Liliette sprinted across the frozen lake, her bare feet leaving a trail of blood on the ice. She felt no pain. All her attention was focused on catching the man in black armor, now rapidly disappearing into the distance. She slipped and fell, but even then, she clawed at the ice with her fingernails, desperately dragging herself forward.
“Wait, Your Grace! You mustn’t go that way!” she cried.
But the Duke’s figure vanished. Suddenly, the lake beneath her turned crimson, and a long shadow fell over her. When she looked up, she found her father looming above her, his face obscured by the harsh sunlight.
“Because you failed to stop him, the Duke is dead!” he shouted. “A failure, as always! You pathetic girl. My wife is now dead because of you!”
Startled by his rage, Liliette whipped around to see an old wooden bed on the ice. Her younger siblings clung to it, dressed in rags and sobbing. The youngest, a baby, lay wailing on the icy surface of the lake.
