The next morning—
The throne room was empty.
No nobles.
No advisors.
No guards.
Only four chairs.
And four people.
Akshay sat silently.
Alice sat across from him.
Raj and Taai occupied the remaining seats.
The atmosphere felt heavy.
Nobody wanted to start.
Eventually—
Akshay spoke.
"Tell me everything."
No jokes.
No sarcasm.
No kingly authority.
Just a friend asking for answers.
Alice stared at the table.
Then nodded.
"...Alright."
Silence.
Then she began.
---
"The disappearances started first."
Akshay listened quietly.
Alice explained how drifters occasionally vanished.
How information regarding them became strangely difficult to obtain.
How records disappeared.
Witnesses changed stories.
How entire investigations seemed to hit invisible walls.
At first—
Nobody suspected Oheyo.
Why would they?
It was Oheyo.
The greatest city in the world.
The city built by a fellow drifter.
The city everyone respected.
---
Then Brennan vanished.
Akshay's hands tightened.
Alice noticed.
But continued.
She explained the missing meetings.
The unanswered messages.
The classified information.
The growing suspicion.
And eventually—
The laboratory.