When she tries to fence the map in the southern markets, the ambush is swift. Smoke. Screams. Chains.

She wakes up in a cell, and opposite her, wrapped in silence like a shroud, a man watches her. His eyes are pale. Not white. Pale, like something that has forgotten the sun. He doesn't speak. He doesn't blink. But Saeris feels the weight of his presence like a knife on her skin.

They call him Kingfisher. Some say he’s not of this world.

What they don’t know is that neither is she.

That night, the guards open the cell. “Time to pay for your sins, girl,” they say.

But before they can drag her out, the man with the pale eyes moves. Fast. Precise. Lethal.

—Stay behind me.

Saeris doesn’t think. She runs.

The city burns behind her, and something in her blood awakens.

She doesn't know it yet, but the map wasn't leading to treasure.

It was leading to her.

And once the path is opened, there’s no going back.