Then one night, a ragged girl appeared at the vault door. She had no name, only a pocket watch that ticked backward. “You’ve locked up the wrong things,” she whispered. “Inside your vault is not evil. Inside is truth .”

But Velis had grown arrogant. “We don’t need hope,” the Council of Regulators declared. “We have order.”

Renn made a choice. He inserted the key.

In the city of Velis, there was a law older than any king: Never ask what is inside the Pandora Vault.

The Keeper was a young man named Renn. He was chosen because he had no curiosity—or so everyone thought. Renn followed the rules perfectly. He never looked inside. He never wondered.