The throne room doors sealed with a heavy thud, and the sound swallowed the room.
Xerxus stood before the marble table. Hands clasped tight behind his back. Two mana crystals rested on their pedestals, split clean down the middle, one side gold, one side violet.
They pulsed slowly, out of rhythm with each other. Like something alive. Like something waiting.
"My brother was a hard man," he said. His voice was low. It scraped. "Leona hid the truth for years. That she could wield both white and dark magic. She buried it. Smothered it. Then one day she just stopped hiding. She stood in open court and refused to suppress any part of herself."
A pause. His jaw worked.
"That was the biggest mistake of her life."
He turned to Kota, and his eyes were too careful. The kind of careful that comes from looking at someone you already mourn.
"The kingdom did not accept it. The nobles, the priests, even our own family turned against her."
Kota's hands curled into fists before he could stop them. "Then why are you helping me?"
Xerxus looked at him for a long time. Too long. His throat moved like he was swallowing something sharp.
Syrelle is still down there. A living battery. Leona made it unnecessary and we kept her anyway. If he finds out the true reason, he may wreak havoc upon this whole kingdom. And he'd be right to.
Then, quietly, he nodded. One nod. Heavy.
"For now, that is enough. The people have already seen what you are. There is no hiding it. But today is still Solstia. Join the festivities. The games, the duels, the feasts. All of it."
His smile was thin. It never reached his eyes.
"Let them see their possible heir in the light."
Leiya stepped closer to Kota, arms crossed tight over her chest, knuckles white.
He's holding something back. That pause. The way he keeps looking at Kota like he's seeing someone else.
Her fingers brushed Kota's sleeve for half a second before she snatched her hand back.
She didn't look at him.
He's too quiet. That's never good.
Jaeger said nothing. Thorne and Mira said nothing. The silence in the throne room felt louder than the crystals.
Xerxus sat. Not on the throne. On the chair beside it.
Kota turned without a word and walked out. The others followed.
Drums thundered across the packed square...
Kids chased each other with wooden swords. Vendors shouted themselves hoarse. Roast meat and spilled ale and sweat hung thick in the summer air.
Kota barely heard any of it.
His chest still felt wrong from the crystals. Not pain. Something worse. Something pulled open and left open. A cold draft where there should have been skin.
They all saw it. They all know now.
Leiya walked at his left, so close their shoulders almost touched. Tense. Jaeger and Thorne boxed him in. Mira trailed behind, hood up despite the heat, eyes scanning every face.
Then the air changed.
It went still.
There she was.
Purple hair. Alone by the bright banners. The crowd flowed around her like water around a stone. No one looked at her. No one could.
She was looking right at him. Smiling.
Kota's chest locked up.
He pushed through the crowd. Shouldered past a merchant, past a guard. Leiya called his name and her voice fell away, muffled, like it hit glass.
Wynna tilted her head.
"I've been waiting for you, Master."
It wasn't just a voice. It slipped into his ears and his mind at the same time, soft and freezing.
Kota's stomach twisted. "Who the hell are you?"
Her smile widened, just a fraction. Ancient and playful and exhausted all at once.
"Wynna," she whispered, and his skull hummed with it.
She took one step forward. No hurry. She didn't need to. People just didn't see her. Like she was moving between their blinks.
She pressed a finger to the center of his chest.
Cold. Unnatural cold. It bled straight through his shirt, through skin, through ribs. It crawled toward his heart slow and deliberate. It didn't hurt. That was the worst part.
"I've been waiting… for a very long time," she said again, and her voice vibrated in his bones.
Kota couldn't move. His feet were stone. His heart was hammering against her finger.
"You're not from Solstia," he managed, voice low and shaking. "Not from anywhere I know."
Wynna kept looking at him with those old, old eyes.
"But I am from here," she said quietly. "Or rather… I was."
What she said was sitting like a weight in his chest. Heavy. Wrong. Final.
"The cage is already open, Master," she murmured. "You just don't see all the bars yet."
His throat went dry. "What do you want from me?"
"Want?" She tilted her head and purple hair slid over her shoulder, swallowing light instead of catching it. "I want what I've always wanted. For you to free us."
"The purple haired girl has been spotted!"
The shout ripped the square in half. Steel cleared leather. Guards shoved through, screaming. People scattered. A tray clattered. A child screamed.
Wynna didn't even blink. She kept staring at Kota like the guards were just wind.
Kota's stomach dropped out.
I thought no one else could see her.
They can, only because she's allowing them to, boy.
Kota went cold.
Wynna's finger finally left his chest. She stepped back into the shadow of a banner.
"We can finally be set free," she whispered, and for the first time she sounded like she might break.
Kota's eyes narrowed. "Who is we?"
"Don't move!" The guards were ten feet away now, swords half-raised.
Wynna smiled at him.
Then she thinned out. The banner behind her showed straight through her chest. The fabric snapped once, hard. The air didn't move at all.
She was gone. Only the banner kept swaying, like someone had brushed past it.
The lead guard skidded to a stop where she'd been. "Where'd she go?!" He spun, wild eyed, hand on his hilt.
Leiya grabbed Kota's arm and dug her nails in. She was breathing too fast.
"Kota! what the hell was that? What did she do to you?"
He couldn't answer. His chest was still cold where she'd touched him. The crystals.
Xerxus and his careful eyes. This girl who spoke like she'd known him before he was born. It was too much, too fast, stacking too high.
Leiya's grip tightened. Her eyes were wet now. "Kota. Look at me."
He finally looked at her. His voice came out rough.
"I don't know."
But that wasn't true. Not really.
Something's waking up. He thought, I'm not sure if i'm ready for what's coming.