LOGINAURORAThe fortress never truly slept.Long after midnight, warriors were still moving through the courtyards carrying weapons, supplies, and messages. Torches burned along the walls, illuminating the constant flow of activity below. Every few minutes, another patrol arrived through the gates while another departed into the darkness beyond the territories.The army approaching us hadn’t arrived yet, but everyone could feel its presence.It lingered over the fortress like an approaching storm.I stood on one of the upper balconies overlooking the grounds and watched the preparations unfold beneath me. The sight should have reassured me. Hundreds of warriors were preparing for battle. Defenses were being reinforced. Scouts were returning with reports. Every person inside the fortress seemed focused on surviving what was coming.Instead, all I felt was guilt.The army marching toward us wasn’t here for territory.It wasn’t here for Malrik.It wasn’t even here for the fortress.It was com
AURORANobody moved for a long time after Malrik finished speaking.The courtyard remained crowded, but the tension had changed. The hostility that had existed when we first arrived was gone, replaced by something much more complicated.Understanding but not completely, and not forgiveness either. Just enough truth to make hatred difficult. I looked at my mother.She stood several feet away from Lucien, tears still shining in her eyes, but she wasn’t trying to approach him anymore.Maybe she finally understood that twenty years of pain couldn’t be fixed in a single conversation.Maybe Lucien understood it too.Because despite everything that had been revealed, he hadn’t walked away.He hadn’t shouted.He hadn’t demanded answers that no longer existed.Instead, he stood there silently staring at the woman who had spent two decades regretting a choice she could never take back.The sight hurt in a way I couldn’t explain.For most of my life, I had imagined finding my mother.I had imag
AURORANobody spoke after Malrik’s last words.Not because the courtyard had fallen into one of those dramatic silences people liked to talk about. The truth was simpler than that.Everyone was waiting for him to finish.For the first time since arriving at his fortress, nobody cared about the territories he had conquered or the warriors standing around us.Nobody cared about the armies gathering beyond the borders.They wanted the same thing I did.The truth.The actual truth.Not another prophecy.Not another riddle.Not another secret buried beneath five more secrets.Just the truth.I folded my arms and looked directly at him.“Then stop talking around it.”My patience had completely run out.“You were there. You knew my mother. You knew Lucien. You knew about the Bloodline before anyone else. Fine. Great. Now explain why.”Malrik studied me for a moment before letting out a slow breath.For the first time since I’d met him, he looked tired.Not physically tired.The kind of tired
AURORAThe courtyard remained silent after Malrik’s revelation, but it wasn’t the same kind of silence as before.Earlier, people had been shocked.Now they were trying to make sense of what they were hearing.I knew I was.For years, the story had been simple. My mother abandoned her life, disappeared into the Hollow Lands, and left everything behind. It wasn’t a pleasant story, but at least it made sense.Now every version of that story seemed to be falling apart.I looked at my mother and found her staring at the ground.She wasn’t arguing with Malrik.She wasn’t denying anything he had said.That alone told me enough.“What really happened?” I asked.My voice sounded calmer than I felt.My mother closed her eyes briefly before looking at me. There was a defeated look in her expression that hadn’t been there before, as though she was finally realizing she couldn’t avoid this conversation anymore.“The council decided Lucien was too dangerous to live.”No one reacted.Not because th
AURORABy the time we reached the outer territories, the sun was beginning to sink behind the mountains.The journey from the Hollow Lands had given me far too much time to think, and unfortunately, thinking rarely made anything better. Every answer we had uncovered seemed to create two more questions, and every road somehow led back to the same person.Malrik.The further we traveled into the territories under his control, the more obvious it became that whatever he was building had started long before any of us realized it.I had expected tension when we crossed into his lands.I had expected frightened villagers, nervous warriors, maybe even signs of resistance.Instead, everything looked… normal.People were working.Merchants were traveling.Children were running through village squares while their parents watched from nearby doorways.Nobody looked oppressed.Nobody looked afraid.If anything, the territories seemed more organized than when we left.That realization bothered me
AURORAI didn’t sleep that night.Even after we left the village and made camp beyond the tree line, my mind refused to settle.The villagers’ words kept replaying in my head.He talks about you.He always said you would come back.You should talk to him.None of it made sense.Every time I thought about Malrik, I remembered the council chamber. I remembered him smiling while the elders turned against me. I remembered him separating me from Draven and Darius. I remembered the way he seemed to know things he shouldn’t know.Nothing about that man suggested kindness.Nothing about him suggested loyalty.And yet everywhere we went, people spoke about him differently.Not with fear.Not with resentment.With respect.I hated how much that bothered me.The fire crackled quietly in the center of camp while most of the others slept. The night was cool, but I barely noticed. My thoughts were too loud.A blanket settled over my shoulders.I looked up to find Darius standing beside me.“You’re
AURORA“What ends?” I asked quietly.Luna placed her cup down like she had all the time in the world.“This,” she said, waving her hand lazily. “This little thing you’re doing.”My brows pulled together. “I’m not doing anything.”Luna smiled. “Of course.”She leaned back again, relaxed like a queen
AURORADarius grabbed my arm and pulled me out of his room. He didn’t even look at me. His face was hard, as if he had switched off every emotion.Draven followed behind us. He didn’t speak to me either. We got to the big hall. Guards were already there, a lot of them. Some servants were also hidi
AURORAI stared at Draven but he refused to look at me. My heart was pounding as the woman dragged me inside the room. The room was dark, except for the soft glow of red lights that lined the ceiling like eerie halos.The air was thick with something I couldn’t quite name… something musky, somethi
AURORAAfter Draven’s intervention and cryptic words, he stormed out of the room leaving me alone with Darius. Even though Draven has been mean to me ever since he found out about the letters, I still felt a bit safe that he was around with Darius. But now that he's gone and I'm alone with Darius







