Forbidden Love - Fragments of Forgotten Love

Chapter 10

The betrayal cut deeper than I'd expected. I hadn't imagined such calculated cruelty, even knowing my father's coldness.

"But why maintain the lie for so long?" Costa demanded. "Why let the Council perpetuate the myth of our willing participation?"

"Because myths are powerful," a new voice said from the shadows. A figure emerged—tall, elegant, with silver hair that seemed to glow in the chamber's strange light. "And sometimes you must let your enemies believe their own stories until the moment comes to shatter them."

King Aldric's face brightened. "My dear, you shouldn't be walking yet."

The woman smiled, and I gasped as I recognised the bone structure, the graceful bearing. "Queen Lyanna," I whispered.

"Hello, Shantali," Costa's mother said warmly. "I've waited so long to meet the woman who stole my son's heart so completely."

Costa released my hand and stumbled toward his mother, tears streaming down his face. Their embrace was fierce, desperate, six centuries of separation pouring out in a single moment.

"They told us you were dead," he choked out.

"In a sense, I was," Queen Lyanna replied, stroking his hair. "The woman who stood by while her son was taken died that day. What survived was someone determined to bring him home."

The echowisps gathered more densely around us, their whispers becoming almost musical.

"Family... love... the bonds that cannot break..."

Marcus cleared his throat gently. "Your Majesties, I hate to interrupt, but the Void Walkers are adapting. The psychic dampeners won't hold them much longer."

As if summoned by his words, the chamber's walls began to frost over. The temperature dropped sharply, and the air itself seemed to thicken.

"They're trying to phase the entire shelter into void space," Elena said grimly. "If they succeed, everyone here will be trapped between dimensions."

King Aldric straightened, royal authority returning to his bearing. "Then it's time to end this. Elena, activate the memorial protocols."

"Memorial protocols?" I asked.

Elena moved to a central console, her fingers dancing over controls that hummed with power. "Every story preserved here, every memory crystal, every echo of resistance—they're all connected through a psychic network designed to channel collective will into reality."

The chamber transformed around us as the memorial protocols engaged. The carved walls began to glow, and the memory crystals pulsed in synchronised rhythm. Hundreds of echowisps materialised, not just the pale blue and amber ones I'd grown accustomed to, but brilliant golden orbs that sang with voices I recognised—Cordelia, Adrian, and countless others who had died for their refusal to comply.

"Six hundred years of stored defiance," Queen Lyanna explained, her voice carrying over the growing resonance. "Every time someone said 'no' to the Council, every act of rebellion, every moment of choosing love over duty—it's all been building to this."

The frost on the walls began to crack and fall away as the Void Walkers' influence weakened. Their distorted forms became visible at the chamber's edges, writhing in apparent pain as the psychic network pushed against them.

"They can't maintain coherence in the presence of so much concentrated free will," Marcus breathed in amazement.

Costa stepped forward, his hand finding mine again. "What do you need us to do?"

"Be yourselves," King Aldric said simply. "The choice you made six centuries ago—make it again. Choose love. Choose freedom. Choose to reject everything the Council represents."

The chamber filled with light as more memory crystals activated. Scenes played out in the luminous air: Elliot leading early resistance movements, Queen Lyanna secretly funding underground networks, and King Aldric sabotaging preservation protocols from within the system.

"I choose Costa," I said clearly, my voice carrying through the chamber. "Not because of genetic compatibility or royal decree, but because he saw me as more than a commodity."

"I choose Shantali," Costa replied, his voice steady and strong. "Not as a symbol or a breeding prospect, but as the woman who showed me what it means to be human."

The echowisps erupted in brilliant flashes, their combined light so intense it seemed to burn away the last traces of the Void Walkers' presence. The chamber's walls cracked, not with damage but with the force of something breaking free.

"The psychic tethers," Elena announced, monitoring her console. "They're severing across the entire network. Every remaining preservation pod is going offline."

"The Council's losing control of their subjects," Queen Lyanna added with satisfaction. "The ones who survive the awakening will be free to choose their own paths."

A deep rumble shook the chamber, and dust began to fall from the ceiling. Through the vibrations, I could hear distant alarms—the sound of an entire system of control collapsing.

"We need to reach the surface," Marcus urged. "The memorial protocols are overloading the shelter's power systems."

As we moved toward the exit, Elena caught my arm. "Aunt Shantali, there's something else. The Eastern Sanctuaries—they're not just refuges. They're cities.

Thriving cities with populations in the hundreds of thousands. People who have been waiting for this moment, for the symbol of resistance to finally break free and join them."

I felt the weight of expectation settling on my shoulders again, but this time it was different. Not the crushing burden of being breeding stock, but the responsibility that comes with choosing to stand for something greater.

"We're still not symbols," Costa said firmly, reading my expression. "We're just people who refuse to be caged."

"Sometimes that's all a symbol needs to be," King Aldric replied as we hurried through the collapsing corridors. "The courage to say no when everyone else has given up."

The shelter shuddered violently, and cracks spread across the walls like spider webs. The echowisps streamed ahead of us, their golden light illuminating the path to safety. Behind us, the memorial chamber's glow was fading as the power systems overloaded.

We emerged into the pre-dawn darkness to find the landscape transformed. Where once there had been silver grass and twisted formations, now there were people—thousands of them, stretching across the plains like a living sea. They carried lights of their own, not the cold illumination of Council technology but warm fires and handmade lanterns.