Aftermath

CHAPTER 15

The abandoned laundry room was the only place in the palace where nobody came looking for Elara.

Cold stone surrounded her. Dust-covered baskets sat against the walls, untouched for years.

Above her, the palace whispered.

Her name traveled through the corridors.

"turned completely black, I heard"

"and the King rejected her right there"

"always knew something was wrong with that girl"

Elara closed her eyes.

"Poor thing," another servant whispered. "Whatever she is, it can't be good."

"Don't let anyone hear you feeling sorry for her."

Footsteps faded.

Elara pressed her palms against her knees.

For eighteen years, being ignored had been her normal.

Now everyone was watching.

And somehow, that frightened her more.

The door creaked.

Elara didn't look up.

"Did you come to tell me what everyone's saying?"

"No."

Yssa stepped inside and quietly closed the door.

Instead of approaching her, the healer sat on an overturned basket a few feet away.

"Then why are you here?"

Yssa looked at her.

"Because you need to understand something before someone else decides it for you."

Elara's stomach tightened.

"What?"

Yssa hesitated.

"You need to understand what you are before they decide what to do with you."

Elara slowly raised her head.

"What am I?"

"I don't know."

Her frustration snapped.

"You're a healer."

"I am."

"You examined me."

"Yes."

"You told them I was wolfless."

Yssa went silent.

Elara stared at her.

"But you don't believe that anymore."

Yssa didn't answer.

That silence told Elara more than words could have.

"What did you see?" Elara demanded. "Back then. During the examination. What did you see?"

"Something I wasn't prepared to see."

"What?"

"I can't tell you yet."

"Everyone keeps saying that."

Elara's hands curled into fists.

"Everyone in this palace knows something about me, and every single person decides I'm not allowed to know it."

"Because knowing the truth is dangerous," Yssa said sharply, "when you don't know who else already knows it."

Elara went still.

She remembered the black stone.

The darkness spreading across its surface.

The silence that had fallen over the court.

Then Kael's rejection.

"Did the stone react because I'm wolfless?"

"No."

The answer came immediately.

Elara's eyes widened.

"Then why did it react?"

Yssa glanced toward the door.

"I don't know."

"You just said"

"I said it wasn't because you were wolfless."

Yssa lowered her voice.

"That's different."

Elara stared at her.

"Then what did it recognize?"

Yssa's expression tightened.

"That's what you need to find out."

Elara looked away.

"I thought the ceremony would finally prove that I belonged somewhere."

Her voice cracked.

Instead of stopping, she continued.

"Instead, the entire court watched the King reject me."

Yssa said nothing.

"I spent my entire life being told there was something wrong with me."

"There may be something different about you."

Elara looked at her.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"No."

Yssa's expression hardened.

"It's supposed to keep you alive."

Elara frowned.

"What does that mean?"

Yssa leaned forward.

"The examination I performed on you years ago didn't show an absent wolf."

Elara's breathing slowed.

"What did it show?"

"Nothing at first."

"At first?"

Yssa nodded.

"An ordinary healer would have called it absence. But I felt something beneath it."

"What?"

"Resistance."

Elara stared at her.

Yssa continued carefully.

"Something was closed."

"Closed?"

"Sealed."

The word hung between them.

Elara's heart began pounding.

"Sealed by who?"

"I don't know."

"Then how do you know it was done?"

"Because wolves don't simply disappear without leaving something behind."

Yssa's voice became quieter.

"What I felt inside you wasn't emptiness, Elara."

She paused.

"It was something shut away."

Elara swallowed.

"Something like my wolf?"

"I don't know."

"Then what do you know?"

Yssa held her gaze.

"Whatever happened to you wasn't natural."

Elara's fingers tightened.

"Can it be opened?"

"I don't know."

"Can you open it?"

"No."

"Can anyone?"

"I don't know."

Elara pushed herself to her feet.

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Stay alive long enough to find out."

Elara stared at her.

"What about the stone?"

Yssa's expression changed.

"I don't think the black stone rejected you."

"Then what did it do?"

"I think it recognized something."

"Something inside me?"

"Possibly."

"Possibly?"

"That's all I can give you."

Elara shook her head.

"Why won't anyone tell me the truth?"

"Because the truth can be dangerous."

"That's what you keep saying."

"Because you keep asking questions that could get you killed."

Elara froze.

Yssa stood.

"The King rejecting you was public."

"What happens next?"

Yssa looked directly at her.

"Won't be."

A chill moved through Elara.

"What does that mean?"

"People fear what they don't understand."

Yssa walked toward the door.

"And frightened people investigate."

"Someone is going to investigate me?"

"Someone already is."

Elara's eyes widened.

"Who?"

Yssa opened the door.

"I don't know."

"Yssa."

The healer stopped.

"You said you'd tell me more."

"I will."

"When?"

"Soon."

"Where?"

Yssa hesitated.

"Somewhere outside the palace."

"Why?"

For the first time, Yssa's carefully controlled expression broke.

Fear flashed across her face.

Real fear.

"Because if the wrong person hears what I'm about to tell you..."

She looked back at Elara.

"...neither of us will be safe."

Then she left.

The door closed.

Elara remained alone.

She slowly sank against the stone wall.

The humiliation of the ceremony still burned.

Kael's rejection still hurt.

The whispers above hadn't stopped.

But something had changed.

Yssa had confirmed what Elara had secretly suspected for years.

She wasn't simply empty.

She wasn't simply broken.

Something had been sealed inside her.

Something someone had deliberately hidden.

Elara touched her palm.

The faint mark from the ceremony was still warm.

For eighteen years, the palace had called her powerless.

For eighteen years, she had believed them.

Now she wasn't so sure.

Maybe there had never been nothing inside her.

Maybe someone had spent eighteen years making sure she never discovered what was there.

And suddenly, Elara understood why that possibility frightened her more than the King's rejection ever could.

Someone had been afraid of what she might become if she ever found out what had been sealed inside her.