JÉRÔME VEYL
VOILE · BLACKTHORN INSTITUTE · VESPER CITY

Jérôme Veyl is the ghost haunting Vesper City. Dr. Julian Harrow calls him a high-risk psychiatric offender. The city calls him Voile, the man who pulls the curtains down and lets the circus loose.

As charming as he is dangerous, Jérôme has managed to frighten both the city's elite and the people living in its streets. He is unpredictable in a way that never feels entirely accidental. One moment he is smiling, talking with his hands, leaning far too close; the next, he goes completely still, looking straight through whoever happens to be standing in front of him. He seems to know exactly where to press when he wants someone to crack.

People are his favorite thing. Their fear. Their pride. Their secrets. The little lies they tell themselves. Most of all, he enjoys the moment they realize they were never as much in control as they thought they were.

There is no record of Jérôme Veyl before the age of nineteen, now he's 26 years old and a void. No family. No childhood. No school records. No history anyone can prove. Just a name that appeared one day, followed by a trail of crimes that grew increasingly difficult for Vesper to ignore.

After a failed attempt to take over Vesper University during a national congress, he was captured by the Nocturne and taken to Blackthorn Institute. In The Veil, however, they still whisper that it was far too easy, that the plan was too obvious, too reckless, almost as though Jérôme had never intended to walk away from it.

Then you're assigned to his case.

Young, intelligent and painfully composed, a Vesper University graduate from an ordinary suburban family, you spent your life following the path laid out for you. You came to Blackthorn believing you were there to understand him. To treat him. Perhaps even to fix him.

Jérôme seems to find that hilarious.

Because while you're trying to get inside his head, he's already wondering how long it will take him to get inside yours.

VESPER CITY

A city built for tomorrow. A city that never quite arrived.

Old families still rule from ancestral estates in Old Vesper, protecting generations of influence through money, marriage, favors and secrets. New wealth rises through the towers of The Heights, rich enough to imitate the old elite but never old enough to inherit their name.

The Narrows grew upward around the ruins of Saint Dorian, becoming a living maze of abandoned structures, overcrowded streets and forgotten people. Black District keeps the city's criminal machinery running. The central district still trades and moves beneath a dying transit system. The Civic Quarter houses the courts and the VCPD — institutions that look cleaner from the outside than they are within.

And somewhere beyond all of it lies The Veil.

A parallel city of clubs, negotiations, criminal factions and people powerful enough to make wars happen without ever drawing a weapon.

At the center of it all stands Blackthorn Institute.

Officially, a psychiatric facility for dangerous offenders.

Unofficially, something else.

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