The humidity of the Louisiana bayou had a way of dissolving everything—wood, iron, and morality. Elias returned to the ancestral estate of Blackwood Grove not with a welcome, but with a hidden blade and a heart full of old grudges. He had been the secret shame of the family, a bastard son cast out into the swamps, only to return as a man who knew how to navigate the dark. Gates, the manor's skeletal butler, had been the one to open the side gate. Gates was a man of silence and shadows, a keeper of the family's most grotesque secrets. He had whispered in Elias's ear for months, guiding him through the legal loopholes and the hidden debts of the current master. The takeover was a slow poison. Elias didn't storm the house; he eroded it. He bought the debts, manipulated the heirs, and eventually, through a series of "unfortunate accidents," became the sole owner of the Grove. On the night he officially took possession, Elias sat in the grand dining hall, the wallpaper peeling like dead skin. Gates stood behind him, a ghostly presence. "It is yours, Master Elias," Gates whispered. "The house and everything within it." Elias smiled, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. He looked at the portraits of the men who had rejected him, and he felt a sudden, piercing void. He had won, but the victory tasted of salt and decay. He turned to Gates. "You were very helpful, Gates. Too helpful. You knew exactly which strings to pull." Gates's expression didn't change. "I only wish to see the Grove restored to its rightful bloodline, sir." "Rightful bloodline," Elias mused. "And what happens to the servant who knows where all the bodies are buried?" The next morning, the servants found Gates in the swamp, his body entwined with the roots of a weeping willow. He had been executed with a precision that only a man of the house could manage. Elias locked himself in the master bedroom. He had the title, the land, and the power. But as he listened to the wind howling through the rotting eaves, he realized that Gates hadn't just helped him win the house—he had lured him into a tomb. He was now the master of a dead world, and the only thing left to rule was the rot. *** Objective Tensor Code: [M1:8.0, M5:9.0, M6:7.0, N1:0.7, N2:0.3, K1:0.4, K2:0.6, TI:62.0, theta:225]