ALLURING : Between Two Realms

Chapter 15 - Arrivals

We had brunch under the shaded area beside the farm store.

Uncle Matt served fried noodles, boiled eggs, fresh fruit, and hot tea in old mismatched cups that somehow made everything taste better. His wife, Auntie Sofea, could not join us as she was out of town.

The girls ate more than I expected, probably because food tasted different when eaten outdoors after running around like wild little creatures. For once, I did not rush them. I let them get muddy. I let them laugh too loud. I let them belong to the morning.

By the time we returned to Mom's house, the sun was already high, and the girls were tired in the best way. Their cheeks were flushed. Their clothes had soil marks. Their hair smelled like heat and grass. I was about to ask them to wash up when a car horn sounded from outside the gate. Mom looked through the window. Then smiled.

"Your sister is here."

The girls screamed before I could even react.

"Auntie Zehra!"

And just like that, the quiet of the morning shattered into laughter again.

Ravynn POV

I was meditating in my chamber when I sensed foreign energies entering the Central Province.

Ancient.

Heavy.

Deliberately concealed.

The realm was divided into five provinces.

North.

East.

West.

South.

And Central.

Each province was ruled by its own circle of Elders, but the Central Province remained the heart of the realm. It was where the highest council sat. Where the noble houses resided. Where the surviving royal bloodlines were kept close enough to be honored, and watched closely enough to be contained.

From time to time, the Elders of the four provinces would gather in Central for formal assemblies. But those gatherings were always announced. Always recorded. Always attended by witnesses from the noble and royal houses.

This arrival had none of that. No bells. No summons. No formal declaration. The energies moving into the province were ancient, but not royal. They belonged to the Elders.

I opened my eyes. Why would they gather without notice? The Elders had grown bolder in recent years. Too bold. They had begun questioning noble houses with little courtesy, probing into matters they once would have bowed away from. If left alone, their reach would not stop at politics. It would crawl into blood. Into inheritance. Into history. And history, I knew, had a habit of bleeding when handled carelessly.

I rose from the floor and walked toward the balcony, my thoughts sharpening with each step.Then a mind-link brushed against mine.

Controlled.

Familiar.

Old.

"Ravynn, art thou within thy mansion?"

Lord Caelum.

One of the oldest surviving royals from my father's side. The moment I heard his voice, something in me stilled. If he was here, then Lady Maerith would not be far behind. Why had they come? And why now, at the same time as the Elders?

"Yes, my lord," I answered through the link. "I am within my mansion."

"I stand at thy main entrance," he said. "Lady Maerith is with me."

My gaze moved toward the doors of my chamber.

"Pray wait but a moment," I replied. "I shall receive you at once." I severed the link.

The guards stationed at the main gate would have already allowed them in. Lord Caelum was known to them, and even those who had forgotten the weight of royal names still knew better than to make an elder royal wait beneath the open sky.

I left my chamber and descended the stairs toward the main hall. Each step felt longer than it should have. By the time I reached the lower floor, my mind had already gathered too many possibilities, and not one of them sat well with me.

When I reached the main hall, Lord Caelum and Lady Maerith were already there.

Though my royal status stood higher in the hierarchy, I had always held great respect for them. They were older royals, survivors of a time most of the realm only remembered through broken records and whispered histories.

"Please, have a seat," I said, gesturing toward the wooden couch at the center of the hall.

Lady Maerith gave me a gentle smile before lowering herself gracefully onto the seat. She had always reminded me of a mother.

Not mine. No one could ever become that.

But there was something about her presence that carried warmth without weakness. She possessed the elegance of old royalty, the kind that did not need jewels or titles to be recognized.

As a pureblood, she also carried several abilities of her own. And despite her softness, she was no fragile court lady. Lady Maerith had fought in wars. She could heal with one hand and kill with the other if the need arose.

Lord Caelum sighed quietly once he sat beside her.

I took the single seat across from them and reached for the copper pitcher already placed on the table. The infused water inside had been prepared earlier, drawn from the Fountain of Youth at Arjuna's estate and steeped with herbs and rose.

I poured it into copper cups and handed one to each of them.

"Still living alone, I presume, Ravynn?" Lady Maerith asked, her smile gentle, as though trying to soften the tension that had followed them into my hall.

"Yes, Lady Maerith," I replied. "I prefer solitude."

Her gaze softened. Looking at her made me miss my mother. Truly, even after thousands of years, nothing could change that.

Lady Maerith said nothing. She only smiled, understanding without forcing me to speak. That was her way. Soft. Motherly. But never foolish.

Cross her line, and even the bravest warriors would learn why old royalty was feared.

"The matter is grave, Ravynn," Lord Caelum said at last, leaning back against the couch.

The warmth in the room thinned.

Lady Maerith placed her cup down carefully.

"The Elders did not come for ceremony," she said.

I looked between them.

"I thought you came with them."

Lord Caelum's expression darkened.

"Nay. We did not."

My brows drew together.

"The gathering of provincial Elders must be approved, or at least witnessed, by one member of the royal bloodline." Anger began to rise beneath my ribs. "That has been law since before the Council was formed."

"Aye," Lord Caelum said. "And yet, here they are."

Lady Maerith folded her hands over her lap.

"Our visit was arranged weeks ago," she explained. "We intended to visit you, and afterward Arjuna's family. I needed to collect herbs and several healing potions from his mother."

"We met them at the border entrance," Lord Caelum added. "The Northern, Eastern, Western, and Southern Elders. All arriving under sealed passage."

"Sealed passage?" I repeated.

His jaw tightened.

"A passage used when a council wishes not to be seen."

Silence settled.

Outside, the silver light of the realm pressed faintly against the tall windows.

"And they told you nothing?" I asked.

Lady Maerith gave a humorless smile.

"The Elders rarely tell the truth when silence serves them better."

Lord Caelum pinched the bridge of his nose.

"For once," he muttered, "I almost wish one of the royal families still carried the cloaking ability."

My fingers stilled around my cup. Cloaking.

The word moved through the room like a blade drawn halfway from its sheath.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

Lord Caelum looked at me.

Not as an elder speaking to a younger royal.

But as someone who had just realized he had said too much.

Across the realm, at Arjuna's estate, his father had been pacing slowly inside his office for the past several minutes.

Adelia sat on the wing chair near the window, holding a cup of her favorite rose tea between both hands.

Unlike her husband, she did not pace.

She watched.

Listened.

Waited.

That had always been Adelia's way.

"Why, all of a sudden, have the Elders flooded into the Central Province?" Arjuna's father asked, his voice low with irritation.

Adelia lifted her gaze from her cup.

"If there was a meeting, we should have been informed."

"Exactly." He stopped near the desk. "Ravynn should have been informed too."

He turned toward her.

"Any word from him, darling?"

"Nay," Adelia said softly. "None."

Her husband exhaled through his nose, displeased.

"If there is a gathering this large, one that includes all provinces, a notice should have been released weeks beforehand."

"Unless..." Adelia said.

She placed her cup gently onto the saucer resting on the small coffee table beside her.

The soft clink sounded sharper than it should have.

"Unless what?"

Adelia looked toward the window, where the silver light of the realm had begun to dim behind the trees.

"Unless they have been planning this without the royal houses."

His expression hardened.

"A secret meeting?"

"Perhaps."

"Then they are fools," he said coldly. "To flood this land with Elder blood and expect no one to notice."

Adelia's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Not fools," she said. "Desperate."

That single word pulled silence into the room.

Her husband looked at her.

Adelia's fingers rested lightly on the edge of her saucer.

"The Elders do not move all four provinces without reason. If they are willing to break protocol openly, then something has frightened them enough to abandon caution."

"What could frighten the Elders?"

Adelia did not answer immediately.

Then she said, very quietly, "Something old enough to remember what they stole."