The Cursed Empress

t sure wha

sure in her chest, as if something pressed down on her ribcage from the inside. Or may

r own

ng embers, barely warming the frost-kissed air. Her chamber was vast, silent, and co

dow and pulled aside t

rozen lake-white with frost, black marble glea

t flickered a

a f

days ago, stood a lone figure. Hooded.

leapt into

n her boots, and slipped into the hallway, movin

ched the courtyard,

th coming in clouds. Nothing but moonli

ble beneath he

a

ch mark from before was sanded down, but the heat

trembled

thing-someone-was toying with

out of b

ched at

a

cou

sed in a loose black shirt and dark trousers. No armor to

nd more like a wolf at rest-da

id, still kneeling. "Same

w and deliberate. "Or you s

halluci

not sl

my eyes, I hear whispers. See things I shouldn't se

"And you think it's

ow it

t he wasn't mocking her. He wasn't e

like this before, hav

answer r

lly: "Come

a tapestry-hidden door behind the great hall, past wi

went, the colder

ike ash," Ny

ace burned once. Lo

t is

h from the wall and lit it. "The Undercrypt. It's

d inside b

immered faintly with inlaid sigils. Her pulse quickened-some of t

tomb," she whispe

eved magic had memory. That power clung t

yal," she

n't di

d a raised stone platform. Embedded within it was a thick black slab-

rawn to it

is t

torch higher

"Seal? As in... co

t's the last prison

stole he

he whispered. "No

to seal him. Your ancestors were one of the six houses that bound him. Thi

hed the slab

her hand

forward quick

la

rs brushed the crack

ploded thro

a battlefie

and blood and lightning. Screams echoed in the ai

e center of it all, was a

d no

f

e-massive, bur

ed like stars

y flame," th

eak My

ou will call Me by name-and

and tore h

tone floor, choking on a

ide her inst

uldn't

arely b

it was... different now. Stronger.

hispered, eyes wide. "I

jaw c

he truth. Was this always the p

y. "You weren't meant to

is the sea

g-or someone-is weakening the binding

red at t

ed light now throb

been the

t?" she

we train. You learn to hold it back.

if I

idn't

in his eyes s

. she wouldn't be the

l throne. The ceremonial flames around the chamber fli

nds tr

ust beneath the ski

like it was chan

cu

ro

purp

n in Rael's war. A reluctan

t

the spark that would lig

ace... in the darknes

's crack

ent glyphs b