A Name That Shouldn't Exist (5)

"The Gravekeeper's Pact: Some deaths are not meant to be eternal."

The words settled into me like a blade slipping between ribs, slow and deliberate.

I had read about the Gravekeepers once, long ago. A secretive order. A faction that had existed before Regaria's founding, before the Magic Tower had been built, before the Council had ever held power. Their purpose had never been fully understood, only whispered about in old texts. Some believed they were assassins, others that they were custodians of lost knowledge.

But one thing had always remained consistent.

They did not believe in permanent death.

My fingers hovered over the inscription, thoughts racing through every implication. If the Gravekeepers had been involved in Belisarius's execution—if they had tampered with his death—then it meant two things.

One, his survival had not been accidental.

Two, someone had deliberately ensured that I would not remember the truth.