Rain fell in Veredon that morning, a slow, steady drizzle that made the stone courtyards gleam like polished obsidian.
Selene stood at her chamber window, arms crossed over her silk robe, watching the droplets slide down the glass like blood.
She didn't move.
Didn't speak.
Didn't blink.
Because outside, everything looked calm.
But inside?
There was rot.
There was something breaking.
And for once, she couldn't tell whether it was the kingdom… or herself.
Evelyn didn't return that night.
Nor the next.
Elric's shadows had followed her as far as the old chapel ruins at the palace edge.
Then nothing.
No prints.
No sign of struggle.
No body.
Just a torn piece of cloth with a familiar sigil burned into it.
The broken red crown.
The Ash Circle had retrieved their asset.
Silently. Effortlessly.
Like smoke.
Selene crushed the cloth in her fist as Elric debriefed her.
He stood rigid, clearly expecting rage.
But she only nodded once.
"Seal off the southern corridor."
"Yes, my queen."
"And find out who let her past the outer gate."
"I already have."
"Then handle it."
He paused. "Publicly?"
"No," she said.
"Let them disappear quietly. The court should wonder if I already know who else betrayed me."
By noon, five servants were missing.
Two guards vanished from rotation.
A scribe found dead with a glass of wine and a smile on his lips.
Accident, they whispered.
Poison, Ingrid confirmed.
Selene gave no public statement.
She didn't need to.
Because in Veredon, silence was more terrifying than swords.
That evening, a messenger arrived from the temple archives.
An old man with a bent spine and trembling hands.
He brought with him a sealed scroll. Ancient. Untouched.
Ingrid took it, turned it over, and her breath caught.
"The seal is real," she said.
Selene raised an eyebrow. "Whose?"
Ingrid hesitated.
Then whispered:
"Your mother's."
Selene said nothing.
She dismissed the room.
Locked the door.
And unrolled the scroll with fingers that did not shake, but felt colder than steel.
To my daughter, Selene Arlont, should the day come when the Circle reclaims your name…
You must choose.
You are not bound to blood. Not to me. Not to them. But if you follow the oath, you will lose yourself. You will become the fire, but nothing will survive it, not love, not peace, not even your own soul.
If you must burn, then burn as a queen, not a weapon.
Love was never your weakness. It was your rebellion.
She didn't cry.
Didn't rage.
She just stared at the parchment until the ink blurred.
Then folded it, carefully, like it mattered again.
She didn't remember much about her mother.
Just fragments.
A laugh in the dark.
Fingers wiping blood from her chin after sparring.
Eyes that always looked past her, as if seeing the woman Selene was meant to become, not the child she was.
But this letter?
This was the first time Selene felt like her mother had truly spoken to her.
Not as a daughter.
But as a successor.
Later that night, Cassian returned from a border inspection.
His armor was splattered with mud, his jaw tight.
He entered the war chamber without knocking, a habit he never lost.
"I heard about Evelyn," he said.
Selene didn't look up from her map.
"You heard late."
"I was six leagues away."
"And still slower than the rumors."
Cassian exhaled.
He walked to the hearth, tossed off his gloves.
"The Circle?"
"Yes."
"They're back?"
"They never left."
He leaned on the mantel, fire casting shadows across his face.
"And what do they want now?"
"You."
Cassian laughed, bitter.
"Still? After all this time?"
"They think I'll finish what they trained me to do."
His voice went quiet. "Will you?"
Selene finally looked at him.
Her eyes were tired. Not weak, just hollow from carrying too much weight.
"No."
"But I might burn everything around you."
He studied her for a moment.
"You're changing."
"So are you."
"I don't like it."
"Then stop me."
Silence stretched between them.
Thick. Heavy.
Then Cassian stepped forward.
"Tell me the truth, Selene."
She didn't blink.
"Always."
He handed her a sealed note.
The crest was faint.
A hawk in flight.
Not Veredon.
Not friendly.
Selene opened it.
Read.
And her throat tightened.
The letter was from Roen.
Not signed. But coded, only she would know.
"I left because of the girl you no longer are."
"But the queen you've become is worse than I feared."
"You think you rule fire. But the Circle rules silence. And they are already behind your walls."
"He knows. He's waiting."
"Run. Or bury him before he buries you."
Selene crumpled the letter.
Cassian watched her.
"What did he say?"
"That I'm losing."
"Are you?"
She looked up.
And for the first time, let the mask slip.
Just for him.
"I don't know anymore."
She stayed up that night drafting new orders.
New spy networks.
New eyes.
New traps.
She didn't sleep.
She didn't eat.
She became what they feared:
A queen who no longer doubted.
A queen who remembered her blood oath and rewrote it.
And just before dawn, she whispered to herself:
"You taught me to burn."
"Now watch me scorch the Circle from history."