Forgotten Ones

Celeste had expected many things when she stepped into the hidden chamber.

Dust. Rot. Forgotten artifacts buried beneath centuries of neglect.

Yet, she had not expected this.

The air was stale, thick with the scent of damp stone and something else—something metallic and old. The room was cavernous, much larger than the narrow corridors that had led her here. Unlike the sleek, engineered beauty of the Air Dominion, this place was raw, untouched.

And at its center stood a single structure.

A glass sarcophagus.

Celeste's breath hitched. She moved closer as her heartbeat became a dull roar in her ears. Condensation lined the inside of the glass, misting over what lay within as if time itself was trying to keep the secrets hidden.

She reached out, fingers hovering just above the surface.

It was... A body.

Celeste staggered back, her stomach twisting violently. The figure inside was eerily still, their face obscured by frost and time. They weren't decayed—not fully. It was preserved.

But it wasn't just the body that made her blood turn to ice.

It was the mark. It was faint but unmistakable, carved into their collarbone.

The same mark she bore.

Oh my fucking god...

Her knees felt weak. She sucked in a sharp breath, but the walls felt like they were closing in.

This wasn't a coincidence.

This was proof, proof that she wasn't the first.

Proof that the Order had found others like her before.

And if this person was here, trapped, forgotten, left to rot, then what did that mean for her?

Her hands curled into fists. Her thoughts were spinning too fast, unraveling in a way she couldn't control.

She barely noticed Kieran step up behind her.

He didn't speak right away. Just stood there, watching.

Then, in a voice quieter than she had ever heard from him, he said, "Now you understand."

Celeste turned to face him, her pulse hammering. "Who was this?"

Kieran exhaled slowly, gaze flicking to the glass. "Someone the Order wanted erased."

"Why?" she pressed, her voice sharper than she intended.

His jaw tensed. "Because they weren't supposed to exist."

Celeste hated the way he said it. The finality in his voice. Like he had accepted it. Like this was just the way things were.

"Then what am I?" she demanded.

Kieran's gaze snapped back to her. He didn't answer right away, but she saw something shift in his expression—something deeper, something close to regret.

Finally, he said, "A mistake."

Celeste felt that word like a slap.

A mistake?

The world around her felt unsteady, like she had stepped too close to the edge of a great chasm and the ground beneath her was beginning to crumble.

Her voice was barely above a whisper. "How long have you known?"

Kieran's fingers twitched at his side. He wasn't looking at her anymore. "Long enough."

Celeste let out a bitter laugh, but there was no humor in it. "And you were going to kill me anyway?"

His eyes flickered. "Yes."

The honesty shouldn't have hurt, but it did.

She forced herself to meet his gaze, lifting her chin slightly. "Then why didn't you?"

Kieran didn't answer.

His silence was worse than a lie.

Celeste turned away from him, staring back at the frozen body beneath the glass. Her mark still burned beneath her skin, as if the weight of this place, of this truth, had stirred something inside her that couldn't be buried again.

"Who were they?" she asked again, quieter this time.

Kieran hesitated, then sighed. "I don't know their names. No one does. But I know what they were."

He stepped closer, his voice just above a whisper.

"They called them the Unwritten."

Celeste frowned, turning slightly. "What does that mean?"

Kieran's gaze darkened. "It means they didn't belong to any Zodiac. They weren't ruled by fate or dictated by the stars." His jaw tightened. "And the Order couldn't control them."

A chill ran through her spine.

The Unwritten...

Celeste glanced down at the mark carved into the figure's skin, then touched her own. It was the same.

Her stomach twisted. "The Order killed them."

Kieran didn't deny it.

She clenched her fists, anger rising in her chest like a wildfire. "And they're going to do the same to me, aren't they?"

Kieran let out a slow breath. "If they find out what you are?" His voice was cold, quiet. "Yes."

The words settled between them, heavy and unshakable.

Celeste should have been afraid. She should have panicked, should have broken down at the realization that the entire world she lived in would rather erase her than let her exist.

But she didn't.

Instead, she lifted her chin and squared her shoulders.

She had spent her whole life feeling like she didn't belong. She had spent years trying to fit into a mold that never quite fit, trying to follow rules that felt more like chains.

And now she knew why.

She had never belonged to the Zodiac Order. She belonged to the Unwritten. And if the Order thought they could erase her like they had the others?

They were wrong.

She turned to Kieran, fire burning behind her ribs. "You knew all this, and you still followed their orders?"

His expression was unreadable. "I had no choice."

"Bullshit," she snapped. "You had a choice when you didn't kill me that night in the archive. You had a choice when you let me see this place. And you have a choice right now."

Kieran tensed, but she didn't back down.

She took a slow step toward him.

"Are you going to kill me, Kieran?" she asked, her voice unwavering. "Because if not, then you're not just my enemy anymore. You're something else."

She didn't know what that something else was yet.

And from the way Kieran was looking at her, like she was a problem he didn't know how to solve, she wasn't sure he did either.

For the first time, she saw hesitation in his stance. And in that hesitation, Celeste saw an opening.

She stepped past him, heading for the door. "Come find me when you figure out where you stand."

And then she left him standing there, alone with the past he had tried so hard to bury.

KIERAN'S POV

Kieran moved through the dim corridors of the Scorpio stronghold, his mind a storm of curses.

He didn't stop walking, didn't look back. He needed distance from her, from that mark, from whatever the hell had just happened.

He had suspected something was off the moment Celeste set foot in the Grand Archives. He had followed her for sport at first, amusement threading through his boredom as he watched the little Aquarium noble stumble her way through secrets far beyond her reach. Hell, she didn't even know he secretly visited her in her chambers once. 

He had expected naivety. Foolish curiosity.

What he hadn't expected was that symbol, the mark.

The moment he saw it flicker beneath her skin, the moment it pulsed with the same old, forgotten power that should not exist, something inside him had twisted; a cold, visceral recognition.

She had no idea what she was.

That alone made his pulse quicken. Because if she didn't know, that meant no one did. Not the Aquarians. Not the Libras. Not the ruling council of Zodiac Elders who thought they knew every fate, every bloodline, every secret that could shape the world.

And yet, there she was. The Unwritten one, from the Thirteenth Sign...

He reached his quarters, shutting the heavy door behind him. His hands flexed, fists clenching and unclenching as he replayed the moment her skin lit up under his touch. The way it had reacted to him, as if recognizing something buried in his own blood.

That was what disturbed him the most.

Because it meant Celeste wasn't the only one who had been touched by this forgotten fate; a curse. A prophecy. A relic of a time long erased.

Kieran exhaled, pressing his fingers against his temple.

If the Grandmaster found out, if they found out, it would be over for her before she could even understand what was happening. They did not allow unfinished stories. Loose threads in fate were cut before they could unravel something bigger.

And this? This was huge. 

He could still feel the ghost of her touch against his skin, the way it had sent a sharp, unexplainable heat through him. Not magic or any ordinary energy. It was something... dangerous.

Kieran wasn't afraid of many things. But this? This was too close to the stories they whispered in the dark. The Thirteenth Sign, the lost house of the Zodiac. 

Celeste had no idea that she had just painted a target on her back.

And Kieran had no idea why the hell he wasn't letting them take the shot.