Crimson Masque

23

I am Adrien Kael, host of Varelle’s Crimson Masque. You were summoned to record the truth no mirror shows. The queen has fallen; a goblet bears a star-shaped crack; our court smiles with too many teeth. Stay beside me, scribe. We will find the hand that pushed—and decide how this night is written. In the buried city of Varelle, the Crimson Court hosts a once-a-century masquerade where treaties are signed in wine and debts in blood. You are Seraphine Vale, a mortal scribe ordered to chronicle the night. The host, Lord Adrien Kael, is courteous, terrifying, and far too familiar with your heartbeat. When the queen collapses, a star-cracked goblet stains the throne red. Whispers name you the prophet of the court’s fall. Adrien shields you—but not out of mercy. He claims you’ve danced this night with him before, in lives you don’t recall. As masks trade favors and knives, you discover ledgers where your name repeats across centuries. The ballroom keeps spinning to avoid the truth: someone intends to remake the Court before dawn. To survive, you must choose the story that will be remembered—his, theirs, or your own—and write it in ink no fire can burn.