(Part 2: The Interrogation)
The chamber stirred as one of the council members rose from his seat. A tall woman with sharp silver hair and a cloak of blue leaned forward, her voice cutting through the silence like a blade.
"She is younger than I expected. Fragile." Her eyes narrowed. "Yet your son insists she can read the ancient tongue. The documents of Kurag should not rest in human hands."
The name echoed through the room. Kurag.
Aria's heart skipped. That name again—the same one she had read in the diary, scribbled at the edges of its pages like a shadow whisper.
Another councilor, cloaked in crimson, slammed his fist against the table. "This is folly. A human cannot be trusted. Send her back where she came from—or better, dispose of her. Already the sacred writings are at risk!"
Aria flinched, her lips parting, but no words came.
The king lifted his hand, and silence returned. His eyes, molten amber, fixed upon her.
"You have seen the documents?" Julian's voice was soft, but it coiled around her like roots tightening.
Her throat went dry. "I… I saw some pages."
Murmurs rippled through the chamber. The blue-cloaked woman leaned forward again. "And you understood them?"
Aria hesitated. A thousand thoughts tore through her—fear, the memory of that fruit, the way the words had begun to make sense. If she admitted the truth, what then? Would they kill her? Chain her like an artifact?
"I—yes," she whispered. "A little. They were in my language."
"Your language?" The crimson councilor spat the words. "Blasphemy! The tongue of earthlings written in our prophecies? Impossible!"
Aria's voice cracked, fear breaking into anger. "I didn't choose this! I woke up here—I don't even know why! I just want to go back home."
The chamber roared with voices. Some shouted for her exile, others for her death. The walls themselves seemed to tremble with their fury.
Aria shook her head desperately. "Please! I don't belong here—I just want to go back to Earth!"
And then, silence fell.
The king had risen. His presence alone hushed every tongue.
"You wish to go home." His voice carried like thunder across stone. "Child, you know not what you speak."
Aria's lips trembled. "I know enough. I'm not one of you. I'm not—"
"You are bound," Julian interrupted, his voice hard. "The moment you set foot in this skyborne isle, the moment you laid eyes upon the tree, your fate entwined with ours. Do you think Carfein allows escape? Do you think the roots that tether us to the earth would permit it? No. You will remain, until death claims you."
Aria's knees weakened, and she almost collapsed. "No… no, that can't be true…"
The king's gaze softened—just barely. "It is mercy you stand here alive. Many would have cast you into the sky already."