The balance was breaking.
In the far reaches of the western realm, where thorned roses bled silver and the moon never waned, the Court of Thorns stirred for the first time in a hundred years.
They had remained neutral when the Hollow Queen rose.
They had not intervened when the Codex vanished.
They had waited.
But now, the girl of prophecy walked again.
And one of their own had returned.
---
A messenger cloaked in dusk reached Serelith in Elraen. His voice carried the scent of frost and vine.
> "Lady Serelith, the Thorn King requests your presence. The Accord of Stillness has broken. You must come before the thorns decide whether to crown you—or kill you."
---
Faelan didn't trust the Thorn Court.
> "They're vipers," he said as they rode through mist-laced valleys. "Sharp words. Sharper politics. They'd smile at your funeral if it benefited their borders."
Serelith gave a wry smile. "Sounds like home."
Still, she felt unease growing like ivy inside her. Not from the Thorn King, but from the Codex, which pulsed erratically, warning her of some hidden truth ahead.
At the gates of the Thorn Court, the guards bowed—not low, but enough.
She was no longer just a visitor.
She was a storm on the horizon.
---
Inside the throne chamber, gold vines curled along obsidian columns, and the air shimmered with the scent of ash roses. Upon the throne sat a young-seeming man with a crown of briars—King Tharion of Thorns.
But Serelith barely saw him.
Because standing to the right of the throne…
Was Aelric.
The shadow prince.
The one who had vanished during the Hollow Court's uprising.
The one Serelith had once trusted.
And who had betrayed them all.
---
"Aelric," Faelan said, voice low, eyes sharp with remembered betrayal.
Aelric smiled faintly. "Faelan. Still loyal. Still brooding. How endearing."
Serelith stepped forward, blade at her side.
> "Why are you here?"
> "To make amends," Aelric said. "And because the Thorn King believes you may yet break the world. He prefers to be informed before it cracks."
King Tharion raised a hand. His voice was velvet over steel.
> "The Codex lives in you, Serelith. The Hollow Queen prepares for war. And the gods stir. Tell me—do you come to bind the courts or burn them?"
Serelith met his gaze unflinchingly.
> "I come to unmask the lie that holds us all hostage."
A hush fell.
And then Tharion smiled.
> "Then we have much to discuss."
---
That night, as storms rumbled over the silverwood forest, Serelith stood alone in the gardens of thorns.
Aelric joined her, quiet for once.
> "You've grown," he said.
> "You left me," she replied.
> "I did," he admitted. "And I will spend every breath proving I regret it."
Faelan watched from a distance, jaw tight—but he trusted Serelith now more than his pride.
She turned to Aelric, voice distant.
> "You were my past."
Then, she looked toward Faelan—steady, constant, loyal.
> "He is my future."
---
But beneath the Court of Thorns, a deeper secret waited.
A sealed vault.
An ancient book.
And a name no one had spoken in centuries—
Liora.
The true Queen of the Hollow Court, lost long before the throne was corrupted.
Serelith ran her fingers over the name and felt the Codex shiver.
Something was wrong.
The Hollow Queen was not what they thought.
And the war to come would not be what they expected.