Forbidden Love - Awakened Hearts

Chapter 14

"Your Highness," she said, her tone carefully measured, "while we acknowledge the unprecedented nature of recent events, the Council must address concerns about the stability of this transformation."

"Stability?" I stepped forward, feeling power flow through me with each word. "Councillor Meren, what you call instability, we call growth. What you fear as chaos, we recognise as long-overdue change."

Councillor Voss, the eldest of the seated members, spoke without rising. "Princess, with respect, you have been absent from our world for six centuries. The delicate balance we have maintained…"

"It has led to stagnation, due to the Council’s need for control after you imprisoned us both, for what I found my mate. Look what it's done to our people," Costa interrupted, his voice carrying the full weight of royal authority. Declining birth rates, failing colonies, a people divided against themselves. Your 'delicate balance' has brought us to extinction."

Through our bond, I felt his memories surface—reports he'd studied before our first binding attempt, projections that showed both species facing inevitable decline within another century if current trends continued.

Councillor Thyss moved to stand beside us, her markings brightening with conviction. "The outer colonies have been in near-constant revolt for decades. The mining stations report productivity down by sixty per cent. Our trade agreements with neighbouring systems fail because we cannot present a unified front."

"And now you expect us to believe that this... awakening will solve centuries of complex problems?" Councillor Meren's amber markings shifted to a deeper, more sceptical hue.

I felt the crystalline key Vera had given me pulse with warmth in my pocket. Perhaps my mother's archives held answers that could sway even the most resistant Council members.

"Perhaps," I said, "we should examine what my mother discovered about hybrid potential before making assumptions about what we can or cannot accomplish."

The seated Council members exchanged glances, their markings flickering with uncertainty. Costa's arm tightened around me as he sensed something through our bond—a shift in the chamber's energy, as if the palace itself was responding to my words.

"Lady Celeste's research was destroyed during the purges," Councillor Voss stated flatly. "Nothing remains of her work."

I smiled, withdrawing the crystalline key from my pocket. It blazed with light that reflected off the chamber's walls, creating patterns that danced across the Council members' faces.

"On the contrary," I said, "everything remains. Hidden where only Solmere blood could find it."

The key pulsed brighter, and suddenly a section of the chamber wall began to shimmer and shift. Ancient mechanisms activated, revealing a hidden passage that led deeper into the palace's heart.

Councillor Thyss gasped. "The sealed archives. We always wondered..."

"My mother prepared for this day long before I was born," I continued, feeling Costa's amazement flow through our connection. "She knew that someday, someone would need proof that integration wasn't just possible it was inevitable."

The remaining Council members finally rose from their seats, drawn by curiosity despite their reservations. As we approached the revealed passage, bioluminescent pathways activated along the walls, guiding us deeper into the palace's forgotten depths.

Costa’s arm slipped around my waist as we began to walk through the passage towards whatever research my mother had carried out all those years ago. Although some of his thoughts that had brushed against mind as we walked were quite heated but then it made sence as he had waited over 600 years to me make me his. Upon completing our bond, I made my check heat.

I felt Costa's heated thoughts brush against my mind, and my cheeks flushed. It was still strange to be so connected, to feel his desires alongside my own. After six hundred years of separation, we could hide nothing from each other. His yearning for me wasn't just physical, it was a soul-deep need to affirm what we had reclaimed against impossible odds.

The passage narrowed as we descended deeper beneath the palace, the walls glowing with ancient bioluminescent patterns that responded to our presence. Behind us, the Council members followed in wary silence, their markings pulsing with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.

"How far does this go?" Councillor Thyss whispered, her voice echoing strangely in the crystalline tunnel.

"As far as necessary," I replied, though I wasn't entirely sure how I knew. The key in my hand grew warmer, guiding me through turns and junctions with wordless certainty.

Finally, the passage opened into a vast chamber that took my breath away. The ceiling arched impossibly high, creating a perfect dome studded with miniature replicas of New Nova's seven moons. Below, arranged in concentric circles, stood thousands of crystalline data pillars, each pulsing with stored information.

"The Solmere Archives," Costa breathed, his awe flowing through our bond. "They're not just your mother's research; this is generations of knowledge."

I stepped forward, drawn to the central platform where a single control terminal awaited. The key in my hand vibrated eagerly, and when I placed it into the matching receptacle, the entire chamber came alive. Holographic displays surround us, displaying genetic sequences, historical records, and statistical projections.

"Lady Celeste wasn't working alone," Councillor Voss observed, his scepticism momentarily forgotten as he stared at the wealth of information. "This represents centuries of coordinated research."

"The hybrid resistance was never just about hiding," I explained, understanding flowing through me as the archives connected with my transformed consciousness. "It was about preparing. About gathering evidence that couldn't be denied when the time was right."

Costa moved to stand beside me at the terminal, his fingers intertwining with mine. Together, we activated the central display, and my mother's face appeared before us not as I dimly remembered her, but as she truly was. Her hybrid features shone with quiet dignity as she addressed the future she would never see.

"If you're watching this, my daughter, then the binding has finally been completed," she began, her voice sending shivers of recognition through me. "What follows is the truth that the Council has suppressed for generations: our species was never meant to remain separate."