Chapter 1 – The Queen's Death
The scent of rain lingered in the palace corridors.
Two years had passed since Lyra's birth. The young princess, with silver-flecked eyes and soft raven curls, brought a rare warmth to the cold marble halls. Yet behind every smile from a maid or noble, eyes lingered too long—whispers followed her like shadows.
"She has no aura, they say.""A royal with no mana?""A cursed child."
Queen Elyssia ignored them all.
She spent every waking moment with Lyra, raising her not as royalty, but as someone precious. Every evening, they walked the Moon Garden—where the queen whispered stories of old bloodlines, of light and shadow, and powers sealed by fate.
But on the night of the eclipse, the palace gates trembled.
Elyssia stood at her tower window, holding Lyra close. The sky turned crimson. Clouds rolled in unnaturally fast, and lightning cracked without thunder.
"My Queen!" A knight burst into the room, face pale with dread. "Assassins—within the palace!"
The queen handed Lyra to the knight, her voice a command of ice. "Take her to the Moon Garden. Activate the ward. No matter what you hear, do not return."
"But Your Majesty—"
"Go!"
As footsteps fled, the queen turned toward the shadows gathering at her door.
Cloaked figures stepped into the moonlight. Their eyes glowed faint red, and their blades shimmered with cursed steel.
"You," Elyssia whispered, recognizing the insignia on one of their rings. "I trusted you."
A smirk. "You were too powerful. You stood in the way."
Light exploded from her palm—a radiant shield bursting around her. Her aura, pure and burning like the midday sun, lit the tower like a second dawn.
The battle shook the tower. Spells screamed across the stone. Elyssia's power was fierce, but she was outnumbered. A blade pierced her side. Then another.
As her strength faded, her last spell wasn't a strike—but a whisper to the wind.
"Protect her… my daughter… the ring…"
A final burst of golden light erupted from her chest—and then, silence.
When the knights arrived hours later, they found nothing but a bloodstained floor, shattered crystal runes, and a single message carved into the stone by Elyssia's dying spell:
"She must not fall."
And so the official decree was made:Queen Elyssia died in her sleep. The princess, still powerless, would be tested again at five.
But beneath the lies, a shadow moved—and destiny waited.