Ishani vowed to make an empire fall and the only way she can is with the help of the dangerously alluring statute-turned man.
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Ishani who is too wild and too free to fit into polite noble...
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The hurtful words she hurled at the Maharani replayed in her mind like a broken record, fueling the fire of her anger and frustration. What scared her was not that she was capable of saying something so twisted to her mother, but the realisation that a part of her enjoyed it.
She shook her head trying to shake her emotions off, but she couldn't, especially not after she had used mana. Mana always left her susceptible and weak. It heightened whatever she felt, emotions became her master, and she its servant. She hated it. As if her feelings weren't already horrible enough without needing to be amplified to the point it consumed her.
But this felt different.
Ishani was not a stranger to emotional outbursts caused by mana, but coming to this place made her feel disoriented. From the moment she set a foot on this soil, it was almost like nothing made sense anymore. Her grasp on mana felt erratic and her emotions seemed to have a mind of their own.
She noticed the garden beyond a door to her left and decided to make her way there since she had no intention to go their residence as the Maharani had commanded. The moon stared down, casting her ethereal glow as Ishani tiptoed along the cobblestone path that led to the grass, relishing in the coolness of the stones against the soles of her feet.
This garden was not coloured with golden leaves instead it was very well preserved, with not a single fallen leaf on the ground. It was more like a green desert than a garden, not a single thing out of place, and the bushes trimmed into beautiful symmetrical shapes. Mother nature did not reign freely here, it looked far too man-made but Ishani could not deny the allure in its refinement. It looked a world apart from the wildness of the Maharani's orchard back home.
Ishani walked on the freshly cut grass barefoot and took a deep breath as she placed her heels on the ground next to her. She stared up at the crescent moon that shone in the dark sky, there were no stars in the sky, only the moon lit the land. She thought the moon looked rather lonely and she felt comforted looking up at it because she too felt the same, lonely and lost in the darkness.
As she walked closer, her eyes scanned its intricate details. The stone was dark and rough, incongruous to the polished walls of the rest of the estate. It looked like it belonged to another time, a different world. She stood before the large stone door, it's surface covered in engravings that were difficult to discern under the dim light of the moon. She traced her fingers along the carvings, trying to decipher their meaning.
She looked down at her fingers strangely as she felt the buzz of mana through her. Usually, after using mana, especially the amount she had to conjure to render that woman unconscious, she should be completely depleted. Especially considering she was inebriated, yet she felt more mana that she had ever wielded thrumming through her veins.
