Chapter 1029 - The Starting Line (1)

The observatory was a tomb of silent, wheeling light. After Arthur had gone, Isolde remained motionless, a statue at the heart of her own cosmic engine. The weight of his final words did not settle upon her; they pierced her, shattering a dam of denial that had stood for nearly two decades. Go be a mother to your daughter. It was a simple command, yet it struck her as more impossible than halting the stars in their courses. For years, she had worn her coldness as armor, her cruelty as a shield—not just against the world, but against the terrified, broken woman she had become after her first true vision.