SELENA'S POV
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The throne was colder than it looked.
Black stone carved from the heart of a dying mountain. When I sat on it, I could feel something beneath — like a pulse. Not my own.
> "Every Queen must know what the others chose to forget," Maritha said as she laid the parchment before me. "Here lies the Map of Lies."
It wasn't a map at first glance — just faded lines on ash-brown parchment. But when my blood touched it — just a single drop — it awakened.
The lines twisted. Shifted. Became tunnels, faces, locked rooms, and names.
My heart froze.
> My name was there.
So was Amara's.
And Zack's.
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There was a room marked in deep crimson — The Chamber of Echoes.
No one spoke of it. But it appeared near the center of the map. And above it, scratched in fury, were the words:
> "The Queen is never born. She is built on broken bones."
I took the map with me.
Zack followed, as always. Quiet. But not unreadable.
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Inside the Chamber, there was no light. But the walls spoke.
Whispers.
> "The first truth is not who you are… but who you were meant to replace."
Candles lit themselves, one by one.
A mirror stood at the center of the room. Not glass — but water. Still and black.
I knelt.
My reflection rippled.
And I saw a girl. Pale. Crowned in gold. Amara.
But she was not the Amara I knew.
She stood in a circle of masked elders. Her voice rang out:
> "If she rises, I'll be forgotten. I was promised her fate."
The mirror cracked.
I stumbled back. Zack caught me.
> "Selena…?"
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> Amara knew.
She knew I was meant to rule.
And she offered me up… like a lamb to wolves.
---
Later, I confronted Maritha.
> "Why was my name hidden in the map before I was crowned?"
"Because truth is the cost of power," she answered calmly. "And your power frightens them."
> "Who are they?"
She looked me dead in the eye.
> "The ones who sit behind your throne."
And suddenly, I saw it — the truth behind their loyalty. The reason they all bowed so low.
Not respect.
Not love.
But control.
They feared what I could become if I ever stopped obeying.
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That night, one of the council maids — the loyal one with the soulmark — came to me, shaking.
> "Forgive me, my Queen. But someone sent me to poison your bath. I couldn't— I couldn't do it. They said you were not meant to last this long. That Amara—"
I froze.
> Amara wants me gone.
Again.
---
Zack and I sat alone, reading through the map in candlelight.
We traced the path toward something called "The Vault of Origin."
> "It's where the First Queen hid the real history," Zack whispered.
A vault buried deep beneath the ruins of the Old Kingdom.
> "We leave at dawn," I said.
> "Without your guards?"
> "Especially without them."
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Because now, I understood.
My enemies weren't just outsiders.
> They wore robes of honor.
Bowed with fake smiles.
And sat beside my throne.
But they made one mistake.
> They made me Queen before they broke me.
Now I was more than chosen.
I was aware.
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She thought betrayal ended with Amara.
But even queens have puppeteers.
And some truths… were buried for a reason.
— Mysterious_frnd