Ariane:
The marble stones beneath our feet were still slick with the blood of a 'queen' I felt should never have been born.
Shadows clung to the edges of broken pillars, and the air hummed with the memory of screams long since gone silent. But the gates opened like a curtain drawn at the end of a play, and in walked the audience.
Jeweled guards and the remaining high-born lords of the fractured realms flanked Kaelen, Varek, and Queen Eulalia of Solarith. Their robes were immaculate, unsoiled by the horrors that had unfolded not even thirty minutes prior. Their faces were masks—serene, unreadable as if they'd just strolled in from a feast rather than the aftermath of a m******e.
Varek met my eyes first, and something in his expression faltered, something that twisted beneath my ribs, s
