The trees around us seemed to hold their breath. Six riders sat motionless behind Vera, their horses' flanks dark with sweat from what must have been a hard chase. Each wore red spade insignia on their armor, not the black spades of House Veil's hunters, but crimson ones that burned in the dappled forest light.

  "You've been busy," Vera said. Her voice was the same as the first time she'd shown up on the road, controlled, deliberate, every word placed with the precision of someone who'd spent years making sure nothing she said could be used against her. It hadn't softened. If anything, standing here in the dark with forty-seven riders at her back, it felt heavier.

  I kept my hand near my belt, fingers brushing the damaged Shadow Step card. "You found me fast."

  "The forest belongs to my people now. The ones who stayed behind when mother left." She slid off her horse in one fluid motion, boots hitting the mossy ground without a sound. Same grace I had, maybe more. "I've been tracking you since you left the safehouse. Watched you fight twelve Wolves at the mill. Watched you kill a Professional."

  "They're alive," I said.

  "They'll wish they weren't. Shadow wounds that won't heal properly will slow them for months." She stopped three feet away, studying me with those gray eyes, our mother's eyes. "You've changed, Dere. The boy who couldn't hurt a fly is gone."

  "The boy who couldn't hurt a fly died in that dungeon." The words came out colder than I intended. "What do you want, Vera?"

  She flinched. Just slightly, but I caught it. Good. She should know what her little brother became to survive.

  "I want to bring you home. To the red-spades." She gestured behind her. "We're guardians, Dere. Mother founded us before she disappeared. We've protected the Rene bloodline for three generations while House Veil hunted us. When she vanished, I took over."

  I thought of the letter in my pendant. The one that mentioned our uncle in Qora. The one that said he'd orchestrated everything.

  "Mother's letter mentioned him. Our uncle."

  Vera's expression flickered, something between grief and anger. "Kael. Yes. He's the reason mother disappeared."

  One of the riders behind her coughed. A horse shifted, bit at its bridle. The forest sounds rushed back in, the chatter of birds, the rustle of wind through leaves.

  "Talk to me." I stepped closer, lowering my voice. "All of it."

  Vera glanced at her riders, then back at me. "Not here. Veil hunters are still searching the eastern road. The Ace herself is leading them."

  The silver-haired Ace. The one who'd hunted our family for seven years. My muscles tightened at the thought of those pale gray eyes finding me in the dark.

  "How many?"

  "Sixteen, last count. Professional-tier scouts, elite trackers. Two of them carry Tier 0 cards."

  Tier 0. Beyond Tier 0. The same tier as my Classless card, my Void Slice, my Absolute Null. Cards so rare that most players went their entire lives without seeing one.

  I had three of them.

  Something like a grim smile crossed my face. "They'll need more than sixteen."

  Vera's eyebrows rose. "You're that confident?"

  "I killed a Professional-tier Wolf in the Grimvale market. In front of the Sapphire Guard." I spread my hands, showing the calluses and scars that hadn't been there a month ago. "The Classless card makes me stronger every day. Whatever they send, I'll be ready."

  "You're not listening." Vera's voice hardened. "The Ace of Veil isn't like the others. She's been hunting our bloodline since before you were born. She killed our grandmother. Our father barely escaped her the night mother disappeared. He's not coming back from that, by the way. He died two years ago in a Veil prison. They kept him alive for months, trying to find where mother hid the cards."

  The world tilted. I grabbed a tree branch to steady myself.

  Dad was dead.

  He'd been alive this whole time, rotting in some Veil cell while I wandered Grimvale thinking he'd simply abandoned us. The grief hit like a fist to the chest, stealing my breath.

  "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "When? In the letters I couldn't send because Veil intercepts everything?" Vera's eyes glistened, but she held the tears back. "I was twelve when he died. I watched them take mother from our home. I spent three years learning to become someone they'd never suspect, and you're angry I didn't share my trauma in a letter?"

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  One of her riders, older, gray-haired, spoke up. "Young master, the princess has carried this alone for years. She's built the red-spades from nothing. Every safehouse, every escape route, every ally, we have because of her."

  I looked at Vera differently now. Not as the sister who left, but as the sister who fought a war I knew nothing about.

  "The red-spades," I said slowly. "How many?"

  "Forty-seven currently. Three more in Qora, setting up operations there. We have safehouses in every major city, connections in all four Carfa houses." Vera's voice steadied. "We can get you to Qora safely. We can help you find uncle Kael. And when you're ready, we can bring House Veil down."

  Uncle Kael. The name in mother's letter. The one who orchestrated everything, whatever that meant.

  "What did he do?"

  Vera's jaw tightened. "He sold us out. All of us. Mother discovered he was working with the King, passing information about the Rene family location. When she confronted him, he had her arrested. She's still alive, Dere. In the Veil capital's deepest prison. But she's dying, their shadow corruption is eating her from the inside."

  My mother's alive.

  The hope that surged through me was almost painful. All this time, I'd thought she was dead. Abandoned us. Left us to the Wolves.

  "She knew you'd come for her eventually," Vera continued. "She planned everything. The letters, the pendant, the safehouses, she set it up years ago. She knew you'd get the Classless card somehow. She knew you'd become strong enough to save her."

  I touched the pendant at my chest. Inside it, mother's letters waited, the last pieces of a puzzle I was only now beginning to see clearly.

  "Why me? Why not you?"

  "Because you're the Seventh Child." Vera's voice dropped to almost a whisper. "The prophecy says the Seventh Child will wake the source. Mother believed it. She arranged everything so you'd have the best chance. The Classless card, Multiskill, the stats, it's all connected."

  The Seventh Child. I'd heard the term before, in whispers and half-remembered legends. Someone who could touch the source itself, the original entity that created the cards.

  "And if I don't want to save her? If I just want to disappear?"

  Vera's expression hardened. "Then she'll die. And uncle Kael will keep selling out everyone mother ever loved until there's no one left. He has three of the seven Tier 0 cards now. He's using them to build his own power base within House Veil. When he's strong enough, he'll challenge the King himself."

  "That's not my problem."

  "It is now." Vera stepped forward, grabbing my wrist. Her grip was iron-tight, trained by years of shadow combat. "The Ace of Veil is hunting you. The Iron Wolves want you dead. The King himself marked you for capture. Your only allies are a Crimson operative who can't protect you, a Sapphire guard who doesn't care, and a dead woman's memory. You have nowhere to go, Dere. Nowhere except to me."

  She wasn't wrong. The cold truth settled in my gut like a stone.

  I could run. I could hide. But they'd find me eventually, they always did. And when they did, I'd die alone in some gutter, having wasted everything my mother sacrificed to give me.

  "How do I get to Qora?"

  Vera's grip relaxed into a smile. "We leave in an hour. Red-spade horses, red-spade papers. By the time they realize which direction we went, we'll be three cities away."

  "And uncle Kael?"

  "He'll be waiting for you in Qora. Thinking you're coming to him." Her smile turned sharp. "He doesn't know about me. About the red-spades. He'll expect a desperate kid with a powerful card and no allies. What he'll get is a Rene twins and forty-seven of the deadliest shadow operatives in the country."

  Twins. We hadn't fought together since we were children, back when our parents were still alive, before the world burned.

  "What about Lena?"

  "Already contacted. She's extracting from Grimvale tonight. She'll meet us in Qora." Vera released my wrist. "You have a choice, Dere. You can keep running, keep hiding, keep pretending you're a nobody who stumbled into power. Or you can come with me, avenge our father, save our mother, and burn House Veil to the ground."

  Behind her, the six riders sat waiting. Their red spades glinted in the fading afternoon light.

  I thought about the Classless card in my chest. The Void Slice that could cut through anything. The Absolute Null that stopped even Professional-tier attacks. The Wild Card that could reshape fate itself.

  I thought about my mother, rotting in a Veil prison while her brother stole her legacy.

  I thought about my father, dying alone in the dark.

  "Alright," I said. "Let's go kill some Veil."

  Vera's smile widened. "That's my brother."

  A horn echoed through the forest, distant, but getting closer. The riders tensed, hands moving to weapons.

  "Scouts," the gray-haired one said. "Veil signal. They've found us."

  I drew Void Slice, the blade materializing in my hand like solidified darkness. The weight of it felt good. Familiar.

  "How many?"

  Vera listened for a moment, her shadow senses extending outward. Her eyes widened.

  "More than before. The Ace is with them. And..." She paused, something like fear crossing her face. "There's another signal. Someone bigger. Someone I haven't felt since I was a child."

  "What?"

  The trees around us began to bend, not from wind, but from something else. Something pressing down on the forest like a giant hand. The light dimmed. The birds stopped singing.

  And from the eastern road, where we'd just come from, a voice boomed out like thunder.

  "Seventh Child. I am the King of Veil. You will kneel, or you will die."

  The shadow crown was here.

  My blood went cold, but my hand stayed steady on Void Slice.

  Looks like running wasn't an option anymore.

  Vera grabbed my arm, her face pale. "That's not possible. The King never leaves the capital,"

  "Clearly he did." I stepped forward, positioning myself between my sister and whatever was coming. "Get the riders ready. When I engage, you run."

  "That's suicide,"

  "It's not suicide." I activated Multiskill, feeling the cheat skill surge through my veins, amplifying everything I had. "It's a distraction. The Wild Card gives me one reroll per day. I've got a plan."

  [SYSTEM]

  Cheat Skill Activated: [Multiskill Lv.Max]

  Effect: All equipped skill outputs amplified for combat duration

  Void Slice Lv.3, READY

  Shadow Lunge Lv.2, READY

  Absolute Null (Incomplete), STANDBY

  What the plan actually was, I had no idea. But I'd survived worse. I'd killed Professionals, escaped dungeons, outsmarted assassins.

  I could handle a King.

  The trees shattered. A figure emerged from the destruction, tall, crowned with darkness, pure black eyes gleaming with ancient power. Behind him, the silver-haired Ace stepped into view, her blade already drawn.

  "Seven years," she said softly, blade leveled at my chest. "Seven years hunting your bloodline. I was starting to wonder if this moment would ever come."

  I grinned right back, even as my heart hammered against my ribs.

  "Not even slightly."

  I lunged.