Nightwind had never been so quiet, The morning after Liora’s coronation arrived clothed in thick fog and silver dew. The people, still reeling from the ceremony, moved like ghosts awed, uncertain, hopeful. But Liora?She stood beneath the ancient starlily tree, awake since dawn. A queen now. But still a daughter, a warrior, a woman who bled.Aria joined her in silence, They said nothing for several minutes. Then: “You look like her,” Aria murmured. “The Liora from the broken realm.”“I don’t want to be her,” Liora whispered.“You already aren’t,” Aria said. “She ruled to survive. You… rule to save.”A trumpet’s call echoed from the eastern walls. Three sharp notes. A stranger at the gate.Liora turned sharply. “I wasn’t expecting visitors.”“No one should know yet,” Myra said, appearing beside her, armed.But Altheya arrived a heartbeat later, face pale. “They do know,” she said.“He knows.”The gate opened. And standing just beyond it, flanked by two cloaked guards, was a figure Lior
Last Updated : 2025-07-15 Read more