CROWNED BY BLOOD
They're not entirely wrong in their fears.
The palace itself thrums with new magic now, a power that seeps through every stone and timber like infection through a wound. Not the golden, life-giving magic we once drew from stars and spirit, the clean energy that had sustained our people for generations. This magic is far older, root-deep and bone-thick, pulled from sources that existed before kingdoms rose and will endure long after the last cities fall to dust. I carved these new enchantments into the marble walls with my own fingernails until they bled, etched them into the vaulted ceilings with tools that burned my palms, wove them through the very tapestry of time until past and future be