The Tower of Records was not meant to be entered.
Certainly not by royals. Especially not by a prince on horseback, covered in mirror dust and secrets.
But Kaelith had stopped caring about consequences the moment Seraphina said, "They killed me once."
---
Scene Break – The Tower of Records
The librarian was ancient.
She did not flinch when Kaelith slammed the royal seal onto her counter.
"You know this gives me access to the First Archives," he said coldly.
She did not speak. Only reached below her desk and retrieved a rusted key.
"Level four," she rasped. "You have one hour. And no light."
He took the key. "I won't need light."
---
Scene Break – The Archive Vault
The room smelled of parchment and lost time.
Kaelith's boots echoed against stone as he made his way through narrow aisles, searching for any record tied to Thalia Velora.
He found it in a black file buried beneath a miscatalogued section titled Disputed Successions.
The page trembled in his hands.
> Name: Thalia Velora
Status: Daughter of Emperor Jorion. Exiled without trial.
Reason: Pregnancy by unnamed "enemy." Child presumed dead.
He felt the ground shift beneath him.
Enemy?
Presumed dead?
His mouth went dry as he scanned the last line.
> Secondary note: "Child survived. Hidden under Temple Accord. Fate uncertain."
A child.
Not Seraphina.
Another one.
---
Scene Break – Velora Estate
Seraphina sat by her bedroom window, the moonlight pooling around her as she stared at her reflection in the pane of glass.
She no longer recognized the woman staring back.
This version of her had survived fire. War. Betrayal.
She had killed a man last week and not even blinked.
Marianne entered quietly.
"There's a visitor at the gate."
"Who?"
"He wouldn't give a name. But he's dressed in noble colors. Red and silver."
Seraphina rose slowly.
Those were the House of Aramoor colors. Her mother's family.
Long extinct.
Except…
She rushed to the gate.
But the man was gone.
In his place: a single white rose and a torn piece of royal parchment with five words written in blood.
> "He lives. You must choose."
---
Scene Break – The Palace
The Empress stood before her own mirror.
Not the cursed one. Not the twin.
But a relic from her youth—before she became the crown.
She touched her face. Pale. Lined. Still beautiful, but not enough to hide the rot.
She whispered:
> "She's coming. Just like her mother."
A knock at the door.
Verren entered with grim eyes.
"She found the name."
"Thalia?"
He nodded.
"And Kaelith?"
"He's heading for the Temple Accord."
The Empress gripped the table.
"Then it's begun."
---
Beneath the temple ruins, deep within the catacombs where no one dared tread, a woman stirred.
Bound by chains of gold.
Eyes closed. Mouth stitched.
But breathing.
A voice whispered in the dark beside her:
> "The heir awakens.
And the blood war begins again."