
by made_in_heaven
V has no last name, no birthday, and no voice — he lost that at ten, to the man who raised him. For three years he stands guard outside the same brothel gate every night: expressionless, silent, invisible to every noble who walks past him. He has no idea the family he guards is the one that has spent fifteen years tearing the empire apart looking for their stolen son. When a young lord is poisoned three feet from his post, the city's most dangerous crime lord decides the silent guard did it and puts a price on his head. Nobody hunting him knows he's already dying, of something the streets never gave a name to. A broker with a gift for finding lost things is about to uncover both truths on the same night — and neither the family who lost him nor the empire he's about to inherit is ready for what comes back. The only question is whether V survives long enough to find out who he really is.