Chapter 9: The Crown Beneath The Ashes
471 Words
The journey to Elyria took three more days.
The kingdom that once ruled with grace and gold was now a ruin of crumbling towers and vine-wrapped walls. Nature had claimed what war and time had left behind — and yet, the land still breathed magic.
Liora and Kael stood at the gates of the fallen city. Moss-covered statues of lions flanked the road, eyes long since dulled by weather.
“This was once my home,” Kael said quietly, brushing his fingers over a cracked emblem bearing the royal crest. “I don’t recognize it… but my heart aches like I do.”
Liora reached for his hand. “Memories can return. Piece by piece.”
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Inside the city, echoes of the past lingered.
They wandered the silent streets — past toppled fountains, shattered stained glass, and open courtyards where ghostly laughter once rang.
Kael paused before a sunken temple, the entrance choked with roots.
“I was crowned here,” he murmured. “I was sixteen. My father had just died.”
“How do you know that?” Liora asked.
“I don’t,” Kael replied, voice soft. “But it feels… true.”
They entered.
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The temple’s main chamber was still intact. Sunlight poured in through a hole in the roof, illuminating a raised dais. A shattered throne sat in the center — and on it, a crown.
Tarnished, but whole.
Liora stepped back as Kael approached. The closer he got, the more memories swirled in his mind — voices, vows, the weight of duty. And grief.
He picked up the crown, its gold dulled by time.
“I ran from this,” he said. “From power. From legacy. From myself.”
“But you came back,” Liora said. “That means something.”
Behind them, a voice rang out:
> “Your Majesty.”
They turned. A man stepped from the shadows, clad in armor bearing Elyria’s crest. Older, weathered — but his eyes shone with fierce loyalty.
“Sir Aldren,” Kael said, surprised by the name he somehow knew.
“You’ve returned,” Aldren said, bowing. “We waited. The old bloodline never truly dies.”
Kael looked down at the crown.
“I’m not the prince I was.”
Aldren smiled. “No. You’re something better. A man who chose love. A ruler who remembers pain. Elyria needs you.”
Kael turned to Liora.
“And I need you.”
She stepped forward, her fingers lacing with his.
“Then rebuild it,” she said. “Together.”
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And as the first true light bathed the ruins of Elyria, the fallen crown found its place once more — not on the head of a boy born into power, but on the heart of a man who earned it.
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- Writer
