"You're late," I whispered, folding my arms as I leaned against the moss-covered pillar.
I had been waiting for him for the past one hour.
Freasia stepped from the mist like a shadow laced with light, his boots barely disturbing the fallen leaves underfoot. His illusion wings shimmered faintly, crafted not of feather or bone, but sheer magical will. "And you're impatient," he replied with a grin, brushing his tousled dark curls back from his brow. "Nothing's changed."
I gave him a flat look pouting my lips, although his presence alone had already loosened the knot in my chest. We stood at the fringe of the ruins, hidden in the overgrowth of Bloodhound Forest, where the air always smelled like moss and old magic.
"Everything's changed, Freasia. You must have heard that my father plans to marry her. Morgana."
His smile faded. "I heard."
" I am telling you something isn't right about all these, I can feel it".
Silence thickened between us.
I turned away from him, letting my gaze wander across the sky, now bleeding pale gold as dusk approached. "Jade's stepping down. He told me himself. I saw... something." I hesitated, unsure of how to voice the horror of it, of Morgana's mark on my brother. "Morgana left her mark on him. I think it's a spell, it glowed beneath his skin."
"I feared as much," Freasia said, his voice dropping. "And if Jade yields the crown, Morgana gets more than a title....she gets the throne."
"She already has it," I muttered.
Freasia reached into the inner folds of his cloak and drew out a dream-crystal. The surface of the crystal cracked, swirling with vaporous blue light. "I captured this from a dream I slipped into last night," he said. "Your father… he's bound by her magic. A long-binding spell. One I've only ever seen in shadowed texts."
He held it between us.
I touched the crystal globe and the images poured through me. I saw myfather's eyes clouded with black, his voice chanting Morgana's name in a ritualized loop. Morgana's figure, draped in obsidian silk, hovering over him as she pressed a blood-smeared hand to his chest.
I staggered back, gasping. "That wasn't just compulsion. That was... corruption."
"Oh no!"
I gapsed
"She has locked him into a blood oath. It's ancient magic, deep and nearly unbreakable." Freasia looked at me with a weight in his eyes I rarely saw. "But there's one possible way."
I narrowed my eyes. "Tell me, I will do whatever it takes to free my father from her spell"
"The Forbidden Library," he said, voice low. "There's a codex... a lost tome of ancient bonds. If it exists, it'll tell us how to sever the blood oath."
A beat passed between us, I didn't need to think twice about this.
"I'll go," I said.
He raised an eyebrow. "You'll go?"
I nodded. "With you."
He smiled, crookedly. "I was hoping you'd say that."
We disguised ourselves in illusion wings crafted from glimmers of duskfire. His spells masked our presence, warping the air around us like heatwaves. Aetherion's palace was quiet under the moonlight, its spires silhouetted against the velvet sky. We slipped through the back courtyard like whispers, avoiding the main sentry towers.
The entrance to the Forbidden Library lay hidden beneath the western archives, sealed with an ancient riddle lock.
When we got to the door, Freasia knelt, whispered the words I could barely make out: "What sleeps in time but wakes in ruin?"
I hesitated, unsure at first, they it hit me "Memory," I breathed.
The lock clicked throwing itself open with an eerie whisper
" You may enter"
We descended into the shadows, flying into the Forbidden Library.
The Forbidden Library was unlike anything I'd seen. No shelves, just floating tomes and rotating spirals of ink-bound knowledge suspended in midair, like a sea of forgotten thoughts. Glyphs glowed faintly on the walls.
I had only been here once when a was a tiny pixie, I followed my mother to retrieve the scroll of mysteries.
Each step echoed like a promise.
Freasia moved ahead, focused, relaxed "The Codex of Oaths... should be near the center spire."
I followed closely, my heart pounding. The silence was too complete, no dust stirred, no pages turned on their own. It felt... watched.
"What exactly does the Blood Oath do?" I asked quietly.
He exhaled slowly. "It ties a soul. Permanently. You give your blood in sacrifice and bind another to your will. The only way to sever it is... another sacrifice. Blood for blood."
"Whose blood?"
He didn't answer.
We reached the spire. The Codex hovered in the air, enormous, wrapped in chains of silver flame.
"It's protected," I said.
"Not for long." Freasia's fingers lit with charmfire. He whispered incantations, slowly unraveling the locks of energy around it. It pulsed, resisting him.
He swore under his breath. "It's fighting me."
"Then let me try."
I placed my hand on the chains. They bit into my skin. The book flared but not in rejection. It quieted, and the chains uncoiled like serpents retreating.
"You're of the bloodline," Freasia whispered, astonished.
The book opened.
We read in silence, the glow of the runes casting shadows on our faces. The text spoke of soul links, blood pacts, and undoing bindings through an opposing force.... "a Guardian's flame willingly cast against their own."
I closed the book, trembling. "I'll do it. Whatever it takes. I'll break Morgana's hold."
Freasia looked at me with quiet sorrow. "You shouldn't have to."
His hand lifted to my hair, brushing a strand behind my ear. His fingers lingered.
"If I were born noble," he said softly, "would you have married me by now?"
I froze.
He pulled his hand back and laughed, too quickly. "Never mind. Stupid question."
I turned to him. "It's not stupid."
He looked at me, startled.
"I—" I began, but movement flared behind us. A burst of shadow, a crackle of cold air.
"They're here," Freasia hissed, drawing his sword.
Masked figures emerged from the darkness, they were Court shadow sentries, dressed in void-black armor, eyes glowing behind their masks.
Gaston Kyl's loyal dogs.
"Run," Freasia screamed
"No." I stepped forward, wings flaring wide. "We fight."
And then the room exploded into chaos.