CHAPTER SIX:What Her Mother Hid

The abandoned station felt like a breath held too long.

Nyx’s guards stood still. Cassian’s men stood tense. Everyone waited for Elara to become something she had never chosen to be.

She felt it then—the strange weight inside her, not physical, but real. A promise. A threat. A future that didn’t belong to her, yet moved because of her.

“I don’t want power,” Elara said. “I don’t want empires. I just want the truth.”

Nyx smiled like the truth was a toy. “Then speak it.”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “But I will.”

Cassian turned to her sharply. “Elara—”

“No,” she said. “You don’t get to stop me anymore.”

She stepped back, away from both sides.

“I’m leaving,” she said. “And if anyone follows me, I will make sure this secret dies with noise.”

Nyx’s smile faded slightly. “You wouldn’t.”

“I don’t know what I would do,” Elara said. “That’s the point.”

She turned and walked—not running, not hiding. Just leaving.

No one followed.

Not yet.

She found shelter in a small library on the edge of the city. It was old, forgotten, and nearly empty. The kind of place where secrets might feel less loud.

She searched records, newspapers, old files—anything about the first war, about Seraphine Dray, about Mara Vale.

Most of it was missing.

But some stories leave shadows even when erased.

She found one article, hidden in the back of a damaged archive:

“City Fire Claims Hundreds—Blame Unclear”

The date matched the war Cassian spoke of.

Another article mentioned two families rising suddenly from the ruins.

Dray. Calder.

Elara’s hands shook.

That night, she dreamed of her mother.

Mara stood by a river of dark glass.

“You were never meant to carry it alone,” Mara said.

“Then why give it to me?” Elara cried.

Mara touched her forehead. “Because you would choose differently.”

Elara woke with tears on her face.

The next day, Cassian found her again.

“I’m not here to take you back,” he said. “I’m here because you’re in danger.”

“I’ve always been in danger.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “But now you’re visible.”

She folded her arms. “Why do you still care?”

Cassian looked tired. “Because you’re doing what I was too afraid to.”

She showed him the articles.

“They erased everything,” she said. “But not perfectly.”

Cassian read them slowly.

“This is enough to start questions,” he said. “Not enough to end wars.”

“I don’t want war,” Elara replied. “I want a choice.”

“Choice always costs something,” Cassian said.

“Then let me pay for my own.”

Before he could answer, Nyra appeared in the doorway.

“Elara,” she said softly. “Your mother left you something.”

Elara froze. “What?”

Nyra held out a small metal pendant.

“She hid it inside a wall before she died. We didn’t know what it was. But now—”

Elara opened it.

Inside was a thin memory chip and a folded note.

Her mother’s handwriting.

My Elara,

If you read this, the oath is awake again.

I did not give you to them. I gave them a lie they believed.

The truth is not only in blood.

It is my choice.

You are not the key.

You are the question.

Forgive me for the weight.

Love, always — Mom

Elara’s hands trembled.

“A lie?” Cassian whispered.

They played the chip.

Mara’s voice filled the room.

“The oath was never meant to last forever,” Mara said. “It was meant to buy time until someone brave enough chose to end it without becoming a monster. I changed the rules. I bound the oath not to blood—but to will. If Elara ever refuses it fully, it breaks.”

Silence followed.

Nyra whispered, “So the oath only lives if Elara accepts it.”

Elara looked up. “I don’t.”

Cassian stared at her. “If you reject it completely, the secret will surface.”

“Yes.”

“And the city—”

“Will finally face what it is,” Elara said. “Not what it pretends to be.”

Nyx’s voice echoed from outside. “How poetic.”

He stepped in, slow and smiling.

“You’ve already chosen, haven’t you?” Nyx said.

Elara lifted her chin. “I have.”

Nyx’s eyes darkened. “Then everyone will bleed for your courage.”

“No,” she replied. “They’ll wake up from your lies.”

Cassian moved beside her. “You’re not alone.”

Nyx laughed. “That’s what makes this tragic.”

He raised his hand.

Guards moved.

But before they reached her, Elara spoke clearly:

“I reject the Velvet Oath.”

The air felt different.

Like something old had stopped breathing.

Nyx’s smile vanished.

Cassian felt it too—a pressure lifting, like a storm breaking silently.

Nyx stepped back. “What did you do?”

Elara’s voice was steady. “I ended what never belonged to me.”

Sirens sounded in the distance—not from syndicates, but from the city.

Information had begun to move.

The secret was waking.

Nyx looked at Cassian. “You’ve doomed them all.”

Cassian replied, “No. We’ve finally stopped pretending.”

Nyx vanished into the chaos.

Elara sat down, suddenly shaking.

Cassian knelt beside her. “You changed everything.”

“I don’t feel powerful,” she whispered. “I feel scared.”

“That’s what real choice feels like,” he said.

Above them, the city began to shift—not in fire, not in screams, but in questions.

And questions were more dangerous than any weapon.