"Strategy can preserve kingdoms, but it cannot mend the heart it sacrifices along the way."
RIVEN'S POV
The heavy door to the containment chamber clicked shut behind me, but I did not move. I remained standing rigid, a statue carved from anxiety and fury. Luna, the She-Alpha, was a silent sentinel in the corner, her presence a stabilizing anchor against the chaos I was radiating, but even her calming aura felt insufficient against the emotional tsunami that had just hit me.
I looked at her again. Elara. My mother. She was propped up on the low bench now, fighting the last effects of the sedative. Her silver eyes, my silver eyes, were fixed on me. I had wrestled with the shattering truth of my paternity months ago. Ostel is my biological father, but nothing prepared me for the emotional force of this confrontation. I finally walked toward her, the proximity unbearable. I could feel the powerful energy of her Mage core, my core, magnified by decades of suppression.
