Chapter 101: Where Empires Sleep

“The sketch.”

Shay blinked but obediently handed it over.

Ares examined it again. Lara used different colors to highlight the dress and Shay’s facial features, one would not mistake the drawing wasn’t Shay.

Then, without asking anyone, he slipped it carefully into the leather document sleeve attached to his briefcase.

Lara frowned.

“That’s Shay’s,” she said lightly. “She might want to keep it.”

Ares didn’t look at her.

“I’m taking it away. “I’ll have it framed.”

Shay’s eyes widened. “Really, Daddy?”

“Yes.”

His gaze lifted from the drawing and settled on Lara.

“And I want the original,” he said quietly.

Not a copy, not a scan, but the original.

The request wasn’t about the paper. It was about ownership.

Lara met his eyes without flinching. “It is only a quick sketch.”

“Even better,” he replied evenly. “It means you didn’t overthink it.”

There was something deliberate in the way he said that — as if he valued what slipped from her naturally more than what she chose to show.

Lara glanced at the drawing again. “It’s unfinished. I still need to add details.”

A brief pause.

Then Ares extended the sketchpad back toward her.

“Then finish it,” he said.

When she reached for it, his fingers brushed hers.

Something unspoken passed between them.

Scarlet’s smile thinned.

Ares remained standing beside Lara’s seat longer than necessary. His hand rested casually on the back of her chair.

To anyone else, it might look natural and protective.

But his thumb brushed the top edge of her shoulder — once.

Not accidental but a quiet claim.

Lara felt it.

Her spine straightened almost imperceptibly.

“Ares,” Scarlet said softly, “aren’t you reviewing the Orion proposal?”

He didn’t move. He did not glance at Scarlet.

“I’m done.”

His answer was short, controlled, and final.

Then, as if remembering something, he reached down and adjusted Shay’s seatbelt strap.

Then his finger’s moved to the Lara’s strap and buckled it up.

“We will be in for altitude turbulence,” he said quietly. “Stay secured.”

His fingers lingered half a second too long.

Scarlet’s tablet screen dimmed. She was no longer pretending to work.

In the back, Logan raised an eyebrow subtly.

Lucas smirked faintly.

They noticed. Of course they noticed.

Ares finally returned to his seat. But he didn’t open his laptop again.

Instead, he watched the reflection of Lara in the oval window across from him.

And his thoughts were no longer on business.

If she thought she understood… If she believed she could detach that easily… Then she was mistaken.

Because something about her calm acceptance had unsettled him.

And Ares Zuvel did not like feeling replaceable.

Not by some ghost from her past. Not by anyone.

Outside, the clouds parted, revealing the city beneath them.

Inside the electric-blue cabin—

The temperature had shifted.

And this time, it was Ares who had conceded that he had made the first move.

“Mommy, Mommy—”

Shay tugged at Lara’s sleeve with both hands, her small fingers insistent, her eyes bright again.

“Can you teach me how to draw? Me riding on a pony!” she said, her voice pure, hopeful — untouched by the complicated undercurrents filling the cabin.

Lara looked down at her and softened.

She smiled but it was a bit awkward. A horse and a little girl. It would take some time sketch.

But the innocence in Shay’s face felt like sunlight breaking through heavy clouds. She could not just say NO.

“I think we’re about to land,” Lara said gently, brushing a loose strand of hair away from Shay’s forehead. “I’ll teach you when we’re on the ground.”

“Alright!” Shay chirped obediently.

She carefully gathered her sketch pad and arranged her pencils back into the pink case — each one slid into place with serious concentration. Then she tucked everything into her small carry-on luggage like a little professional preparing for arrival.

Lara, meanwhile, turned toward the oval window.

The helicopter began its slow descent.

Below them, the landscape unfolded.

The manicured grandeur of the Zuvel estate gave way to something wilder — untamed earth stretching toward the horizon.

Rugged terrain rolled in waves of green and stone. In the distance, the peaks of Mount Ourea rose like ancient sentinels, their ridges washed in a blue haze under the morning light.

They looked peaceful,

But Lara knew mountains like that were never gentle.

Her gaze drifted farther south. And then she saw it.

An island sat in the middle of a mirror-like lake.

From above, it was unmistakable — shaped like an imperfect pentagon.

The locals simply called it Isla.

A narrow river snaked outward from the Carles Lake, connecting it to the majestic Praya River — silver and powerful as it cut through the land.

The water glimmered under the rising sun. Pristine, unspoiled, and beautiful.

And yet—

Lara felt something tighten painfully in her chest.

“So this is what became of Carles…” she thought.

Once, Carles had been the heart of power of the Azurverdan Empire. A thriving capital of strategy, trade, power. Its towers had pierced the sky. Its banners had commanded allegiance across continents.

Now—

It was reduced to a small island in a lake. No, even the lake was part of what used to be Carles.

Lara had an epiphany. Could Isla be where the Hevenfort Palace and Helias Manor were? She needed to find climb Ourea’s peak. Only from that vantage could she be sure that what she had in mind was the truth.

If it were… then, the once proud and majestic center of Carles was a contained ruin.

Isolated. Almost forgotten.

What had once been Carles was now called Laguna.

Time had softened the name.

History had buried the truth.

And surrounding half of it—

The Zuvel estate.

Four thousand hectares of land owned by one family.

Power had not vanished. It had simply changed hands.

The helicopter lowered further, wind whipping across the treetops. The white façade of a two-story mansion came into view — pristine, imposing, built with the quiet arrogance of generational wealth.

The helipad waited behind it like a crown.

As the wheels touched down and the engine roared into a controlled idle, Lara kept her eyes on the island in the distance.

Something in her blood stirred.

Not nostalgia. Not grief.

It was the faintest of recognition.

And for the first time since she awaken form a long sleep—

She felt as if the past was no longer sleeping.

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