Hated by her lineage, Iliya Dalaminai dwells in self isolation, awaiting the day her cousin marries so she might escape the Throne.
Feared by the Gods, Sorein Chakrine's crown is mainly a relic put on display at royal ceremonies to ward off evil.
Wh...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A woman turned to stone.
Nothing more than a panicked statue with balled fists and despair etched on her face.
Sorein watched as Iliya froze in place, the rings on her fingers burning bright with silver fire until the bracelet on her wrist appeared to activate.
Frozen, she remained still.
Iliya's eyes glowed with soft, translucent light.
"Is she alive?" Jeremy asked, walking closer. He stepped up behind Sorein, his expression dark. "What just happened?"
He didn't know. Sorein had never seen such magic before, not as the enchantments smoked against her skin and burned her flesh.
A gentle breeze brushed across the ground. Nearby leaves rustled, the roar of the river picking up.
"I don't know..." he whispered.
"So everything you've told us has been a lie?" Noah asked slowly. "The reason you won't go to the Estate, the reason you left Chiori...?"
Sorein sighed, swallowing past the dry, hollow sensation on his tongue. It was too late now. "She ordered me off the island," he explained, turning to meet his friend's stare. A joyless laugh fell from him. "In fact, I believe she bade me not to show my face again but that's irrelevant now..."
"I'd never seen you pack so fast," Jeremy muttered.
He made to inspect The Princess in her paralyzed state, but Sorein threw out his arm, blocking him.
"Guys..." Noah managed to say, sounding anxious. "What's happening?"
Sorein and Jeremy turned to see streams of mana lift from the surface of the river, fluttering through the air in millions of tiny particles. Energy pulled from all life, tugged straight from the grass and trees, seeping out of the planet's core.
"This isn't normal..." he continued, reaching out his hands to watch as even his life force filtered from his body.
Even as each string of mana glowed silver and crystallized in the air, Sorein couldn't find a single piece of logic in his brain that might explain this. Every etheris file he'd ever read, even the forbidden incantations he'd studied.
Nothing explained the funnel of power pouring into Iliya.
Sorein's own skin tingled with a foreign static, yet something about the feeling in the air felt familiar. He couldn't quite place it, but he knew this sensation.
Even if he didn't recognize it at all.
"I've never seen anything like this," Jeremy whispered to himself. Were it not silent everywhere else, Sorein wouldn't have heard it.
The shadows on the ground began to stretch toward him, answering the call of his stressed bones. His magic ached, flaring in response. Licks of dark flame lapped at their ankles as Sorein prepared for the worst.
