The heavy doors of Marcellus' study creaked open, allowing Alaric to step inside, dragging the bound and gagged professor behind him.
The room was dim, lit only by the flickering light of a few scattered candles. The shadows they cast danced across the walls, adding to the tension that hung thick in the air.
Varik, despite his predicament, held his chin high, his eyes burning with a mixture of fear and defiance.
Alaric forced him to his knees in front of Marcellus' imposing desk. Voss Ren, the family's trusted butler, stood silently to the side, his usual calm expression in place, but to those who knew how to look closely—like Valen—there was something deeper.
Something hidden.
Valen had already used his Eye of Dominion on the professor when he was first captured.
The truth was clear—the professor was none other than Voss' only son, the very man who had escaped the Aetheris family's cleaning team after the Night of the Red Sky.