THE FORGOTTEN WITCH OF ELDORAN

THE FORGOTTEN WITCH OF ELDORAN: PART 2

CHAPTER 7: PUNISHED BY QUEEN SYLARA

Queen Sylara arrived that night without announcement.

She came on a Glass Dragon big as a house. She wore white, though she had ordered Nyxara's mother burned. She looked 30 though she was 70 — gold blood keeps you young.

She walked straight to Infirmary where Nyxara lay.

"You," she said to Nyxara, waking her. "You are Elira's child. I knew Elira had hidden one. You look exactly like her when she was young and thought she could rewrite my fate."

Nyxara tried to sit. Ozulun blocked queen.

"My queen, she is my student. Under Citadel law—"

"Under my law, all Vell must be bled," Sylara said. She took out a crystal vial. "Give me your blood, girl. Let me see if the stories are true. If it is silver, I will be merciful and kill you fast like your mother."

She grabbed Nyxara's wrist. Her gold blood touched Nyxara's silver, and both screamed — gold and silver cannot touch. It burns like acid.

Sylara's hand blistered. Nyxara's blistered.

Caelum entered, saw his mother hurting Nyxara, and did something no prince has ever done — he pulled his mother away.

"Mother, enough! She is under academy protection!"

Sylara stared at her son, at his blistered hand that had touched Nyxara's. She understood instantly.

"You have touched her," she whispered, horrified. "You are marked. You will die if you love her. Silver kills gold."

She left, but not before whispering to Nyxara, "I will be back on full moon. If you are still here, I will burn Aelwen with you inside."

After she left, Nyxara cried. Not from pain. Because her mother's killer had touched her and called her by her mother's name.

Caelum sat on her bed. "My mother never touches anyone. She is afraid of being stained. But she touched you. She is afraid of you, Nyxara."

CHAPTER 8: THE BONE KEEPER'S SECRET

Ozulun took Nyxara to his tower after queen left.

Tower of Bones — walls made of stacked skulls, all whispering.

"Your mother was my student," Ozulun said, pouring tea with bony hands. "My best. And my... my love. 20 years ago, I was alive, with flesh. Elira loved me though I was 300 years old. We planned to run. Then Sylara found out Elira was pregnant with you. Sylara wanted Elira's power to keep herself young. She demanded Elira give her your unborn blood. Elira refused."

Nyxara's tea shook. "You are my father?"

Ozulun laughed, sad. "No. I cannot have children. I am dead. Your father was a farmer from Low Eldoran, good man, died before you were born. But I promised Elira I would protect you. I gave you the void egg. I nominated you. I waited 18 years."

He opened his chest. Inside, where heart should be, was a small glass orb with silver blood inside — Elira's blood.

"I kept it. It is the last pure Vell blood besides yours. If you drink it, you will become full witch. No more hiding. But you will be hunted forever. If you don't, you will die slowly like your mother did when she suppressed it."

Nyxara looked at orb. It sang to her.

Outside, bells rang — full moon in 3 days. Queen will return.

She reached for orb.

CHAPTER 9: WHISPERWOLF PACT

She didn't drink it. Not yet.

She needed to hide first. So at midnight, she went to Bridge of Whispers, to the Whisperwolf who had shamed her.

"I want pact," she said.

Wolves don't make pacts with humans. They eat them.

This one stared at her void dragon, which had grown to cat-size and sat on her shoulder, hissing.

"That dragon... eats magic. You are dangerous to us too. What do you offer?"

"My worst memory," Nyxara said. "You can eat it. Take the memory of my mother burning. Take it so I don't have to carry it."

Wolf's eyes lit. Memories are food for wolves.

He bit her forehead, not with teeth, with shadow. Nyxara screamed as the memory of the well, the fire, the singing — was pulled out.

When it was done, she couldn't remember her mother's face clearly. It was blurry. But the wolf now smelled like her, and howled, and all Whisperwolves across Eldoran howled with him, hiding her scent.

"You are now pack," wolf said. "No gold blood can smell your silver when you are with us."

She returned to Citadel, light-headed, free of the heaviest memory. But she felt empty.

Caelum was waiting in her room.

"You made pact," he said, seeing her glazed eyes. "What did you give?"

"Nothing important," she lied.

He touched her cheek. "You don't remember her lullaby anymore, do you?"

She started crying, because he was right, she couldn't remember the words anymore.

Caelum, Prince of Ash who never hugs, hugged her. "I remember a lullaby my nursemaid sang. Vell lullaby. Want to hear?"

He sang, low and wrong, but it was the same tune. Nyxara remembered a little.

Her void dragon bit Caelum's ear affectionately.

CHAPTER 10: THE MIDNIGHT MARKET OF NAMES

Lyss shook Nyxara awake at 1 AM. "Market is open. Tonight only under full moon."

Under Aelwen, there is another Citadel, upside down, where things lost are sold.

Midnight Market of Names — stalls made of teeth, sellers with no faces, selling names in bottles.

"Your mother's name is here," Lyss whispered. "Sylara sold it after she killed her. If someone buys it, your mother is truly erased from Book of Stars. No afterlife."

They found bottle: _ELIRA VELL_ — glowing silver.

Price: one true love's gold blood.

Nyxara didn't have gold blood. But Caelum followed them, because void dragon told him.

"I will pay," Caelum said, stepping out.

Seller with no face: "Prince of Ash, your gold blood is worth 100 names. Are you sure? You will lose your royalty. You will become red."

Caelum looked at Nyxara, at her face that was blurry to her now because she sold memory.

"She gave her memory for me," he said. "I give my royalty for her mother."

He slit his wrist, gold blood poured into bottle. Seller drank.

Bottle with Elira's name cracked open. Silver light flew up, through floors, into sky, into Book of Stars.

For a second, all over Eldoran, people who had forgotten Elira Vell remembered her — the baker, the farmer, even Queen Sylara, who woke up screaming.

In Citadel, Ozulun's tower, the orb with Elira's blood glowed and whispered, "Nyxara?"

Nyxara held the empty bottle and cried, remembering her mother's face clearly now, because name had returned.

Caelum fell, his blood now red, not gold. No longer prince.

Nyxara caught him.

Behind them, Queen Sylara's voice, cold: "So you did come to my market, son. And you chose a dead witch over your living mother."

She stood there with guards, full moon behind her. And she had come three days early.

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