r of an unfinished sentence: "Ask Selene." She didn't know what the Oracle had meant. Not until she found the silver-etched map tucked behind her late father's journals, locked deep in the Aeris lib

st must reveal it. Sit beside the water. Let it show you what came before." Kael sat first. Then Selene. The golden thread that connected them pulsed, then dipped downward-vanishing into the surface of the pool like a ribbon drawn by unseen hands. Then the visions began. --- Selene's Vision She was a child again. Running barefoot through the palace gardens, hair tangled, dress torn. Her mother's voice echoed in the distance, calling her back. But she kept running-toward the old willow near the lake. That was where the birds always sang the loudest. That was where the wind whispered her name. Except this time, someone else was there. A boy. Not dressed like a noble. Dirty hands. Sharp eyes. Kael. He was hiding. Injured. Maybe ten years old. A stolen apple in his hand. Selene remembered now-barely. She'd found a boy under that tree, bleeding from the leg, and she'd given him the scarf from her neck to stop the blood. He hadn't thanked her. He just looked at her like she wasn't real. They'd said nothing. But something passed between them then. A thread. The memory faded, and Selene gasped. "We met before," she whispered. --- Kael's Vision He was sixteen. Trapped in the palace dungeon. Not for a crime-but for disobedience. He'd refused to continue the Binding Trial after his partner had been chosen. The girl-Meira-had wept through the entire thing. She loved someone else. And Kael refused to be her cage. So they'd locked him up. And then-he remembered-the voice. A girl's voice. Soft. Kind. "I think it's wrong, too," she'd said. He hadn't looked at her face. She'd been behind the bars, bringing him bread she wasn't supposed to carry. But now, in the pool, her face turned. Selene. A moment, a kindness, lost in time. He looked up from the water. "You've always been there." --- The Keeper nodded. "Your bond did not begin in the Circle. It has always existed, beneath the noise. That is why it is golden. That is why it is dangerous." Selene stood, trembling. "Then why did the laws fail to see it?" "Because the law sees only what it expects to find." Kael stepped