Smoke rose before dawn.By the time Elias reached the eastern battlements, the air was thick with ash and the bitter smell of burning oil. The gatehouse shuddered under distant thunder not from the sky, but from rams pounding against ironwood.“Archers, to the wall!” Seren’s voice cut through the chaos. “Hold the gate!”Elias drew his sword, the same blade his father had once carried into the War of the North. Firelight flickered along its edge, reflecting in his eyes like molten gold. The night before had been politics. Now, it was war.A soldier stumbled toward him, blood streaking his face. “Majesty they came from inside! Someone opened the gate from within the guardhouse!”“From inside?” Elias snapped.“Yes, sire. The locks were undone before they struck.”Mara appeared at his side, cloak torn, a cut on her cheek. “The signal fires they’re burning from the lower city too.”Elias’s stomach tightened. This isn’t an attack. It’s a message.He turned to Seren. “Seal the inner gates. N

The night was heavy with silence, a kind that pressed against the walls and seeped into the breath of the palace. Outside, the rain had long since stopped, but the air remained thick with the smell of wet stone and smoke from dying torches. Elias sat at his desk, a single candle burning low, its flame trembling every time the wind whispered through the cracks.He hadn’t slept for two nights. His eyes burned, and his fingers trembled slightly as he scrawled words on parchment orders, revisions, a new decree to calm the council after the last murder. His handwriting was slipping, the ink blotting under his uneven grip.He could almost hear Rhys’s voice still echoing in his head “You hesitate too much, Elias. That’s how kings die.”Elias dropped the quill, leaning back in his chair. The flickering light painted long shadows across the walls, twisting around the edges of his chamber. Somewhere in that shifting dark, he thought he saw movement a flicker too deliberate to be from the candle

The palace had never been quieter, and that was how Elias knew something was wrong.The usual hum of servants, the echo of distant boots, even the fluttering of doves in the courtyard gone. Silence, deep and deliberate, settled like a shroud over the marble halls.Rynna moved through them like she belonged to that silence. Her steps were soft, her expression distant. A book of prayers hung loosely from her hand, but her eyes were not reading. She was listening to whispers that seemed to follow her no matter how far she walked.She had felt it for days now: the weight of gazes behind closed doors. The way the guards paused when she passed. The subtle change in tone when her name came up in conversation.It was as though she’d become a question no one dared to ask aloud.When she reached the end of the corridor, the double doors to the council library were already open. Inside, Mara stood waiting arms folded, posture sharp enough to draw blood.The torches cast her in half-light, shadow

The morning air carried a strange stillness the kind that came before a storm. From his balcony, Elias stared at the lower districts. The sun hadn’t yet burned away the mist, but smoke already curled upward from a dozen small fires.“Food depots were raided at dawn,” Seren said behind him, voice grim. “Bakers were beaten. Grain stores looted. The guards tried to contain them but…” He hesitated. “The people are starving, my lord.”Elias’s hands tightened on the railing. Starving. It had been weeks since the harvest wagons were diverted north, a “temporary” measure meant to starve Alaric’s supporters in the border towns. He had agreed to it his first real show of authority. And now, that decision had turned back on him like a dagger.“Where are the city stewards?” Elias asked.“Dead or hiding. The mob stormed their quarter last night. They hung the taxmaster in the square left a crown carved into his chest.”Elias turned sharply. “Like the councilman?”Seren nodded. “Someone’s making a

The day began with smoke.At first, it was a single thread, curling lazily above the market rooftops a signal no one wanted to see again. Then came the shouts. The sound of pottery shattering. Horses screaming. And soon, the city was aflame.Elias was in council when the door burst open.“My lord!” Captain Halric staggered in, soot on his armor. “The lower market’s burning the crowd’s out of control!”Elias didn’t wait for the council to react. “Assemble the guard. Now.”He stormed from the chamber, cloak snapping behind him, Seren and Mara close on his heels. The air outside was thick with ash before they’d even reached the gates. Bells clanged from the temple towers one for warning, two for fire. By the time Elias rode into the market square, chaos reigned.The people were no longer just hungry they were furious.Merchants’ stalls were overturned, barrels split open, grain spilled like sand beneath running feet. Men with soot-black faces hurled stones at the palace banners. Women sc