Riegthar POV

"Before you continue with this grand story of yours, I need to correct you on one vital detail: your parents are, in fact, entirely in love," Yue-Senn suddenly interjected, voice cutting right through the unstable heat rising in the room.

I snapped my head toward him, thoroughly irritated. "No, they are not. They explicitly said it themselves."

"I don’t doubt for a second that they said that," Yue-Senn replied, a small, insufferable smirk playing on his lips as he leaned back.

"And it was most likely because they found out their nosy, spying child was crouched behind the curtains listening to them."

My jaw dropped slightly. "How could you possibly know that?"

"A blind man could smell the sheer volume of hormones on those two, Riegthar. They can’t get enough of each other," he glanced sideways at Ry.

"During our war council meetings, they would constantly communicate with nothing but their eyes and subtle touches. Trust me on this, if Ry hadn’t completely lost control of her power years ago and forced the kingdom into total isolation, she certainly wouldn’t have been their last child."

Beside him, Ry’s face flushed and she drove her elbow straight into his ribs. Yue-Senn merely let out a low, breathy chuckle, completely unfazed by the blow. I sat there in silence, my mind processing his words.

He actually has a point, I thought to myself, a bitter taste in my mouth. Growing up, our parents always had a deeply weird, silent way of communicating, constantly checking in on one another across crowded ballrooms without uttering a single word.

"Just because someone doesn’t show love the way you do, or define it by your specific standards, does not mean that it isn’t love," Yue-Senn added softly, his tone turning unusually serious as his gaze lingered on my sister.

I rolled my eyes hard, trying to mask how much his insight actually bothered me.

"Point taken, smart ass."

Yue-Senn smoothly stood up from the couch, buttoning his black suit jacket with an effortless, grace.

"On that note, I am going to head out. I have far more important, pressing matters to attend to in the than sitting here listening to your childhood fairytales."

He leaned down, attempting to press a gentle kiss against the top of Ry’s head, but she stubbornly pulled her face away. Yue-Senn simply smiled back at her a look of pure, devotion before turning on his heel and walking out of the meeting room, his loyal manservant shifting from the shadows to follow a step behind his back.

Ry rolled her eyes dramatically, watching him disappear past the door. Once the door clicked shut, she waved her hand impatiently at me. "Keep going."

As I parted my lips to speak, the heavy weight of the history became too much for Ari. She silently walked away her face pale, as she walked out of the room to give us space.

I stared down at my hands, the trauma of my past bleeding into my voice.

"When Ail was first born, Ry... I honestly hated her. She took every single ounce of our parents’ love and attention. The palace maids were the ones who tucked me into bed at night, while our mother and father personally tucked her in. I know it sounds entirely pathetic and weird to be jealous of a literal child, but it was incredibly hard going from being an only child to suddenly sharing a cold, loveless palace."

Ry’s jaw clenched, her eyes narrowing. "I need you to hurry up and tie everything together, Riegthar. I am getting bored."

"Shut up and just listen!" I yelled back, the emotion cracking my voice.

"Ail and I didn’t actually get close until the day she also completely lost control of her powers. I was the only one there, I came and helped her contain the blast because Dad was away on a diplomatic mission, and Mother had abruptly left the realm to visit her home. After that day, Ail followed me around everywhere like a lost puppy. But when Mother finally returned from her realm months later... she was holding a newborn baby in her arms. She had been secretly pregnant with you when she left."

Ry’s breath hitched, her body going rigid. "I... I was born in the realm of dragons and beasts?"

Before I could answer, the door groaned open, and Ari walked back into the room, holding a tray of light snacks and drinks to help soothe the suffocating atmosphere. She quietly sat down next to my sister.

"Yes," I continued, my heart aching for the girl sitting across from me. "And that exact truth was the sole reason you were so sickly as a child. No healer in the entire continent could fix you, Ry. Your body was desperately trying to adjust to the atmosphere of this realm after being born in the chaotic place of the beasts’ world. And Ail... Ail tried to actively kill you the moment she noticed the shift. She saw that our parents were no longer feeding her, no longer reading her bedtime stories, and absolutely never paying attention to any of her academic or magical accomplishments anymore. All of their focus went into keeping you alive."

Ry’s hands flew to her chest, her fingers clutching the delicate fabric of her dress right over her heart. Tears finally began to well in her eyes, threatening to spill over the fixed, terrifying smile she was forcing onto her face.

"She hated me... even then. It hurts."

"She possessed a massive, misplaced hurt, Ry. And she maliciously directed it toward you instead of placing the blame on our parents,"

I explained, the memory of that bloody afternoon flashing vividly behind my eyes.

"When Mother found out, she beat Ail horribly for trying to end your life. And then she beat me just as severely for failing to protect you.

By the time you turned two, your body was still failing to adjust, trapped between this world and the realm of dragons. Out of pure desperation, Father secretly took you across the sea to our estranged grandfather the legendary Elf King."

Ry’s eyes widened in sheer bewilderment. "Dad has... Dad has never spoken a single word about him. I don’t even remember what he looks like."

"None of us do, honestly," I sighed, leaning forward onto my elbows. "The Elf King completely refused to help us. He called our father a wretched mistake. He called our mother a bloodthirsty monster. But right before he threw us out, he stared at the three of us and delivered a chilling prophecy. He called Ail *the dark one*. He called me *the peacekeeper*. And he looked directly at you, a sickly two-year-old child, and called you *the queen of all*. At the time, we were all entirely confused by his madness... but looking at the state of the world now, I see he was accurately telling us our future."

"I... I..." Ry stuttered, her voice fragmenting into small, broken gasps. Ari immediately leaned in closer, wrapping a supportive arm around her shoulders and gently rubbing her back to keep her grounded.

"Eventually, as time passed, your body adjusted. It was an incredibly hard road, but you survived," I said, taking a shaky breath as I prepared to deliver the final, crushing blows of our past.

"But the resentment never left the palace walls. Ail has always had a massive, obsessive crush on Yue-Senn ever since we were children. They were caught kissing in the palace gardens once, and I watched them hold hands a few times during royal galas."

Ry’s head dropped, her tears finally spilling over her lashes, splashing onto her lap. "I understand her pain... I really do. I truly stole away the only man she ever loved. I feel absolutely horrible." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Don’t you dare feel bad for her!" I snapped, my voice rising in a desperate bid to snap her out of her guilt.

"You didn’t know anything, Ry! You were just a child locked away in your chambers! And the day that Benny died... Ail explicitly told us it was a total accident. She swore to Mom and Dad that her and her group of friends were just playing a game in the woods and accidentally hurt him... but she claimed it was *you* who took the game too far. She told the entire council that you were the one who took Benny’s head off."

"That is a absolute lie!" Ry screamed.

She slammed her hands onto the table and stood up, the sheer force of her sudden movement causing her couch to screech backward against the stone floor.

"I would never hurt Benny! I loved him! He was my only friend in that godforsaken palace!"

She was actively fighting a tidal wave of tears, her chest heaving beneath her corset. Seeing her completely break down. I stood up, bypassed the table, and pulled her small, shaking body tightly into my arms, embedding her face against my chest.

To be completely honest, I am still not entirely sure what truly happened on that bloody afternoon in the woods. But back then, the evidence couldn’t be denied when the father found her, it was Ry, who was standing alone in the clearing, covered in blood, holding Benny’s severed head in your tiny hands while Ail and the other girls were cowering in the distance.

Ry completely melted into my embrace, her hands frantically squeezing the thick fabric of my jacket as she sobbed uncontrollably against my chest, letting the years of suppressed trauma rip out of her lungs. Ari held her head down across the room, a silent, heavy tear slipping down her own face.

"It’s okay, Ry. Just let it out," I whispered, holding the back of her braided hair.

But the vulnerability didn’t last. After a few long minutes, she firmly pushed against my chest, pulling herself out of my grip. She wiped her face aggressively with the back of her hand, her eyes snapping up to look at me with a cold, terrifyingly sharp intensity.

"Finish the story."

"Ry, please, let’s just focus on comforting you right now—"

She shoved me back even harder this time, using enough of her supernatural strength that I was forced to take a step back, completely breaking our physical contact.

"I said, finish the story," she demanded, her voice flat, dead, and entirely devoid of the tears she had just shed.

I let out a long, heavy sigh, realizing there was no stopping the momentum of the crash.

"After the whole incident of you losing complete control and the neighboring kingdoms permanently locking down their borders, Mother had absolutely no way of returning to her home realm. That is when everything went completely dark. She specifically started bringing high-level, blood mages into our palace, disguising them as simple maids and manservants.Those who ultimately failed to please her, or showed any signs of weakness... she was using them as human sacrifices to try and forcefully summon the portal back to her world. And when the ritual inevitably failed... she would feed on their remaining life force."

"No! No, Mother wouldn’t do that!" Ry yelled, her voice trembling in sheer denial.

"Ry, even if we desperately don’t want to admit it to ourselves, our mother is a beast. She isn’t fully human," the horrific images of what I had uncovered in the palace basement burning in my throat.

"I watched her do it with my own two eyes. This is the exact, sick reason why almost all of our kingdom’s resources went into making blood mages incredibly strong and keeping the common people blissfully happy with superficial luxuries, rather than actually advancing our weapons or paper manufacturing even though we have the modern technology right at our fingertips. She was hiding the rot in the foundation."

Ry stared at me, her breathing turning shallow. "Why... why didn’t you say anything to me? To Father? To anyone?"

"I tried!" I yelled back, the guilt and shame pouring out of me.

"But I got too terrified of what she would do to me if I spoke up! But after Ail launched that attack yesterday, and we fought... I felt like I was completely losing my goddamn mind. I finally found the courage to speak the truth to Father right before I came here. To be honest, I don’t even know what kind of absolute disaster awaits me when I return to the palace gates."

Ry’s eyes flashed with a sudden, panic. "What?! Ari, go get the calling crystals right now! We need to contact the palace!"

"No!" I barked, grabbing her wrist to halt her before she could send Ari running. "They kept you completely in the dark for a reason, Ry! Because of this! The moment you let your raw emotions drive your decisions, you completely lose control of your power and put everyone in danger!"

Ry violently wrenched her wrist out of my grip, her stature straightening as a suffocating, blinding pressure suddenly flooded the entire room. The sheer force of her aura made the stone walls groan, as she looked up at me.

"And so does every single person in our fucked-up family!" she hissed, her voice vibrating with a commanding, terrifying power that shook me to my core.

"I absolutely hate keeping secrets, Riegthar. I hate being locked away in the dark like a fragile prize. It is time for all of this deception to come to an absolute end. Right now."

I stared at my little sister, a cold sweat breaking out across my neck. The fragile princess I had spent my life trying to shield from the shadows was completely gone. Standing before me was a true a powerful, force to be reckoned with.

And as the air in the room continued to heat to a dangerous, boiling frequency, I realized with a sudden, terrifying certainty that the war hadn’t just arrived at our borders. It was standing right in front of me.