Silence fell when Allyv walked into the reception area, and all the heads turned. But no one looked at his face; they looked at what he was holding in his hands. He expected whispers to stir once they recognized the crown, but not a single word arose within the room.
The crowd parted before him, so he stopped in the middle, surrounded by his people and yet isolated from them… alone. He looked at their faces—some he recognized from the Devanshari capital, and others from their sea journey or work in the asylum. Few names came to him. Enveloped in his research, he had lost touch with the ones he’d sworn to cure.
He was everything they had left. He saw it in their eyes, in the anticipated pain mixed with desperate hope.
“My friends, I bring sad news. Our nation has suffered greatly in rece
