Seamus opened his eyes slowly as a bright light stabbed into him. He covered his face and blinked until the glare softened, then sat up and tried to make sense of it.

Everything around him was white and too clean. Then he heard someone laugh.

"Oh my, this part is fun," the voice said.

The sound was accompanied by the muffled noise of someone eating.

Seamus sat bolt upright and lunged toward the sound. He grabbed the man who was sitting too close for comfort and shook him by the shoulder.

"WHAT THE HELL? TURN IT OFF!"

The man barely flinched. Dark hair fell over half his face and he grinned as if this were a private joke.

"Why? You know that your life was boring until Isolde showed up, right? She is really good at stirring up anger in anyone." he said. "What is the new generation calling it again, rage baiting?"

"Fuck you, X," Seamus spat, then turned his head toward the giant screen that filled the white room.

The image on the screen made his stomach drop. It showed him having sex with Isolde.

"What the hell is this? Where am I?" he demanded.

"Calm down," X said as if that were obvious.

"This is your subconscious. I am watching your memories. Want to know who I am?"

He shrugged and continued eating popcorn in a way that made Seamus want to hit him.

"I know who you are," Seamus said. He swallowed and forced his voice steady.

"You are the Emblem. That is why I did not kill the raven and I know the voice in my head was not Madeline."

X laughed. "Ah, clever. I thought you two were lovers. Which would be disgusting, by the way. Madeline is insufferable." He chewed loudly.

"Madeline is the only one helping me here."

X paused and cocked his head. "Yes, but she hides it like a cat. She teases and mocks and then pretends she does not care. It is a strange sort of tenderness."

Seamus felt the anger rise in him and tried to shove it down. He had no time for X's games.

Corvane still stood somewhere beyond the screen and Roanna was likely planning something worse.

"Now that you are here, you need to punish Corvane or you don't want to cause yourself work with them? If so, I will kill you myself!"

"Wow, wow, calm down," the man said, waving a popcorn-stained hand. "Why not rest a little? You have been fighting nonstop. You need to relax."

Seamus tightened his grip on X's collar. "I cannot believe you are more annoying than Madeline. How can I relax when everything is crumbling?"

X rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. Another screen slid into view beside the first. Seamus's breath caught.

The new panel showed an old man fighting with the Crow. Another screen showed a beautiful woman with strange hair color locked in combat with an elderly woman Seamus did not recognize.

A third screen displayed Isolde and Roanna facing one another, poised and dangerous.

"This is... who are they? Are they with Isolde?" Seamus asked.

The tightness in his shoulders eased by a fraction and his muscles went slack with the relief he had not known he needed.

If those people were allies, he would not have to fight Corvane alone.

X finished the popcorn, tossed the empty bag aside, and grinned. "Good. Now you can relax a little. Let fate do its job. Don't you feel curious about how Corvane managed to pull all this off while I still can't punish them?"

Seamus flicked his gaze between the screens and X. He finally exhaled, giving up. With a tired grunt, he sat down in front of the man.

"Go on then. I'm listening."

"Nice," X said, crossing his arms. "Let's start with Roanna's background story first."

"Really? Do I need to?"

"Of course, every good story needs to have a good character background."

Seamus chuckled, leaning back with his arms folded. "Let me guess, a tragic childhood? A sob story that makes her want to take revenge on the world?"

"Of course not," X replied, his grin widening. "That kind of story's for amateurs."

"Roanna was already broken from the start. She's been a psychopath since the moment she could move her hands freely."

He snapped his fingers, and another screen flickered to life. On it was a little girl with dark hair and silver eyes, Roanna, before she became the monster everyone knew.

She was in a garden, chasing butterflies with innocent laughter. But then the image twisted, the girl slammed the butterflies with a brick, crushing their fragile wings before dragging the remains across the ground.

The scene shifted again, showing her holding a dead cat, its fur stained red. Then a dog. Then a maid screamed as Roanna shoved her from a high tower.

"When her father found out, she cried and told him the maid hated her and tried to kill her. Claimed it was self-defense. And he believed her."

Seamus frowned slightly. He had seen far worse in his life, yet something about that child's expression unsettled him.

"Roanna's father was the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Morum," X continued.

"A good man, or at least as good as any royal could be. He loved his daughter, spoiled her rotten. Until she decided to test something new."

The screen changed again, showing Roanna and her father sitting at a tea table.

The man looked frail — his body thin, his eyes sunken, his fingers trembling as he reached for his cup. Roanna poured him tea, smiling politely.

"She's the one who weakened him," X said casually, as if discussing the weather.

"Poisoned his Vitalis Core and—voilà—the war between princes and princesses broke out. The Crown Prince died first."

"Just like that," X went on, "Roanna lost the crown she wanted most."

"Her father's death became meaningless, and she was tossed aside because she was still too weak compared to the others."

Seamus's eyes sharpened. "And you just watched? Let them grow stronger while you did nothing?"

"Hey, I didn't do anything," X said, throwing up his hands.

"My crest was stolen, hidden somewhere far away, and I've been trapped in this realm ever since. They took control of it, cut me off from the world entirely."

"So yeah, blame Roanna for everything."

Seamus studied him, suspicion clear on his face. X was supposed to be the "protector" of House Corvane, the living emblem of their bloodline.

How could something like that be subdued so easily?

Even Madeline hadn't punished Isolde for killing Viviane. It was as if both emblems simply allowed their descendants to run wild, waiting for some greater sin before acting.

'Was that it? Were they waiting for the crime to grow too big to ignore?'

But Corvane had already crossed every imaginable line. They'd experimented on children, slaughtered civilians to create "Madness Boxes."

"You're the symbol of this House," Seamus said, disbelief lacing his tone.

"And I'm supposed to believe someone just waltzed in and stole your crest? What even is this crest and what's the criteria for you to punish your own House?"

X's grin widened, something wicked dancing behind it. "You really want to know?"

He leaned closer, voice dropping to a whisper.

"Follow me."

***

Roanna slammed her hand against the armrest of her throne until the sound echoed through the silent hall.

"Damn those cursed lives. Useless. Waste of existence."

She clutched at her hair and bit her nail. "Damn it all. I am leaving."

What was the point of staying? Her plan to make a Madness Box had failed.

The territory that was supposed to become lawless and chaotic, where scavengers would rule and order would break apart, had not turned in her favor.

She had imagined it as the perfect distraction, a place to draw enemies while she snatched Seamus and retreated. Instead, it had become another mess.

She had imagined seizing the territory from Velstrath if necessary, but she lacked allies.

Even if she defeated Isolde, fighting Ulrich and the rest at the same time was impossible.

"Tch. I should have taken a different territory."

It did not matter for now. She had to seize Seamus and disappear for a while. Gather more allies. Evolve.

Once she had the Crimson Nectar, she would be unrivaled. She would sweep through them and build the kingdom she believed was rightfully hers.

"I will make my own kingdom, the one I was meant to have," she said, laughing, the sound brittle and hard.

The air shifted as if a curtain had been drawn. A rift tore open in the throne room and two figures stepped through.

Roanna's face curled with contempt when she recognized one of them.

"Ah, you again, Isolde," she sneered. "Have you come to challenge me and lose pathetically like old times?"

Isolde's laugh was small and controlled. She shook her head. "If you believe I do not change in a hundred years, you are a fool, Roanna."

Her heels clicked on the floor as she walked toward the throne. "Look at the ruin you made. You set the town ablaze to try and take Seamus. What a joke."

She paused, watching Roanna with amusement that made the other woman grit her teeth.

"Look at me," Isolde said, a smile curling at the corner of her mouth, "I owned him in a day with a foolish little thing called love."

Her grin widened as if she had already counted the victory.

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