Page 1:
Panel 1: Early morning mist clings to the edge of a ravine. Kael and Lira trek along a rocky trail, both looking weary but alert.
Lira:
“We should rest.”
Kael:
“No. We stop when we reach the Hollow Path.”
Lira (muttering):
“Do all assassins speak in riddles?”
Kael:
“Only the tired ones.”
---
Page 2:
Panel 1: Flashback panel — a small child (Kael) crying behind iron bars, a cold hand pulling him from a cage. A voice echoes:
Voice (Vark):
“Forget your name. You are the blade now.”
Panel 2: Kael snaps out of it, blinking. Lira watches him, concerned.
Lira:
“Do they still haunt you?”
Kael (quietly):
“They built me. I killed for them. I didn’t know anything else.”
Lira:
“You’re not him anymore.”
---
Page 3:
Panel 1: They stop at a stream. Lira kneels and lets her fingers touch the water.
Lira:
“When I was little, I used to dream of a woman with silver eyes.
She would whisper a lullaby... then disappear in flames.”
Kael (startled):
“Silver eyes?”
Panel 2: He recalls something—A woman in armor, watching a burning castle. A baby wrapped in red cloth.
Kael (thinking):
Lady Seraphine. The Hollow Crown. She was there the night the royal palace burned...
...the night the prince vanished.
---
Page 4:
Panel 1: Lira looks up. Her gem begins to glow faintly again.
Lira:
“This gem... sometimes I feel like it’s remembering something for me.”
Kael:
“Maybe it is.”
Panel 2: They sit together on a rock beneath the trees.
Lira (softly):
“Kael... do you think we were meant to meet?”
Kael (avoiding her gaze):
“I don’t believe in fate.”
Lira (smiling):
“Then believe in chance.
Because I think I’m falling for you.”
---
Page 5:
Panel 1: Kael is silent. His eyes flicker with pain, longing, fear.
Kael:
“You shouldn’t. I’m cursed.”
Lira:
“We both are. That’s what makes us the same.”
Panel 2: Lira leans forward and gently presses her forehead to his.
Lira:
“Run with me. Not from them. Not from yourself.”
Panel 3: Kael finally lets his eyes close. Just for a moment.
---
Page 6:
Panel 1: Back in the Hollow Crown’s stronghold, Lady Seraphine watches a magical projection of Lira and Kael in the forest.
Seraphine (coldly):
“She still wears the Veil. That gem is the key to the royal memory.”
*Panel 2: A spy kneels before her.
Spy:
“The Thorn Chain is closing in too, my lady.”
Seraphine:
“Then let them fight.
We will take what remains.”
---
Page 7:
Panel 1: Meanwhile, in the Thorn Chain’s fortress, Commander Vark slams a dagger into a map.
Vark:
“He’s heading toward the Sunken Archives.
He wants the truth.”
Panel 2: A soldier looks confused.
Soldier:
“Why go there?”
Vark:
“Because that boy’s blood isn’t street-borne.
It’s royal.”
Panel 3: The soldier is stunned.
Soldier:
“Prince Kael…?”
---
Page 8:
Panel 1: Kael and Lira look up from a cliff’s edge, seeing the ruins of a once-grand tower shrouded in fog.
Lira:
“What is this place?”
Kael:
“The Archives. The last place my real life ended.”
*Panel 2: From the trees behind them, glowing eyes stare. Figures begin to emerge — a mix of Hollow Crown knights and Thorn Chain assassins.
Narration:
“The past is waking.
And it’s coming for them both.”
---
[End of Chapter 4]
