelian saw dates that didn't match. Emails Elias was never supposed to read. A single ledger entry signed “CV”—Castor Vale.
His father.
Kairo handed Aurelian a chip before leaving.
“You’ll keep asking. You just need to survive the answers.”
Their paths split.
But something stayed.
A truth neither could swallow.
A grief neither could explain.
A bond no legacy could erase.
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- Writer
