Erick
I thought my eyes were deceiving me.
My mother had not walked these halls in years not since the day we quietly moved her away, hidden in a retreat that only I knew of.
To the rest of the world, she had simply chosen solitude, a Queen who no longer wished to linger in the palace.
But the truth was far heavier, a secret I bore like a shield against the world: she had been ill, her body slowly devoured by a tumor we could not cure.
I remembered the night she first confessed her weakness to me. I had watched her falter, her once unshakable presence dimming as pain hollowed her from the inside.
It was the first time in my life I had ever seen my mother look fragile. From then on, we concealed her illness from everyone, councilors, servants, allies, even family.
She had left the
