Chapter 2 When Gold listens

Morning light cut through stained panes, spilling jagged gold across the floor - less beauty, more weight. Behind Eliana Packer, near the edge of the chamber, Bisonia drew near without sound. Every step she took echoed anyway, proving stillness always cracked open sooner or later.

Into the room she stepped. Still, Desmond Packer didn't turn around.

"You slept in the east wing," he said calmly. "You haven't used those rooms since you were seventeen."

Eliana stiffened. "I needed space."

"You needed distance," he corrected. "There's a difference."

Still, she sat down, head high. "In case you're bringing up what happened last time - "

"It is about the future," Desmond interrupted. "Yours. Ours. Bisonia's."

Beneath a ragged cloth fragment lay the documents. Signed late into dim-lit hours, their letters bleeding slightly along the borders. Faces flashed before her those mentioned when banners of odd designs hung overhead. Their nations fell yet grins never left their lips. Cloaked in kindness, they stepped near, everyone bearing pressure behind gentle phrases.

"You will announce your engagement within the month," Desmond said. "The council prefers someone with international reach."

A silence where a heartbeat should have been. Flat, that single syllable - "International" - drifting like ash

"Yes. Someone transnational. Someone with assets beyond our borders."

That hurt more than expected. Right there, without knowing it, he hovered near the border of everything true.

Eliana leaned back. "And if I refuse?"

There she was, right in front of him, and Desmond didn't move an inch. Eye to eye they stayed, both unblinking, both set on what had to be done. A breath escaped slowly, cold and with it, a truth: Bisionia wouldn't keep her

Just silence where her voice had been, before he could speak.

Beneath the soil, darkness wrapped close, familiar as a childhood voice. Silence lived there, older than names etched on cold rock. Air drifted, thick with words that never found their way out of the throat. What became visible did so only in stillness, far from eyes and flags. In places where strength faded, each breath arrived fuller, drawn from some hidden well.

Lucien was late.

It clung to her, that feeling. A quiet itch she couldn't shake.

A shadow moved forward, stepping into view. The phone stayed clenched in his hand, fingers pressing hard. His features looked carved by something sharp and recent. Softness had left him long ago. This was the man others talked about in low voices. Deals bent when he entered a room. Fate shifted without warning.

"Tell me this is good news," Eliana said.

"It's complicated," Lucien replied. "Which means it's promising."

Faster than anyone expected, words spilt from him without pause. By morning light, Vale Industries had taken control of shares in three major foreign mining firms. These were companies holding ancient rights beneath Bisonian ground - rights dismissed long ago by the council, tossed aside without thought.

"They weren't worthless," Lucien said. "They were just waiting."

Faint words slipped from Eliana's lips. To someone unseen, her silence carried meaning.

"For me," he added, shifting slightly from what he had first said.

Her breath caught. "My father wants a transnational alliance. A foreign partner with influence."

Lucien smiled faintly. "Then let's give him one he can't refuse."

She paced, hands trembling. "Desmond will investigate. He'll dig into you."

"Let him dig," Lucien said calmly. "Gold always reveals what's buried."

He glanced when her steps stopped. Not that voice the kind pretending it has all the answers no way would I act like that

"I am," he said. "But I'm also right."

Laughing a little, she moved her head from side to side. "You surprise me every time."

Still," he remarked, moving nearer, "here you are

Sharp as a blade, that kiss tasted more of risk than sugar. Urgent it was, almost like seconds slipping off a clock. They stayed out of sight, stealing moments whenever possible - always staying just before disaster caught up. Now, though, something shifted in the space around them. The balance leaned, not suddenly, yet impossible to ignore.

"If this goes public," Eliana said softly, "they'll call you a manipulator."

"They already think I am," Lucien replied. "This just makes the comeback visible."

Once more, the bells rang softly but were impossible to ignore.

"I have to go," she said.

"I know."

Out the door she stepped, yet paused when Lucien grasped her fingers. His voice shifted no longer just enduring, he spoke her name as if it carried weight

Staring at him, her gaze never wavered. Always like that no change ever

That evening, news found its way to Desmond Packer. A quiet figure, he stayed motionless when the message came. Light barely touched the room where he listened.

Vale Industries was entering Bisonia.

Officially.

Quiet filled the space just as the yelling began. One voice cut through another, quick, unrelenting. Figures on the page changed, drawn carefully by motionless fingers. He stayed frozen even as words spun above Lucien Vale, repeated twice - the sounds slow to fade. Quiet returned before anyone noticed it had left.

Foreign. Powerful. Uninvited.

Interesting.

Up in the sky, just above the roads, Eliana paused. Her gaze followed the glow beneath puddles of brightness floating near the ground, stars that seemed too heavy to stay up high. Inside each gleam were dangers, moments seen too clearly, perhaps even a way out. Air filled her lungs, thick with far-off noise and quiet possibilities.

A kid caught the attention of the people in charge.

Fate shifted as Bisonia woke the hidden , wealth that resists surrender, always pushes back.

A kingdom of gold and secrets, where power is inherited, love is forbidden, and survival requires either obedience or rebellion.

It is rigid, proud, and slow to trust outsiders, which makes Lucien Vale's entrance disruptive and dangerous. His corporate power challenges the kingdom's belief that sovereignty comes only from bloodlines and land.

A throne-bound nation that demands bloodline continuity. Heirs matter more than happiness. Duty outranks desire.