Chapter Twenty-One
"The 7 noble houses of Uthean: Helel, Axel, Thorne, Wilber, Osborne, Janesburgh and Wiverton, their duties split between: Military command, Commerce, Agriculture, and governance, headed by their heads the Lords. Lords are second in command to the count and have the highest authorities in their domains, they are almost like kings, although they serve the count.
-Archives of Uthean, The rising province by Lea Somvot
Thorne residence.
Thud. Thud.
The hurried footsteps of a maidservant echoed through the halls of the main manor.
"Madam Sue, it's Eloise..."
////
For a year now Eloise Thorne had been entombed in a Yggdrasil chamber recuperating from the injuries dealt by the Crimson Peak attack. Meanwhile, House Thorne became more and more detached from the affairs of Uthean only aiding from the sidelines, this was a deliberate action , Lue Thorne knew Adrian, and he had set his eyes on Uthean, the battle wasn't theirs to begin with.
"What happened?" Eloise looked around in a confused manner, the last thing she remembered was being attacked.
Slam.
"Eloise..." Sue walked in a slight smile on her face, it seemed as though she was holding back tears.
Jean couldn't hold back and embraced his daughter.
"She just woke from a year long coma, she is weak." Sue reprimanded her husband.
Eloise blinked rapidly, her vision still fogged by the sap-like haze of Yggdrasil's healing cocoon. Her limbs felt numb, her body unfamiliar. A faint ache pulsed through her chest—the lingering echo of fangs and claws.
"Where… where is Leron?" she whispered.
Jean, kneading his forehead, glanced aside. Sue's smile faded into a grim line.
"Alive," Sue said gently. "But far from here. After the battle, he returned to the Vaciem Kingdom."
Eloise looked between them. "And Adrian?"
That name sent a quiet hush through the room.
"Still in Uthean," Jean finally said. "He's… changed."
Eloise furrowed her brow. "How?"
Sue crouched beside her daughter, placing a hand on hers. "He finally got what he wanted… control. But I don't know if the boy you knew is still in there."
Eloise's breath caught.
"…Did he save me?"
"Yes," Sue said. "But at what cost, I do not know."
Eloise lowered her eyes, struggling to reconcile the Adrian she knew—the unreadable boy with flickers of warmth—with the tyrant they described.
Her thoughts ran wild, she had been unconscious for over a year, and everyone felt different now. She just wondered if she would fit in.
Jean and Sue continued to speak, but their chatter just felt distant to Eloise, they felt unreal, as if forced, it was cold and scarry..
"You worry Lord Thorne too much don't you think." Lue walked in with a smile.
"Huh?" Eloise was confused about many things, but she could identify the voice even though the person looked different. Isn't Lord Thorne the title meant for The family head?
This was when it begun, the unmaking of the Thorne family.
Eloise saw Sue's awkward glance at her
"Eloise, we have to go." Eloise, not Loise like Jean used to call her.
Eloise starred at her parents' receding backs.
"Mom. Dad?" She called out to them but she was met with silence. She clenched her fists, and her eyes became teary.
Her parents now hated her. Why: She had stolen the position meant for her father, Jean. He was was always meant to succeed Lue politically, and Sue to succeed her mother as the 12th fairy matriarch.
As her tears hit the floors, and her footsteps become the rhythm of the hall, she didn't even know when she left her new room, she looked at the room she stopped in front of. She didn't understand why she did, but she opened the doors… and she felt peace.
///
Two months passed, but Eloise's mind remained trapped in the past..
She flicked a pen between her fingers, the faint tapping against her palm the only sound in the quiet chamber.
"Pathetic, aren't I? Two boys duel because of me… and I just watched." The thought tasted bitter on her tongue. She didn't hate Adrian—not really. He was sweet, almost like a younger brother who mistook dependence for love. But the fact that he, the cold, detached boy, had fallen for her left her staring blankly at the mirror before her.
"Is this it? Am I nothing more than someone's love interest?"
'Is it because of Eloise?...' The memory of Adrian and Leron's duel resurfaced in her mind. Their clash of sword and magic, their clash to determine who won her.
She knew the reason she didn't stop them, but she didn't want to admit it- She liked the attention. 'I liked it, and I want it. I won't lie to myself. After that incident with that Tyrant, attention is all I ever wanted… that's why I hid behind that innocent princess façade.'
Her reflection didn't answer. Only her eyes did. They weren't their usual soft hue. They gleamed a vivid, unnatural green, the color Yggdrasil had gifted her.
"Even my body isn't mine anymore," she whispered.
'You can't use magic anymore… nature magic at least.' The Thorne doctor told her.
'Why?'
'Probably because you are no longer a… fairy.' Afterall, fairies are one of the only beings able to control Nature magic.
The corridors of Thorne Manor felt colder now than before her awakening. Each polished step reminded her of how different everything was. Old Lue had shoved her toward the title of Lord Thorne, weaving her life into schemes she hadn't chosen. Adrian… or the creature he'd become at the Nobles' Banquet… had stared through her, not at her. When she bumped into a maid, or a sibling, the fear they used to apologize left her disappointed.
"A pawn. A token."
The words circled in her mind as she clenched her fists. She wasn't stupid—Lue's lectures had made it clear. Making her Lord Thorne wasn't to empower her. It was to keep Adrian off balance. To test him.
She pushed open the door to the chamber where she had slept for a year. The Yggdrasil seed pulsed faintly at the center of the room, its vines turning the cold stone into a blooming sanctuary. Not her doing—its doing. Always its doing.
"Old friend," she murmured, resting her back against its bark. The seed thrummed softly, as if acknowledging her touch.
Her parents hadn't spoken to her in a month. Lue was half a continent away in Vaciem. The court whispered her name like a title, not a person. Here, among the vines, Eloise could admit the selfish thought gnawing at her:
" A thing everyone places on a pedestal to move pieces on a board. I won't let that happen, no matter what!"
"I must be turning mad, you are not even alive." She sighed once more, her fingers brushing over the chamber wall, she thought it wriggled, but she left it as her madness. She pulled out her excel.
"I remember when he said that stupid thing 'I am just a reader' back then, I didn't get it. See how much he used to absorb himself in novels, now though, he decides to take the stage. I now understand how he felt; he might have tried to hide it, but, deep down, he felt underappreciated." She smiled faintly, burying herself in a popular online novel.
"Then Ignis, the dragon lord said unto his people..."
///
The last time Eloise saw her parents was over a month ago.
"I know you might hate me, but, you have to understand, this is foreshadowing for the larger play." Lue said as she read Eloise's report.
"Are you telling me you didn't make me Lord just to disrupt Adrian?" Eloise didn't even bother to look Lue in the eyes now, she wanted to hate her, but she couldn't.
"That is part of the reason, but, The Vaciem's also requested this." Lue was quite frank. "By-the-way, Leron sends his regards."
'Leron? He still loves me?"
"He is a knight, he sticks to his convictions."
///
'Mom. Dad?'
Eloise had drifted off into sleep, yet the memory of her parents' receding backs clouded her mind, and a tear drop fell from her eyes unto Yggdrasil.
The Yggdrasil seed pulsed once, twice, like a heartbeat answering hers. Its vines curled around her lightly, reacting to the turmoil in her dreams.
"I won't be a piece to be played with. All I need is Leron, I will rule the world with him."
The vines coiled tighter, glowing with a soft green light. Slowly, the seed condensed into a single radiant gem, rising into the air above her.
A whisper—not quite a voice—echoed in her mind:
"Do you want to be more?"
Her fingers trembled as she reached for it. When she touched the gem, it dissolved into emerald light, burrowing into her forehead. Her eyes snapped open, glowing bright green as the chamber fell silent.
For the first time in two months, Eloise didn't feel like a trophy. She felt… awake.
"You forced me to become a Lord? Then I will show you what a true lord looks like."