(Ashina POV)
The ruins smelled of old smoke, wet stone, and blood that the earth had never fully swallowed.
I had heard stories of Rudina’s death since childhood, but my father’s stories always made the queen sound proud, foolish, and easy to break.
Standing here with Tala chained to a cracked pillar, I wondered whether Father had lied about that, too.
The stones did not feel like a place where a foolish woman died.
They felt like a place where a woman had hidden something powerful enough to make monsters keep returning.
Tala hung from silver chains with blood drying on her mouth, but her eyes still held enough strength to insult me without speaking.
I hated her eyes.
They looked at me like they had seen my mother before the hunger finished eating her soul.
“You keep staring,” Tal
