Chapter 55 – Into the Iron Empire
The fire in her chest didn't fade—it lingered. Not like Aura. Not like Celeste's Light. This was something older. Wilder. It pulsed in rhythm with her heartbeat and whispered in Severra's voice:
"Creation began with fire. It must end with fire."
Jean emerged from the sanctum changed.
Luxclade, now glowing with twin energies—holy light and soul-flame—sang as she moved. Every Envoy Knight in Gildcrest felt it. Even Silvia, watching from the high battlements, turned her head sharply as Jean passed.
"Where are you going?" Cassien asked as he caught up to her at the courtyard gates.
"North," she replied. "To the Iron Empire."
He stared. "Alone?"
"No. With Whitney. And this," she tapped Luxclade, "which now holds a dragon's flame and a goddess's wrath."
Cassien frowned. "Jean, the Iron Empress is no ordinary sovereign. She's a Transcendent Master who's ruled for nearly a century. She hates the Luther Clan. You walk into her land with that blade and she'll try to take it—or your head."
"I'm counting on it."
He stepped in front of her. "Why now?"
Jean's gaze hardened. "Because I need to know what the Iron Empress is hiding. She's been hunting relics tied to dragons. I think she's trying to awaken something. Maybe Antares himself."
Silvia approached from the archway, cloaked in red wind. "Then let us go with you."
Jean shook her head. "If I'm caught, it has to be only me. No ties to the Luther Clan. The Empress must see me as something new—not a daughter, not a threat, but a mystery."
Silvia searched her face. Then nodded. "Take this, then." She handed Jean a crest—silver and unmarked. "It opens the hidden ways through the Hollow Border. You'll be in Iron lands before their scouts even know you crossed."
Cassien sighed. "If you die, I'll raise you just to kill you again."
Jean smiled faintly. "If I die, Severra burns the world."
Whitney padded beside her as they crossed through the secret pass at dawn.
The frost-bitten lands of the Iron Empire lay beyond—mountains veiled in smog, cities fueled by war, and the throne of the Iron Empress waiting in black steel silence.
Jean whispered to her blade: "Let's find out what truths the Empress hides."
And Luxclade pulsed in reply.
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