Chapter 26: The Embered Mask of Aryan
The court of Pyranthos was cloaked in an ominous stillness, the type that followed a storm yet warned of another brewing on the horizon. After the skirmish at the borders, Mira had returned to the royal palace in silent resolve, unaware that the truest wound had yet to bleed.
Aryan.
Once her childhood companion. Once her almost-betrothed. Once the boy who'd lit lanterns with her during the Flame Festivals when they were young and foolish and believed fire only ever brought warmth.
Now?
She couldn't say.
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Years Ago
"I'm going to marry you, Mira," Aryan had said boldly, all of eleven, his nose smudged with soot after helping her light a ceremonial pyre. "Then no one will be able to boss you around."
Mira had laughed, tossing a petal at his head. "I'll marry someone who can fly through fire, not one who's scared of jumping puddles."
They'd both laughed then. Aryan had eventually jumped the puddle, and she had kissed his cheek beneath the old willow tree in the palace gardens.
But childhood oaths could be twisted.
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Now he stood before the Council chamber, in a robe embroidered with foreign gold, his once-familiar face hardened by secrets. Mira's stomach churned. Jaxon stood beside her like a sentinel of the sea, silent but watchful.
Lord Vaelor of the Ember Ring addressed the assembly. "Aryan Il'Drath, former ally of Pyranthos, now stands accused of conspiring with the Outlands. The evidence lies before us."
Scrolls. Broken seals. A captured messenger. A dagger Mira had gifted him when they were thirteen, recovered from a rebel camp.
Mira stepped forward. "Aryan… tell them it's a lie."
Aryan's amber eyes held no warmth. "What is truth, Mira? The truth that your family burned the lowborn when they didn't bow? The truth that you were promised to me, and then offered to foreign heirs like a jewel in an auction?"
Jaxon growled low in his throat.
"Careful, water prince," Aryan sneered. "You may own her now, but you'll never understand what it meant to hold her hand when she was still real."
"You betrayed her," Jaxon snapped. "Not me."
"I betrayed a lie!" Aryan shouted. "I betrayed a kingdom that turned its own children into pawns."
The council chamber erupted in murmurs. Mira's fists clenched.
"You had a choice!" she screamed. "You could've stayed and fought with us! Instead, you ran into the arms of chaos and now dress yourself in fire's shadow."
Aryan's smirk faded. "I didn't run. I just stopped pretending. The council's dream is a cage built of old pride. And I was tired of bleeding for it."
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A Memory Rekindled
After their first binding ceremony was discussed months ago, Aryan had come to her quietly at nightfall. She remembered it now with painful clarity:
"I dreamed of you," he had said softly.
Mira looked up from her parchment. "Dreams are sweet lies."
"No," he said, holding her hand. "They're glimpses of what we're too afraid to fight for. You'll be someone's bride, Mira. You'll be bound to a stranger for alliance. But I…" He hesitated. "I wanted to be your dream."
She hadn't known what to say then. Now, the dream had turned to ash.
---
As the trial continued, Aryan showed no regret. Mira felt something inside her rupture—not love, not grief, but the fracture of trust burned through time.
When the Council asked for judgment, she whispered, "He should live. Let him live knowing he chose ruin."
Jaxon frowned at her but said nothing. He, too, understood the pain of past betrayals.
Aryan was sentenced to exile within the sealed borderlands, watched by sentinels. But his final words chilled her:
"This is not the end, Mira. One day you'll see that my betrayal was your liberation."
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Later That Night
Mira stood on the balcony overlooking the embers of the city's horizon. Jaxon joined her, silent.
"Did I make the wrong call?" she asked.
"No," he said after a pause. "You showed mercy. That's rarer than fire itself."
"I loved him once."
"I know," Jaxon whispered. "But you don't anymore."
"No," Mira said. "But I do mourn him."
And together, they watched the last spark of an old bond vanish into the cold flame of night.
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End of Chapter 26