With a group of unlikely allies, Alethia must become an unstoppable force to let go of her haunting past and save the Four Kingdoms.
Two years have passed since Queen Liliana broke the Peace Treaty with the Gera Kingdom and began a deadly war. Howev...
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731 days after Queen Liliana's conquest of the Gera Kingdom
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Sephirah hummed to herself as she ran her fingers through her tangled ball of curls. Braids knotted with white beads snagged as she yanked on wet strands. She was not in the mood to untwist and braid them over so the shaggy, wild appearance of her hair would have to do.
Twisting away from the propped mirror, Sephirah looked over at the quiet princess sitting cross-legged on bed closer to the curtained window.
Golden hour had emerged, casting an orange hue over the entire space. Although tiny in size, the two beds with rough sheets, the overly cramped washroom, and the dresser against the wall with complimentary towels and jagged bars of soap made the place seem a little comfier.
Alethia was sharpening her sword with a stone, her grey eyes trained on the task as if her life depended on it.
Sephirah walked over and popped down on the bed hard enough to nearly jostle the stone out of Alethia's hand. The girl glanced at her briefly before returning to her chore.
"You never say much, do you?" Sephirah asked. Despite the two years they'd spent living together, she could particularly count on one hand how many sentences Alethia had spoken to her. Even throwing a load of questions towards the serpent princess evoked no response.
Sephirah doubted she could stay silent for such long periods of time.
"What do you want me to say?" Alethia paused. The sounds of the rasping stone against metal echoed and joined the laughter and harsh voices floating up the stairs from the tavern below them.
"Anything." Sephirah shrugged. She was curious about Alethia. She couldn't help herself. There was something about the princess that intrigued her. "What's your sister like?"
Alethia's eyes seemed to turn inward as she focused on the sword laying across her lap. Her hands stilled, the blackened stone limp in her hand.
A smothering blanket of silence wrapped around them until a loud shout from below blew through their wooden door. Sephirah glanced over at it as if she could see through it, her brow furrowing with concern for Ren and Aydin.
Just as Sephirah was bracing her palms against the bed to rise, Alethia spoke in that awfully quiet tone of hers. "She was like the sun."
At her statement, Sephirah settled back in, bringing a knee up to wrap a loose arm around it. When Alethia offered nothing else, Sephirah smiled. "My brother is like raining ashes. He cannot stop pulling the most ridiculous pranks. It gets on everyone's nerves in the castle."
Alethia bobbed her head, running her finger along the onyx blade.
Sephirah's heart warmed as she considered the girl. It was the first time she felt as if she'd made a breakthrough. In the desert, the only time the princess really spoke was when it came to magic or their training. No matter how much Sephirah smiled and told her stories about her times in the castle, Alethia had simply listened, offering nothing of her own experiences.
