BOUND BY TANGLED FATES

with even more life as the Festival of Tales commenced. The festival came once in five years, and when it did, the city

from every rooftop, their vibrant colors splashing the streets and Nektar in general with flavor. Excited children ran

s. Her pale, almost translucent skin shimmered faintly under the veil of her ceremonial robe. It was often reiterated, like a tale, that the Virell family bloodline was kissed

ya's family belonged, watched as she approached the sacred stone

em bore the signature of twelve generations, each ancestor and their legacies immortalized. When she spoke, the hem would puls

hushed up, silence more deafening than

epare Nektar for

ongst the crowd. Soon it grew to a burst of surprise

topping mid air, just before her lips

bled into the sa

be, his outfit faded, bleeding into a shade of indigo patched with brownis

stence was the greater sin, unf

t matter. The crowd reacted with horror, their faces contorted into pure displeas

nobility. They were a shocking blue, like the sky. His face graced by a mess of tight, d

, releasing her as if her skin charred hi

t him, her voice quiet but s

I swear I didn't know. I

unding him immediately. The man raised hi

used. The order had come from her, and sh

ward, her voice icy and sharp. "What name

that it almost felt like mockery. "I...I'm Kaelen," he said slowly, blinking

e public like thunder. A

ur sigil?"

r sponsor?"

ll too calm, fueling their agitation the more. "I was hired to bring a repaired rob

"You walked into this circle, with that robe,

with strange interlacing threads, it was not of any modern class. It

a breath. A

omething as old as time. Something about him intrigued her and it wasn't just the touch or even his physical ap

n't have be

aid, masking her feelings. "For violati

fted his chin, but his eyes

nya turned back to the crowd. She li

lear and collected, a curt fake smile

rough the square, her mind kept drifting to the roughness of that

tied respecting her wishes for 'no blood' and that included rope. A

the walls, th

agined it. He had only ever heard of it in tales. Robes that

be fiction, mere tales th

o was she, really? That woman with p

ore, something deep and ancient, ac

e were no accidents in fate. It was the first knot in a thread that s