They found him in a cattle shed, curled up in the shadows, cowering like a rat.
The moment he saw them, he tried to flee.
He failed.
The guards seized him, dragging him into the open.
He fought at first, limbs flailing in desperation, but it was useless.
The strength drained from his body the moment his eyes met Marina's piercing gaze.
Shame curdled in his gut as he was thrown before the village, the entire settlement watching in grim silence.
His pregnant wife sobbed, held back by the guards. His children clung to each other, terrified. He looked between them, his breathing ragged, his mind scrambling for an excuse, an explanation—anything that might spare him.
"I didn't mean to," he stammered, his voice cracking. "I just wanted—"
Marina cut him off, her voice cold as the steel of her blade. "You killed a child."
The weight of her words crushed the air between them. There was no room for pleading.
His wife let out a wretched scream, struggling against the guards. "He has to work! If he is taken away, who will feed us?"
The village head sighed, stepping forward. "This is the reality, Governor. If he is imprisoned, his family will starve."
Marina didn't respond immediately. She let the silence stretch, her gaze sweeping over the gathered villagers, the filth-streaked faces, the hopeless eyes. This wasn't just one man's crime—it was a symptom of a much deeper rot.
Finally, she turned to Jess.
"You'll stay with the village head," she said, pressing a small changes of the imperial currency into the girl's hands. "He will take care of you."
Jess's small fingers curled around the pouch, her body trembling. Tears streaked down her dirt-smudged cheeks. "Will you make things better?"
Marina met her gaze, unwavering. "I will."
She turned back to the village head. "Inform the child's mother of what has happened. Use this," she handed him a heavier wad of cash, "for the burial."
The man bowed, accepting the money without a word.
Marina's voice remained firm. "When her mother returns, send them both to Aeger City, to the Governor's mansion."
A ripple of shock went through the villagers. The Governor was taking in an orphan? Raising her under her own roof?
Marina ignored their murmurs.
One child wouldn't make a difference. She knew that. This act wouldn't erase the filth, the suffering, or the decades of neglect. But it was something. And something was better than nothing.
She looked out at the slums, at the twisted alleys, the skeletal remains of homes, the stench of lives discarded by the empire. Aeger had been left to rot.
Her grip tightened around the hilt of her revolver as if to keep herself grounded.
No more.
-----
As the convoy continued, Marina sat in silence, her thoughts tangled in memories of the past.
The twin kings.
Ruyi's fire. Ruyel's ice.
She had once been meant to serve them, to fight beside them. They had been prodigies, commanding respect even as teenagers, destined to be the empire's pride. She had longed to be part of that legacy, to stand with them as their knight.
Then, the day after she was knighted, everything changed.
Female knights were no longer permitted.
She had watched her comrades—the ones she had trained beside, laughed with—march forward without her. She had bid them farewell, unaware it would be the last time.
One by one, their letters stopped coming. Until the last letter arrived—her closest friend, the final survivor, telling her of the massacre.
How Ruyi had collapsed in grief. How Ruyel had shielded a knight in battle. How they had lost everything.
And Marina had not been there.
Had they fallen too far? Or was that just the delusion of a dying man trying to find nobility in a crumbling dream?
She exhaled slowly, shaking the thought away. It no longer mattered.
Her mind drifted to a different conversation, one with Crown Princess Sienna.
Like Marina, Sienna bore the curse of a male beast form. She would never have children, and she had long accepted that. Instead, she planned to adopt an heir from a distant branch—she refused to let her stepmother's bloodline take the throne.
"We cannot afford greed to rule what we bled for," Sienna had said, her voice unwavering.
That had always been their difference. Sienna had embraced fate. Marina had fought against it.
She thought of her own family—the Velkas clan, the rulers of the southern navy. She had been the first land beast shifter in centuries, the only one who could not swim, the only land shifter born into a family of marine shifters.
Her family had loved her unconditionally. Even knowing she would be sterile due to her human and shifter incompatibility; they had never cast her aside. They had let her chase her dreams, even when it meant tying their naval power to the Imperial family.
Her elder brother, Miro, a Blue whale shifter is a naval doctor and fleet commander, he cherished her, leading a unique fleet where a hospital ship served as the flagship.
Her younger brother, Meeva, an orca shifter is a pirate hunter of unmatched skill, he watched over the southern seas, ensuring their coastlines remained safe.
Untamable and wild-hearted, he had always respected her in his own way—by showering her with stolen loot from the pirates he hunted, as if each prize was proof of his admiration.
The Velkas clan was vast, their father's elder brother the head of their family. They had guarded the empire's coasts for generations, forming the empire's second-largest naval force.
And yet, Marina had left them.
She had chosen this path, severing herself from the sea, from her family's legacy, from the love that had never questioned her worth.
And now, standing on the empire's forsaken soil, she had to make it mean something.
Aeger would change.
And if the kings thought they could break her, they were welcome to try.
Her fingers brushed the hilt of her revolver, a slow smirk curving her lips.
"Let them try."