Astelion POV
My arms were shaking so badly I could barely keep a grip on the massive gold wine jug. It had been hours, endless, exhausting hours of lifting heavy crates, filling containers, and hanging banners until my muscles felt like liquid fire.
But the physical ache was nothing compared to the sickening dread building in my throat as the sun dipped below the mountain peaks.
The lanterns flared to life all at once, bathing the grand square of Sof in a blood-red, violet glow. The guards marched out, their black armor gleaming like beetles under the full moon, forcing us maids into a rigid line. Right at the center sat Castel on that monstrous iron throne, surrounded by a wall of broken swords.
Just breathe, I told myself, staring hard at the stone floor.
Don't look at him. Don't let him sense your magic. Just play the part of the invisible maid.
Suddenly, a sharp, choked scream shattered the air before the music could even finish its opening notes. My head snapped up. A nobleman's son had stepped just an inch too close to the throne. He hadn't even touched the metal, but Castel didn't care. The air itself seemed to turn into a solid fist, lifting the boy completely off his boots and twisting his limbs at horrifying, impossible angles midair.
"Boundaries," Castel murmured, his voice smooth and terrifyingly quiet. With a sickening crack, the boy was slammed into the stone floor hard enough to fracture it. Nobody moved.
Nobody dared to breathe. The oppressive, crushing weight of Castel's gravity rolled over the square, pressing down on everyone skull and ribs. Feeling the pressure my lungs burned for oxygen.
He's a monster,*I thought, my heart hammering against my chest.
He isn't even moving a finger, and he's suffocating thousands of people just to remind them he can.
"Enough," Castel commanded, the single word instantly multiplying the pressure.
"Step forward. Present your daughters."
I watched through a haze of fear as the parade of desperation began. Rell Neum, the King of Spirits, stumbled into the field of force, his robes flying up as the air tried to reject him before he dragged his daughter, Lichi, forward.
When she proudly claimed she would bear the king a son, the pressure snapped. Lantern flames bent violently inward, and the lake rippled like a storm was hitting it.
Foolish girl, I thought, watching in horror as Castel used his mind to lift the wine from his goblet and pour it directly over her head, soaking her expensive silks like blood.
When her father tried to protest, the invisible weight slammed down like a falling mountain, crushing Rell to the stone until he was clawing at his chest just to draw a single breath.
Next came the King of the Waterlings with a tiny five-year-old girl. The sight made my stomach turn.
A child? He brought a child to man like Castel?*
Castel's fury flared, the throne lifting inches off the ground as stone fractured outward.
"Have you lost your fucking mind?" he snapped, throwing the man backward with a blast of telekinetic force.
"Take her before I forget my restraint."
Then came the twin Espalings, Aiona and Iona, standing ground in their shimmering gold and silver silks, offering the sun and moon to his throne. Castel smirked, granting them chairs beside him. He liked their defiance, but I could see the cold, hunting look in his eyes. He didn't want them, he wanted toys.
"My King," a voice echoed across the square. "My eldest, Eina."
King Cion stepped into the light, draped in gold and black. Behind him stood his daughter in a bright yellow gown.
Cion.
The moment my eyes landed on his face, the world turned completely white. A wave of disgust rushed through my veins, so intense it made my stomach retetch.
Him. He's right there. Every single bone in my body screamed to drop the wine jug and tear his throat out. Behind my eyelids, the nightmare memories detonated: my mother being brutally tortured, the agonizing, endless screams tearing out of her lungs while Cion laughed, my brother standing right beside him.
My knees gave out completely. The heavy gold jug slipped in my hands, clattering against my apron as I stumbled backward, my boots scuffing the stone.
No, no, no, not now! I panicked internally, the light of my own magic threatening to bleed through my skin.
Castel's molten-gold eye instantly whipped over to the line of maids, side-eying me with a sharp, lethal narrowness.
He felt the spike. He knows. Before his gravity could wrap around my throat and crush me, Lilly's hand shot out from behind, firmly gripping my shoulder and pulling me back into the tight formation. I forced my eyes down, swallowing the bitter taste of bile, praying the heavy sweat dripping down my face looked like simple exhaustion.
I forced myself to look back at the throne. Eina didn't buckle under his pressure, she absorbed it, claiming she held three hundred books of unyielding knowledge inside her head. Castel murmured something I couldn't hear and granted her a seat next to the twins.
She's a blank slate that records everything, I thought.
"At moon's peak, the Seer will name my Queen," Castel declared to the roaring crowd.
"Until then, celebrate."
He began to tune them out, his head turning toward the forest's edge. A ripple went through his awareness, and because my own telekinesis was tightly coiled under my skin, I felt the exact moment the air shifted.
I looked. And my breath completely died in my throat.
There, half-concealed beneath a dark, hooded cloak, holding a simple woven basket, stood my grandmother.
Arastella. No. No, it's too early. She shouldn't be here yet! She was standing perfectly still, her dark caramel skin catching the lantern light. She wasn't trembling. She was staring directly at the King of All without a single shred of fear.
Panic exploded in my chest like a grenade. Without thinking, I threw a microscopic, invisible thread of my telepathic power straight across the square, slamming it directly into her mind: *Run! Get out of here right now! Move!*
But she didn't run. Her stubborn heels digging into the dirt, and she turned her head back to look right into the crowded square, searching for the voice. Please, just run! I screamed in the silence of my own head.
It was too late. She had already caught Castel's attention. I watched, paralyzed, as he pushed a force across the stone a weight that would have shattered anyone.
Her hood merely shifted in the breeze. She stayed standing. A dark, smile touched Castel's lips. With a flick of his mind, he lifted the edge of her hood, exposing her fiery, red-and-orange hair to the moonlight.
"You," he whispered. The whisper carried across the square.
"Who is she?" Castel asked smoothly.
"Speak."
Krince stammered out that she was just a peasant from the mountains, but Castel wasn't listening.
"There is nothing in the mountains but the Void. Bring her to me."
A guard blurred forward, splitting into eight shadow duplicates that surrounded her.
"Please," the shadows whispered with chilling politeness.
"Our King wishes to see you."
I saw the flash of pure annoyance on her face as she stepped forward, dropping her basket at the base of the stairs and bowing like a diplomat entering a hostile enemy camp.
"Greetings, Your Majesty," she said, her voice like cool water.
"I am grateful to stand before you."
When she stated her name Arastella Getis Castel stood up from his throne, the gravity in the square tightening so brutally that people around us began to cry out and collapse to their knees.
He walked down the steps, stopping inches from her face.
"Your name is as beautiful as every part of you."
"Ouk," she muttered under her breath.
She just rolled her eyes at him, I realized, a cold sweat breaking out across my collarbone.
She actually muttered an insult in Varack. She has absolutely no idea what he is capable of.
Castel stilled. "You speak Varack."
"Vaa."
They locked eyes, and for a terrifying second, the crushing weight in the square completely vanished.
"Are we going to pretend," she said coolly, "that you don't know what I am?"
"I care little for what you are," Castel replied, invading her personal space.
"Only how I might make you mine."
"You cannot covet what was never yours, King," she snapped back, entirely unimpressed.
"Your people may fear you, but dragons do not. Not now. Not ever."
The word Dragons sent a shockwave through the crowd. Castel's restraint snapped. His telekinesis erupted in a raw, blinding wave of force that slammed every single person in the square flat onto their knees. Ribs groaned under the impossible weight.
But my grandmother didn't bend an inch. She was actively fighting his gravity, standing tall in the center of the storm.
"Even now," Castel said, his voice vibrating with a dark, terrifying hunger, "my heart races. I crave you. You have ignited something in me that cannot be extinguished."
"I must go," she replied coldly, turning her back on the King of All.
"Enjoy your festival."
He grabbed her wrist, the contact visibly burning them both.
"Seer," he roared. "Come."
Relissa, the palace seer, rushed forward and grabbed Arastella's hand. The moment their skin met, the air turned toxic. Relissa shrieked, her voice echoing with horror "Sire! You must let her go! Marriage to her will destroy everything!"
My grandmother just smiled a slow, dark smile. Castel ignored the seer completely.
"Silence. For now, you are spared."
He turned to his golden cup. With agonizing, slow deliberation, he sliced his own finger, letting his dark, toxic blood drip into the wine until the liquid turned entirely black, smearing the gore along the rim.
"Drink. Celebrate with me. Then go."
*Don't drink it!* I screamed at her through our telepathic link, pouring every single ounce of my soul into the command. *Throw it away!*
My internal scream hit her hard.
She hesitated, her fingers tightening around the metal cup as she felt the foreign panic flooding her mind. She looked around, confused, but Castel's dark presence was too close, too absolute. She lifted the goblet to her lips and drank the blood anyway.
I watched, completely paralyzed, as she handed the cup back.
She drank it. It's done. Castel leaned in, his thumb dragging slowly across her lower lip, smearing the trace of his blood there like a permanent brand.
"You may go."
She bowed stiffly and disappeared into the shadows of the forest, leaving her basket behind.
"Are you okay?"
The sudden, mouthed words from the perimeter pulled my eyes away. Kiono was staring at me from his guard post, as he watched the sheer, panic radiating off me. I couldn't even answer him.
I have to save her. The moment she vanished into the trees, Castel's composure shattered. He flicked his wrist, summoning Krince and Cion to his side.
"Follow her," he ordered, his eyes blazing with a monstrous light.
"My blood is in her veins now. It will awaken soon. Retrieve her before the connection fades."
"B-but the seer—" Krince stammered.
Castel leaned forward, the invisible force instantly crushing the air straight out of Krince's lungs.
"Did I grant you permission to speak? Go."
They vanished into the dark tree line. Castel turned back to the trembling, broken crowd, a satisfied, horrific smile spreading across his face as he lifted his empty cup to the moon.
"I have chosen my Queen. The Choosing is over."
The pressure lifted as he turned and vanished into the palace doors, but the fuse had already been lit.
He's sending Cion after her, my inner voice snarled, the blood roaring in my ears as the terrifying puzzle pieces of the past clicked together.
I didn't waste another split second. I dropped the gold wine jug directly into the grass, ignoring the heavy clatter.
As the entire square dissolved into a frantic, chaotic panic, I dashed into a dark, narrow alleyway. I was running out of time, and if I had to spill Cion's blood tonight to rewrite the future, I would do it without hesitation.