ay, Princess Elara felt the cha

The usual golden sunlight that painted her walls pale and warm was absent. In

to her window. The sky beyond the palace was heavy with low, bruised clouds. The trees s

art - one that had nothin

od stiffer than usual at the doorways, their hands resting on their swords, even in the safety of the Great Hall. H

rough but not unkind. "Do yo

ting the faint lines around his

ered softly. "But the

n resting on the rim of h

her father, a man carved from iron and

-

ng behind closed doors. Messengers galloped in and out of the castle gates, bringing tidings from distant farms, villages, an

ara wandered alone into the palace library. The vast room was her favorite place -

books were kept, and settled on the cushioned window seat. From here, t

was a book of royal legends, one she'd read a dozen times. But tonight, it felt different

a tree with silver bark, its leaves shimmering l

a whisper in the dark, a gui

lse qu

en garden. The one that spoke to h

. It was a piece of the

was cal

-

rself in her warmest cloak, slipping quietly from her chambers and th

re. The grass crunched under her slippers, frost biting at i

still and silent, its leaves ba

, the voice returned - softer, and hea

one. An ancient debt, left unpa

reath shallow. "What kind

he sky, to all things unseen. That which was once a guardian has become

s, though she did not

e dark, child of the Cro

her shoulders, but no cloth could warm

eak of strategies, armies, and treaties, but the

of something older