Chapter 8 Chapter 8
The symbol sat between them like a loaded crossbow.
Kael stared at it while Gareth stared at literally everything else.
The old hunter suddenly found the floor fascinating. Then the wall became interesting, then the ceiling.
Then a rabbit, anything except the Blackthorne insignia.
Kael folded his arms.
“Gareth.”
“No.”
“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”
“I know enough.”
The old hunter grabbed one of the rabbits and walked toward the kitchen.
Kael followed immediately. “You worked for House Blackthorne?”
“No.”
Kael blinked, that answer came suspiciously fast.
“No?”
“No.”
“Then why do you have their insignia?” Gareth frowned. “That’s a different question.”
Kael hated how technically correct that was.
The old man began preparing dinner. Apparently life-changing revelations could wait until after stew.
Kael sat across the table.
"We're having this conversation."
Gareth didn't even look up.
"No. We're having dinner."
"We can do both."
"You've met me."
"Unfortunately."
"Then you know we can't."
Kael stared and Gareth stared back.
The battle lines were drawn.
An hour later they sat around the dinner table with steaming bowls of stew between them.
Kael immediately resumed the interrogation.
“So.”
“No.”
“You haven’t even heard the question.”
“I know the question.”
“Then answer it.”
Gareth pointed at the stew.
"Eat first."
Kael stared at him.
"What does that have to do with House Blackthorne?"
"Nothing."
"Then why bring it up?"
Gareth took another bite.
"Because I'm old."
"That's still not an answer."
"It's the only answer you're getting until you finish eating."
Kael slowly closed his eyes.
For decades he had negotiated with kings. He had defeated master politicians. He had manipulated enemy generals into surrendering entire fortresses.
But somehow Gareth remained the most difficult person he had ever questioned.
The old hunter took a bite of stew, then another and another, deliberately dragging out the silence while Kael watched in growing frustration until Gareth finally let out a sigh that carried years of reluctance.
“Fine.”
Kael immediately sat straighter.
The old hunter pointed his spoon at him.
“If I answer one question, you stop looking through my house.”
“No promises.”
“Kael.”
“Fine.”
Gareth looked unconvinced.
“You inherited your stubbornness from someone terrible.”
“I learned it from you.”
The old man looked offended. “That sounds like an accusation.”
“It is.”
For a moment, Gareth almost smiled.
Then the smile faded.
His gaze drifted toward the old chest. Toward the insignia, toward memories he clearly hadn’t visited in a very long time.
“When I was younger, I wasn’t a hunter.”
Kael remained silent.
The joking atmosphere disappeared immediately.
Something had changed in Gareth’s voice, something heavier.
"I served someone."
Kael leaned forward.
"Who?"
Gareth sighed.
"Someone important."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the answer you're getting."
"How important?"
Gareth stared into his bowl for several seconds.
"Important enough that kings listened when he spoke."
Kael’s expression hardened.
That wasn’t normal influence. That was the kind of influence that shaped nations.
“What did you do for him?”
Gareth laughed softly. “Whatever needed doing.”
The answer somehow created more questions.
Kael studied him carefully.
The old hunter’s hands were rough from decades of work, but under the scars was something Kael had never questioned before.
Discipline, experience and awareness. The signs had always been there.
Kael simply never looked closely because Gareth had always been Gareth.
The grumpy hunter. The stubborn old man, the person who raised him.
Nothing more or so he thought.
“What happened?” Kael asked quietly.
The room became silent.
Outside, the evening wind brushed against the walls.
Inside, Gareth stared into his bowl.
“A long time ago, something went wrong.”
Kael waited.
The old hunter continued staring at the stew.
Seconds passed, then more seconds, then even more.
Finally Kael frowned. "Are you going to continue?"
Gareth looked offended.
"I was building suspense."
"Nobody asked for suspense."
"I thought it added atmosphere."
"We're eating stew."
"Suspenseful stew."
Gareth looked disappointed for some reason, eventually he continued.
“People died.” The humor vanished completely. “Good people.”
Kael’s chest tightened.
The old hunter wasn’t joking anymore. Whatever happened had left scars deeper than he ever realized.
“I failed them.”
The words came out quietly, too quietly.
For the first time since his regression, Kael saw something unfamiliar in Gareth’s eyes.
Regret, not ordinary regret. The kind that followed someone for decades.
The kind that never completely disappeared.
Something uncomfortable settled inside Kael because that expression looked familiar.
He had seen it every time he looked in a mirror.
His entire life, he had viewed Gareth as the person who protected him.
The person who always knew what to do, the person who never broke yet Gareth carried his own ghosts.
His own failures, his own wounds.
Perhaps that was why they understood each other better than either of them realized.
The old hunter slowly reached into the chest and removed an old letter.
The paper had yellowed with age, and the seal had long since faded, yet one name remained clearly visible.
Kael’s eyes widened, and the room suddenly felt colder because the name was Roland Blackthorne.
Not the future duke who stood beside the Emperor during his execution, but a much younger man whose name had been written on the letter decades before the war, decades before any betrayal, and decades before Kael became the Black Shogun.
Gareth quietly watched his reaction.
“Recognize the name?”
Kael forced himself to remain calm. A dangerous habit for someone who had died because of that family.
“Maybe.”
Gareth snorted. “Terrible liar.”
Kael ignored him.
“What was your relationship?”
The old hunter leaned back.
For several seconds he seemed unsure how much to reveal.
Finally he spoke. “I served the Blackthorne family.”
Kael froze.
The answer landed harder than expected because this changed everything.
The insignia among the bandits. The order targeting Gareth, the old letters.
None of it was random.
The Blackthorne family had been connected to Gareth for decades and if someone from that family wanted him dead now……
Then whatever secrets Gareth had buried all those years ago might be starting to resurface.
The old hunter looked exhausted.
Kael looked at the letter. Then the insignia, then Gareth.
Questions filled his mind, far too many questions and he had the feeling the answers were going to be much more complicated than either of them wanted.
