he torchlight flickered wildly along the marbled corridor walls, casting long, distorted shadows of me and Freasia as we ran, hearts pounding in our chests.
"This way!" Freasia hissed, grabbing my wrist and veering left, our boots slapping against the cold stone floor of the under-chambers. Behind us, the echo of alarm horns shrieked through the palace.
"They're closing the gates," I gasped, my breath ragged. My legs screamed for rest, but fear propelled me forward. We'd seen it. We had proof. The truth, forbidden and heavy, burned in the crystal vine hidden inside my cloak.
The ritual chamber was now behind us—a room awash with blood-echo magic, Morgana's eyes black as pitch, Gaston Kyl chanting in that cursed tongue. Jade and Father were next. I could still hear the chilling echo of Morgana's voice whispering, "The boy dies first. The king will not remember his name."
We burst out into the east courtyard—moonlight silvering the broken sky above, clouds bruised with magic. I halted.
"Freasia..."
They were waiting.
A ring of guards in obsidian armor, faces hidden beneath hawk-helmets, formed a wall around the exit. Crossbows drawn. Swords gleaming. At their center stood my father.
King Guvian to', his expression blank, his eyes sunken with shadows. He looked like a dream someone had twisted wrong.
"Father!" I cried, stepping forward. "It's me, Evangeline."
His gaze didn't soften. Didn't flicker.
Morgana floated beside him in her shimmering silver robes, her smile serpent-sweet. Her wings folded behind her like blades.
"Traitors," she purred. "How quickly they run to filth and treason."
"No!" I shouted. "We have evidence. She and Gaston Kyl are conspiring against you. Against the crown. We saw it—in the under-chambers!"
"Silence!" my father roared, his voice echoing like thunder. "You disgrace your name."
Freasia stepped in front of me, spreading his arms. "Your Majesty, if you would only listen—"
"You will address me as King," he barked, and raised a hand. The guards surged forward. We were tackled, dragged through the mud. The cold bite of enchanted chains snapped around my wrists. I watched Freasia wince as they bound him tighter.
We were hauled into the Hall of Judgment.
The court stood frozen in stunned silence.
Maravine, arms crossed. Her face as cold as winter. Roseline, her gaze flickering toward me but quickly lowering.
"What is the charge?" barked the High Scribe.
"Treason," Morgana said sweetly. "Plotting against the throne. Harboring dark devices."
Laughter rippled through the nobles. I saw my sisters amongst them. My heart broke.
"This is madness!" I cried. "I am your daughter!"
"No," Father said, voice like stone. "You are a traitor."
The words pierced deeper than any blade. I staggered.
"You think I wanted this? I came to save you. Morgana has cursed you! Look!" I tore at my cloak and pulled free the crystal vine, still humming with the image of the blood-echo ritual.
Morgana snapped her fingers. The crystal shattered into dust.
"You brought illegal tech into the palace," she said, faux-shocked. "Another crime to add to your list."
Freasia's jaw clenched. "Your Highness—"
"Enough," the King said. His voice shook with fury.
"Then punish me!" I screamed. "But let him go. He only followed me because I begged him to."
"He dies," Morgana said.
My knees buckled. "Please," I whispered. "Banish us then, but please don't kill him."
I yelled, straining to get my father's attention as he pronounced our sentence, life imprisonment for me and death for Freasia. Freasis and I had been overpowered by the palace guards, chained and brought before the royal court.
The court mumured, a few nobles shifted uncomfortably, As I yelled my plea.
My father paused, he looked at me for a second and for just a second I could see the tender look of love fleeting through his eyes, it looked as though his spirit recognized me, but something more powerful than him overcame him.
"So be it," he said at last. "You both are hereby banished to the Abyssal."
A stunned silence fell upon the court.
My sister Maravine snorted. "Well, she always did like playing in the dark."
I turned, fury rising in my throat. "Mock me all you want, Maravine. But you will regret your silence when your beloved palace burns."
Roseline stepped forward, just slightly. She didn't speak. But I saw it, I saw the fear in her eyes, her fingers trembled in her hands, she knew something, she must have seen something too but she is too afraid to speak.
I and Freasia were marched to the portal enterence by the palace guards, blue fire danced along its edges. The Abyssal is a place spoken of only in myth and punishment songs. A realm of broken stars and twisted magic, no one returned from it. It was rumuored to be an underworld, with ancient long buried pixie clans who choose to hide away from the civilization of Aetherion.
Morgana flew towards me and leaned in close to me as I stood before the portal.
Her face shimmered, she smirked eerily and just a second, her illusion faltered.Beneath her silver skin was something ancient, scaled, and rotting, it looked like a monster with large horns and flaming eyes.
"Smile more, little spark," she whispered.
Then she laughed, high-pitched and jagged.
" So you celebrate your victory Morgana, but you forget that I still have the royal blood flowing through my veins"
"And so you do, but you will rot in the Abyssal, and I shall reign as queen of Aetherion and the Humus realmus, I shall rule for all enternity"
"You will never succeed Morgana, Jade will stop you"
She stepped back taking in my statement, it made her afraid, I could see fears in her eyes for the first time.
"I will kill your brother and your father, and whoever tries to stop me"
She whispered with finality as she flew away.
Freasia looked at me, then he reached for my hands, I took his as we both stepped through the portal, the underworld split open and swallowed us.