’Shit, I should call her,’ Zaeryn thought as he stared up at the cloudless sky. He clearly remembered the specific way she had said it.

’Next time, you should be the one to call me.’

A genuine sense of happiness settled in his chest. It felt good knowing that Viora actually wanted him to be the one to reach out to her.

The fact that he now knew her personally and got along felt strange. Viora had spent most of his life being unknown to him. And when he found out about her she was an impossible figure in the distance. Royal and untouchable and the kind of sister he had convinced himself would never really look down from her high place long enough to see him as anything worth reaching for.

And now she had asked him to call. And Zaeryn planned to do just that. He will take every opportunity to strengthen their new brother and sister relationship.

Zaeryn sat up slowly.

Arya glanced at him. "Tired?"

"A little," he said. Then he smiled faintly. "I think I’m going to head inside."

She nodded.

Zaeryn stood, stretching one shoulder with a grimace.

"I’ll see you later." He said.

Arya nodded.

"You still owe me lessons," he said.

Her smile returned. "And you still owe me proof that sweep was not a miracle."

"That was pure skill."

"I doubt it,"

Zaeryn pointed at her as he walked backward toward the house. "History will remember your doubt."

"History watched you lose for ninety minutes."

"That part will be edited out."

Arya laughed, and Zaeryn carried the sound with him as he headed inside.

The cool air of the inside of the house was a welcome contrast to the humid morning pressing down on the patio. He could feel the sweat cooling on his neck, his muscles carrying that heavy, satisfying ache of a good spar. But his mind was already moving ahead, shifting from the physical exhaustion to a completely different kind of stress.

The call.

Zaeryn’s mind was already on the call. He didn’t know what he was going to say once she picked up. ’Hi sis? I’m calling because you told me to?’ Yeah. That would be awkward. How do you casually chat with someone who had spent her entire life as an untouchable figure in the distance, only to suddenly become his sister?

As he rounded the corner into the main living area, the quiet of the house was broken by the low, rhythmic thud of a bassline and the sharp clack of tiles. It was just a normal day in the estate, which was honestly exactly what he needed right now to keep him grounded.

Aeris was sprawled sideways across one of the oversized armchairs, her legs draped over the armrest and swinging lazily in time with whatever was playing through her headset. She was focused entirely on a handheld console, her thumbs moving with a twitchy, practiced speed that only came from hours of dedication.

Beside her on the floor, a half-empty bag of crisps sat open, clearly a casualty of a long morning gaming session.

Ravena was on the couch with her legs tucked beneath her, looking far more put together. A holo-comm projected from her wrist, casting a soft blue glow over her features. Two faces floated in the display, Solen and Taya, friends of hers, both mid-conversation.

"...so we were thinking this evening," Solen was saying, her voice filtering clearly through the room. "We should all meet at that place near the east promenade. Can Aeris come?"

Ravena glanced over at Aeris. "You heard her. Do you want to come with us tonight?"

Aeris didn’t even bother to look up from her console. "No."

"You didn’t even think about it." Ravena frowned slightly, adjusting her posture.

"I thought about it."

Ravena’s eyes narrowed. "You thought about it in less than a second."

"I’m a fast thinker. Plus I have plans, meeting up with friends too." Aeris’s thumbs kept moving on the console, her hands half immersed in the virtual world she was tearing apart. "Besides, last time I came, one of your friends talked for forty minutes straight. Does she ever shut up?"

"That was Pressa." Taya said. "And yeah, she loves speaking,"

A brief, highly uncomfortable silence fell over the holo-comm. Solen looked elsewhere, suddenly very interested in a wall. Taya examined something off-screen with sudden great interest.

Ravena’s expression went very still. "You don’t even know her that well."

"I know her well enough." Aeris reached blindly into the crisp bag, rustling the plastic. "I know she likes to yap."

"That was one time."

"It was a long one time."

Ravena turned back to her comm with the composed, unhurried expression of someone who had decided the conversation was over. "You heard her, she’s not coming."

"Ask Zaeryn to join you guys. He’d love it actually," Aeris suggested, sounding genuinely helpful for the first time all morning.

"Absolutely not." Ravena didn’t hesitate responding. The words came out flat and immediate. "He will spend the entire evening pursuing his bonding thing, and I am not doing that in front of my friends." She said.

But really, it was more like she didn’t want him to steal the spotlight. Having a male anomaly in the room had a way of shifting gravity. Everyone would be focused on him when it was supposed to be a simple meetup between friends.

"Wait, who’s ’Zaeryn? And ’he’?" Taya asked, her curiosity barely hidden behind the glowing projection.

It was then that Zaeryn walked fully into the frame of the living room, becoming perfectly visible to Ravena’s friends on the holo. The reaction was instantaneous. Taya’s eyes went wide, and Solen literally stopped breathing for a second. They went from casual confusion to absolute shock, followed quickly by that glassy, impressed look that most women got when his sheer presence hit them, even through a holographic filter.

Ravena quickly muted them before they could ask questions. She looked like she wanted to physically push the holographic projection out of the room. It was the "Anomaly Effect" in full swing, that strange, magnetic pull that made Zaeryn feel less like a person and more like a celestial event people couldn’t help but stare at.

For Ravena, it was a social nightmare; for her friends, it was like a legend had just walked through the background of a boring Tuesday. She shot Zaeryn a look that asked him why did he have to show up now? Her finger hovering over the end-call button as if she were protecting the last shred of normalcy her social

Zaeryn was about to go up the stairs, but his gaze landed on the tall glass of cold pressed citrus sitting on the side table next to Aeris’s elbow. Condensation had gathered on the outside of it, dripping slowly down the glass. It looked expensive.

More importantly, it looked cold.

He crossed to where she was sitting without a word, picked it up smoothly, and kept walking.

Ravena’s eyes lifted from her comm. She watched him take the drink. She watched him round the far end of the couch. But she was upset with Aeris and so she said absolutely nothing.

Aeris reached sideways without looking up from her console. Her hand found the side table. Patted it once. Twice. Her thumb never stopped moving on the controls.

She patted it a third time, her fingers brushing empty wood.

Her head turned. Her drink was gone.

"Goddess, where did..." she muttered, totally confused. She looked around, and then her eyes landed on Zaeryn.

He was leaning against the far wall near the hallway, one ankle crossed over the other, taking a long, unhurried sip of the citrus drink. It was exactly as refreshing as it looked. He raised the glass slightly in a silent toast when her eyes finally found him.

Aeris stared at him for a full second, her brain buffering the betrayal.

Then she reached into the crisp bag and threw a fistful of starch rounds directly at his head.

"You absolute parasite," she snapped, her tone deadpan but laced with genuine offense. "That was premium cold press. I hope you choke on the pulp."

Zaeryn ducked, a quiet laugh escaping him as the crisps scattered harmlessly against the wall behind him. He pushed off the woodwork, already heading for the hallway.

"Just collecting on the debt," he called back playfully, raising the glass in another mock toast. "Or did you forget who drank my entire stash of recovery shakes last decad?"

"I will literally vaporize you!" Aeris yelled, her indignant groan following him around the corner.

Ravena sighed softly, told Solen she would see her that evening, and closed the comm, cutting off whatever barrage of questions her friends were about to unleash.

Zaeryn found a quiet spot at the top of the stairs. He sat down with his back against the wall, resting his arms on his knees, and pulled out his comm. Her contact sat there on the screen, glowing faintly. He looked at it for a moment, letting out a long breath, then tapped call before he could overthink it any further.

It rang twice. Three times. He was already constructing the first words to say when she answered.

Viora’s face materialized above his wrist. She was somewhere private. The background showed walls, low light, and the particular quiet of a room someone had chosen deliberately to escape the palace noise. Her silver hair was loose, framing her face softly, and her posture was slightly less armored than usual.

She looked less like a Warlady and more like a person.

The corner of her mouth moved as she smiled faintly .

"Brother." She said. "I’m glad you called."

Hearing her say it, hearing the genuine relief in her tone, made the nerves bleed right out of him.

"Hey," he said, relaxing his shoulders. "Is this a good time?"

"Yes."

The silence stretched out, making the whole thing feel ten times more awkward for Zaeryn. He leaned back against the wall, desperately trying to figure out how to actually start the conversation.

But just as he finally opened his mouth, Viora’s expression shifted.

It wasn’t anything big or dramatic. Just a tiny shift. Her eyes flicked past the camera, locking onto something in the room behind her. You could see the exact second she registered whatever it was just from the sudden, hard set of her jaw.

Viora had not heard the door open.

She realized that a half second too late. Andrea was already inside. Her silver hair caught the low light of the room, and one hand was still resting casually on the doorframe like she owned the place.

Her narrowed eyes moved from Viora’s face straight down to the soft glow of the holo-comm projecting from Viora’s wrist.

A slow, entirely too sharp smile crossed her face.

"Oh?" Andrea said softly. She stepped fully inside the room and let the door click shut behind her. "Who is that?"

Viora didn’t panic. She didn’t scramble. With a fluid, practiced motion, she just waved her hand. Zaeryn’s face disappeared as she cut the feed instantly.

Then she turned to Andrea, her expression hardening into absolute ice.

"Andrea, you idiot. Why are you sneaking up on me?"

Andrea’s gaze dropped pointedly to the empty air where the comm had just been, then slowly drifted back up to meet Viora’s glare.

She just smiled. The accusation didn’t bother her in the slightest. She had seen exactly who Viora was speaking to, and the dangerous realization was already blooming right there in her eyes.