Aeryn, reeling from the traumatic history of her ancestor Hawasa, now confronts the terrifying truth of her own lineage. She is the chosen vessel for a power the kingdom tried to bury, and the blood has finally found a heart worthy of its rage.
Aeryn looked down at her hands, remembering the night they turned red in the firelight. Not from a wound, but from an awakening.
"And Anya found this all out?"
"Yes, she did. Her indecisiveness, which cost her the chance to save her mother, only fueled her fury, making her more determined and more powerful."
"What about her father? Who was he?"
"Her father was the king's son. He was killed in battle days after the prison incident."
Aeryn looked at Sakina, overwhelmed by the sheer scope of Anya's identity: "She was a pyrokinetic, a flow weaver, innately adept in dark sanguine art, blood lore danced at her will, and most of all, she was royal!"
Sakina nodded, sighing as if she knew the weight was too much for a teen queen to handle.
Aeryn rubbed her chest, feeling the pressure.
"Anya knew all of this. Though grief-stricken, she was too intelligent to be paralyzed by it. She used every facet of her history in her favor. And no one ever crossed her again or tried to use anything against her," Sakina added.
"I don't know what to do with this, Sakina," Aeryn whispered. "Why do I even have to know about Hawasa, her daughter! It's history, yes, and I understand I share the power, but…" She looked at her with a squinted, confused gaze.
"You embrace it," Sakina said firmly, placing a steady hand on her shoulder. "Not to become her. But to finish what she began. A century later, you are the continuer of a legacy long buried beneath shame and fear. Aeryn, she is your great-great-great-grandmother."
......…..
Aeryn looked up slowly, her irritation visible. "How do you know all this?"
"You don't believe me," Sakina said with a faint smile, stepping back.
"How can I, Sakina!" Aeryn cried.
"Your Highness, this is your past, your legacy, and your beginning. I won't say anything more, but you can go to the outskirts of the capital or talk to any senior minister. They all know about Queen Anya, enough to prove what I've just told you is true. My family has always been loyal to the monarch. My great-great-grandmother served your great-great-great-grandmother. We have a link, and I have a responsibility. We were always taught to be vigilant in case a powerful monarch arose in the dynasty, whose power no one could rival."
Aeryn felt like the walls were spinning. "Why did no one tell me this? Not even my father? Why was this hidden from me?"
Sakina's eyes darkened. "Because your father had no such power. He was a ruler only by the blood of royal men, but it is you who carries the fire of Hawasa's rage, Anya's legacy, and their collective silence. You are the first daughter in a century after Anya. Your father feared that. Feared what he could never control. He tried everything, experiments, scrolls, forbidden rites, to awaken it in himself. But the blood rejected him. Every man after Hawasa was cursed. No man could bear the weight of it."
.........….
"Then why me?" Aeryn's voice cracked. "Why didn't I feel powerful since birth? Why did my parents never see it?"
Sakina's voice softened. "Perhaps it was grief that buried it. Or perhaps the gift was waiting. Waiting for the moment when your heart cracked open like Hawasa's did. Maybe it was the night you buried your parents with your bare hands. Maybe it was pain that unlocked it. Or maybe…"
She leaned in, her voice a profound whisper, "…maybe blood remembers."
"And now," Sakina continued, her voice lowering as if touching something sacred and feared, "you are the first of her line to awaken all three veins again. Blood. Fire. Water. The forgotten trinity. The royal inheritance that no man could bear."
Aeryn looked up slowly, her brow creased. "Why? Why couldn't a man bear it?"
Sakina exhaled, the silence before her answer speaking louder than words. "Perhaps it was a curse. A silent oath whispered by the blood of every woman who had suffered. From Hawasa... to Anya… to the hundreds whose names we no longer remember. The pain they carried was not only of war or captivity, but of betrayal. Men broke them. Burned them. Took from them what could never be returned."
Aeryn's heart pounded, connecting the abuse to the power's dormancy.
"After Anya, the line continued, but only sons were born. Almost a hundred years of silence. No daughters. No one to carry the weight of that power. No one the blood would trust. And then, after a century, you were born."
Aeryn stared at her own hands, suddenly unsure whether she was blessed or condemned.
"You are the first daughter of a queen in a hundred years," Sakina whispered, her voice like trembling flame. "The blood has waited. It would not answer to men. Not after what was done. Perhaps it refused to pass into hands that did not bleed like theirs did, or cry like theirs did in silence."
Aeryn swallowed hard. "So I… inherited their rage."
"No," Sakina said. "You inherited their truth. Their sorrow. Their fire. The blood sings in you now because it finally found someone who could understand it. Not use it for conquest, but carry it with honor... or vengeance, if that is what you choose."
Aeryn's question lingered in the still air between them, demanding final clarity. "But… My father… his brothers… all the heirs before me. Not even one? How is that possible?!"
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