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