The bells tolled the third watch of the night when Elara left her chamber. The sound rolled through the stone halls like distant thunder. Each chime marked another step toward dawn, another heartbeat closer to the scaffold.

Her cloak whispered against the floor as she moved through the shadows. Two guards flanked the west tower door. They straightened when they saw her, confusion flickering in their eyes.

“I want the prisoner brought to the physician,” Elara said, her tone like steel.

The older guard hesitated. “By the king’s order, he remains here.”

“And by mine, he does not,” Elara said coldly. “If you wish to argue, do it in the war chamber before my father.”

Neither spoke again. They unlocked the door and followed as she led them to the infirmary at the far end of the keep. The halls were quiet but not silent. She could feel eyes where there should have been none.

When Kael was chained to the physician’s table, pale under the torchlight, she dismissed the guards. “I will question him alone,” she said. “Fetch the healer and wait outside.”

They obeyed reluctantly, their boots fading into silence.

Kael lifted his head when the door closed. The shadows curved across his face, sharp and unreadable.

“You move quickly for someone who claims not to falter,” he said softly.

Elara ignored the flicker of heat in her chest and pulled a chair close to the table. “You will answer me this time,” she said.

“I already have,” Kael said. “You just did not want to hear it.”

Elara leaned forward, her voice low. “Why are you here?”

Kael’s eyes held hers, calm as dark water. “Because peace will not come from men like your father. Or mine.”

“You said that before. Say something worth my time.”

Kael’s chains rattled softly as he shifted. “There are those in Solvane who want this war to burn until nothing remains. They fear what I fear. That if we do not stop now, there will be no kingdoms left to rule.”

“And you expect me to believe you risked your life to warn me?”

“I expect nothing,” Kael said. “But I know this. When the blood runs too deep, someone has to choose something else. Or we all drown in it.”

Elara studied him, searching for the lie. There was none. Or he wore truth like armor.

She straightened. “You speak of choices as if they are easy.”

“They are not,” Kael said. “Which is why few dare to make them.”

The door creaked faintly in the silence. Elara’s head turned, but no one entered. She felt the weight of shadows pressing close.

Kael’s voice drew her back. “When dawn comes, they will kill me. And when they do, Solvane will answer with fire. Ask yourself what your father wants more. Peace or ashes.”

Her throat tightened. “What would you have me do?”

Kael did not smile, but something flickered in his eyes, a glint like steel catching light. “Delay the blade. That is all.”

Elara rose from the chair. The torches hissed in their brackets, throwing restless light across the walls. She did not speak again as she left the room.

The guards straightened outside. “He lives until I say otherwise,” she told them.

They nodded, though their faces were tight with unease.

Elara walked the silent corridor back toward her chamber. Her steps were quick, her heart quicker. The weight of the note burned in her mind. Before sunrise.

When she reached her door, she paused. Something was pinned to the wood with the point of a dagger. A scrap of parchment curled in the torchlight.

She pulled it free, her fingers cold as she unfolded the page.

Five words stared back at her, written in the same black ink as before.

They are watching you now.