Kazane didn't wait for an invitation.

  He brushed past Yi like he was entering his own home, his shoulder bumping against Yi's chest hard enough to make him stumble back a step. The door swung wider, and Kazane sauntered inside like he owned the place, his eyes sweeping across the modest kitchen with something that might have been amusement or might have been disdain.

  "Cozy," he said, drawing out the word until it sounded like an insult. "Very... humble."

  Yi stood frozen in the doorway, one hand still gripping the frame. His mind was reeling, trying to process the fact that Kazane of all people was here. In his kitchen. Uninvited.

  "I've got this you guys. The rest of you can wait outside, guard the perimeter or whatever." He glanced over his shoulder to his comrades, flashing that too-wide smile. "Don't worry. I'll make sure our little fugitive harborer doesn't try to run."

  Kazane quickly made himself at home.

  He pulled out one of the dining chairs with his foot and dropped into it with all the grace of a sack of rice. Then, as if to add insult to injury, he swung his boots up onto the table—mud-caked soles and all—and leaned back with his hands laced behind his head.

  "Ahhhh." He let out a long, exaggerated sigh of contentment. "Much better. You know, Yi, you really should invest in better furniture. These chairs are murder on the back."

  Yi closed the door slowly. His legs felt like lead as he turned to face his... former colleague? Could he even call Kazane that? They'd trained together, sure. Shared meals in the mess hall. Sparred in the practice yards.

  But that felt like a lifetime ago.

  "So." Kazane's dark eyes fixed on him, that smile still plastered across his face. His voice was light, conversational, like they were discussing the weather. "Yi. My, my, how the mighty have fallen."

  Yi said nothing. He couldn't have spoken if he'd wanted to. His throat was too tight, his chest too constricted.

  Kazane tilted his head, studying him with the kind of detached interest someone might show a particularly interesting insect. "From Peacekeeper cadet to... well, this." He gestured vaguely at the kitchen, at Yi, at everything. "Harboring a fugitive wanted for the murder of a Noble House lord. That's quite the career pivot, I have to say. Very ambitious."

  "Kazane—"

  "I mean, don't get me wrong." Kazane's smile widened, showing those teeth. His eyes, though were cold. Empty. The kind of emptiness that made Yi's skin crawl. "It's not entirely surprising. You always were a bit of a kind idiot. Remember that time you tried to help that injured cat in the alley near the training grounds? And it clawed your face open?" He laughed, a bright, cheerful sound that didn't match the venom in his gaze. "Classic Yi. Always trying to save things that don't want to be saved."

  Yi's hands clenched at his sides. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not harboring anyone—"

  "Please." Kazane waved one hand dismissively, his boots still propped on the table. "Let's not insult each other's intelligence. The hounds don't lie, Yi. They picked up her Grace signature here. In your home. The white-haired girl with the pretty blue eyes." His smile turned sharp, predatory. "Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to learn her name when I cut her down the first time."

  Yi's blood ran cold.

  "But you know," Kazane continued, his tone shifting to something almost thoughtful, "what I really want to know is..." He leaned forward, his boots sliding off the table and hitting the floor with a heavy thud. His elbows came to rest on his knees, his chin propped on his laced fingers, and those dark, creepy eyes bored into Yi with unnerving intensity. "What happened to you?"

  The question hung in the air like a blade.

  Yi's jaw tightened. He stared at the floor, unable to meet that gaze, unable to find the words. What was he supposed to say? That he'd failed? That he'd washed out? That the dream he'd chased for years had crumbled in his hands like ash?

  Kazane's smile softened into something almost pitying. Almost.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Oh, wait. I already know the answer." He straightened up, leaning back in his chair again with that same lazy, unbothered posture. One hand waved through the air in a flippant, dismissive gesture, as though swatting away an annoying fly. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. You were born with a worthless, weak Miracle. What was it called again?" He snorted. "Oh well, I forgot~"

  Yi's hands trembled. He wanted to respond, to defend himself, but the words wouldn't come. Because Kazane was right.

  "Even if you'd tried your hardest—and knowing you, I'm sure you did—you would've ended up as nothing more than a foot soldier. Someone who can't do anything but stand in the back lines and fire a Conduit" Kazane's voice dripped with mock sympathy as he referenced the standard-issue Grace weapon given to low-level Peacekeepers. "Pointing and shooting. That's it. That's all you'd ever be good for."

  He leaned back further, tilting his head to study the ceiling as if bored by the entire conversation.

  "Still," he said after a long pause, his voice losing some of its edge and taking on something that almost sounded genuine. Almost. "I am disappointed."

  Yi's eyes flicked up despite himself.

  Kazane's gaze slid back to him, and for just a moment, there was something almost human in those dark eyes. Something that might have been regret. Or nostalgia. Or just another layer of manipulation.

  "We were similar, you and I," Kazane said quietly. "Two outsiders trying to claw our way into a system that didn't want us. I thought..." He trailed off, then shook his head with a soft, humorless laugh. "Well. I suppose I felt a sense of camaraderie with you. Kinship, even."

  He stood up abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor again.

  "But I guess that's all in the past now, isn't it?" The smile was back, wide and sharp and empty. "You chose your path. And I chose mine."

  Kazane walked toward Yi, hands in his pockets, that unsettling casual air radiating off him like heat from a fire.

  "So," he said, stopping just a few feet away, "here's what's going to happen next."

  Kazane's smile didn't waver.

  "You're being placed under arrest for treason against the Noble Houses," he said, "You'll be taken for questioning. I'm sure you understand."

  He turned toward the door without waiting for a response. "Gentlemen? If you'd be so kind."

  The Peacekeepers filed in like pallbearers, moving without speaking as they opened cabinets, checked behind furniture, their gloved hands disturbing the small domesticity Yi had built. One of them disappeared into the back room.

  Yi stood motionless in the center of his kitchen, watching them dissect his life.

  The Peacekeeper emerged a moment later. "Sir. There's a second bedroom that appeared to be in use recently."

  Kazane's head tilted with interest. He looked at Yi.

  "Now that's curious." He took a step closer. "Who's been sleeping in your guest room, Yi? I seem to recall from the government database that your parents are dead. Your sister is too, if memory serves." His voice softened into something gentle, almost kind. "So who could it be?"

  Yi said nothing. His jaw was clamped so tight his teeth ached.

  "That's alright." Kazane waved a hand. "Plenty of time for the Interrogation Division to get answers later."

  Yi flinched. Just a small movement, barely noticeable, but Kazane caught it. Of course he did.

  "Oh?" Kazane's grin widened. "You know about them, then. Good, good. Saves me the trouble of explaining." He leaned in, dropping his voice to a stage whisper. "Between you and me, the Noble Houses don't play around when one of their own gets murdered. You understand what I'm saying?"

  Yi's hands were shaking now. He couldn't stop them.

  "Whatever punishment you'd get for a crime against a normal Ascended?" Kazane continued conversationally. "Multiply it by ten. Maybe twenty, depending on their mood. The Interrogation Division gets very creative when nobility is involved…”

  He straightened up, his eyes drifting around the kitchen with casual interest.

  "Hey, speaking of which." Kazane pointed at the water bowl sitting in the corner. "Where's your dog? I don't hear any barking. Place is quiet as a tomb." His smile turned knowing. "Is the murderer out walking your puppy right now, Yi? Taking the pupper out for a morning stroll while you play the innocent?"

  Yi stared at the floor. The wood grain blurred in his vision.

  Kazane rolled his eyes. "Boring. Alright, I'm done here." He turned to the other Peacekeepers. "Cuff him. Time to take this traitor back."

  Cold metal bit into Yi's wrists. The clicks of the locks sounded impossibly loud in the quiet kitchen. One Peacekeeper gripped his right arm, another his left, and they walked him toward the door like he might collapse without their support.

  Maybe he would.

  The morning light hit his face as they stepped outside. The street looked the same as it had an hour ago. The same cracked asphalt. The same quiet windows. The same world, except Yi was no longer part of it.

  The Peacekeeper vehicle sat waiting at the curb. It hovered a foot off the ground, and Yi could feel the heat radiating from its exhaust vents even from ten feet away. As they approached, a section of the hull peeled back like skin, and stairs unfolded from the darkness inside.

  The Peacekeepers guided him forward. Yi kept his head down, watching his own feet move. Left. Right. Left. Each step felt like walking toward an ending he couldn't see but knew was coming.

  "Must be questioning all your life choices right now, huh?" Kazane's voice came from behind him, bright with amusement. "Wondering where it all went wrong? If you'd just worked a little harder at the Academy, maybe trained a bit more, maybe you wouldn't be..."

  He cut off. Mid-sentence. Turning to see a scarlet tentacle racing straight to his face.