He walked on, encountering more faces.
He saw a girl take refuge under a portico, trembling. She bore the emblem of a small eastern house, House Berivan—nothing more than a twig in the storm of power. Another, in an abandoned stable, confronted him with anger: she insulted him, threatened him. Then she fell to her knees and wept.
Yet another, with a vacant gaze, said nothing. She looked at him in silence, hoping he would ignore her.
He did. He left them all.
One by one.
He wasn't there for desperate women, nor to collect prey.
He was there to be reborn.
But as time passed, the tension grew.
He knew the three houses were participating; he had heard their names whispered by merchants, confirmed by heralds.
They were in the city. He was certain.
And someone, at that very moment, could already be on their trail.
He couldn't afford a mistake.
He climbed over a low wall, crossed a ruined fountain, and took a wide detour around a group of men singing victory.
Voices rose in every street. Conquests, alliances, dowries: everything was in motion. Everything except him.
The sun, high for hours, began to bend slowly, coloring the edges of the broken roofs with coppery reflections.
Sunset hadn't yet arrived, but it awaited him.
And with it, fear. The certainty that if he didn't find one of the three, his only chance would vanish.
And with it, his house.
Aurelian's steps led him to an abandoned district, north of the Oath Ring. The houses, half-destroyed and swallowed by vines, looked like empty shells, remnants of forgotten lives.
A scream shattered the silence.
He turned sharply, just in time to glimpse a female figure stumbling along a side street.
Behind her, a man pursued with heavy, determined steps, a ferocious smile etched on his face.
Aurelian reached him unnoticed. He hid behind a cracked wall and observed.
The girl tripped, fell, tried to get up, but the man was upon her in a flash.
He pinned her to the ground with a knee, grabbed her wrists with one hand, and with the other rummaged through his cloak.
"It's useless!" he growled, trying to keep her still with his entire body. "No point in struggling, you're mine now. Accept the ring, or I'll force it onto your finger."
She squirmed, scratched, kicked.
"Never!" she screamed. "Never! Let me go! I don't want this!"
Aurelian, still hidden among the remnants of a portico, watched closely.
The girl's cloak was tattered, but not enough to hide the emblem: a five-petaled midnight blue flower, symbol of House Lahrven, a minor family from Virel.
Not one of the three he was seeking.
He turned to leave.
But at that moment, she saw him.
"Help! You—there, down there! Help me!"
Aurelian stopped.
He turned slowly toward her.
The man noticed his presence. He rose slightly, not entirely releasing the girl. His eyes narrowed.
"Don't try to come closer," he said in a low, threatening voice.
Then he saw clearly. The emblem sewn on the chest of Aurelian's dusty robe: the two-headed serpent, the symbol of House Var Chesen.
He burst into laughter.
A long, coarse laugh.
"Oh, look at that. You asked him for help?" he said to the girl. "You want the last shadow of the Var Chesen to save you? A walking ruin? You're that desperate?"
The girl also looked at Aurelian's emblem.
And her face changed.
Hope extinguished.
Terror coursed through her like a shiver.
"No..." she whispered. "No no no..."
She clung to the man who had pinned her.
"Please! Put it on me! Put the ring on me now! I beg you! I'll be yours! Yours forever, just don't leave me to him!"
The man stared at her, stunned for a moment, then laughed even louder.
He took the ring from his pouch and slipped it onto her ring finger with a swift, theatrical gesture.
"You heard that?" he said to Aurelian. "Better to be mine than yours."
Aurelian remained motionless.
He said nothing.
He didn't even look at him.
He turned, his steps slow, his face like stone.
Inside, he burned.
Not for the woman.
Not for the laughter.
But for the truth that had struck him like a hammer blow.
It didn't matter.
Time was running out.
And the sunset painted the broken buildings with copper and shadow.
Night was coming.
And Aurelian still had nothing.
He continued searching.
He traversed narrow streets and deserted squares, worn stairs and ruined courtyards. He encountered other men, passed frightened women who threw themselves into the darkness like fleeing deer. He moved among ruins and forgotten palaces, scrutinizing every face, every garment, every emblem. But wherever he looked, the insignias were never the right ones. No phoenix, no golden eye set in an obsidian pyramid, no two-tailed wolf.
Several times he thought he had found a clue, a detail, a hint... but it always turned out to be a mistake. A betrayed hope.
And so the hours slipped away.
Aurelian began to feel them in his flesh, in his mind, in his heart. Each step was slower. Each thought, heavier.
The day was ending.
And still, none of the three.
Night finally fell over Valetar, spreading a cloak of shadow and silence over the ancient stones.
Torches, scattered like fireflies, flickered faintly at the more frequented crossroads.
But where Aurelian moved, there was only darkness, and the distant echo of a fading dream.
He had searched to the point of exhaustion. He had walked through streets he no longer remembered traversing, driven only by the strength of his intent. But at some point, the weight on his shoulders became too much. His heart was strong, but his legs were tired.
He found refuge in an abandoned house, with broken windows and cracked walls. Inside, among broken planks and the damp scent of rotting wood, he curled up beside an old, cold fireplace. He didn't truly sleep, but rested enough to get back on his feet.
"One woman... one alliance..." he murmured in the dark, clutching the small ring wrapped in a cloth. The metal was cold and light, but in Aurelian's hands, it weighed like an oath.
When he set out again, Valetar was a labyrinth of silence and shadows. He searched again. Several times he crossed paths with solitary figures or small groups: men with feverish eyes, women fleeing, newly formed couples exchanging promises and threats.
The hours passed.
Then, a scream.
Male. Painful. Not far.
Aurelian paused for a moment. Then he ran, silent as air, in the direction from which that broken sound had come.
He turned a corner.
And he saw her.