I opened my eyes slowly… painfully slow, as if my eyelids were heavy walls that refused to lift. The light was dim, yellowish, seeping through tiny cracks in a strange stone ceiling. Everything around me was blurry, hazy lines, shadows moving before my eyes, impossible to distinguish.
My mind wasn't fully awake. It felt like waking from a long, dark dream, while my body screamed in unbearable pain. As though someone had dragged me across stones, beaten me repeatedly until all sensation was gone. A crushing weight sank into my bones, an inner groan echoing from the depths of me.
Then suddenly, my lips brushed against something rough and cold… like a damp cloth or a strange strap pressing against my mouth. I tried to move my legs, but they didn't respond—only the harsh creak of iron betrayed the truth: my feet were shackled with heavy cuffs that chained every movement. I shifted again, and the sting of iron cut into my wrists. My hands were bound behind my back, the cuffs squeezing so tightly it felt as though the blood had stopped flowing.
I was powerless… completely. Like a bird trapped in a suffocating cage.
I closed my eyes briefly, forcing myself to breathe, but every breath was heavy, soaked in the stench of damp rot. I looked around, straining to focus, and managed to see thick stone walls mottled with green mold, a damp floor layered with ancient dust. Drops of water fell from the ceiling now and then, their monotonous sound filling the silence like a clock counting the seconds of my torment.
I was in a cell.
I tried to raise myself, but the weight of iron dragged me down. My body was exhausted, my muscles shattered. Yet the deeper wound lay within me: the horror I had seen in the palace—the blood covering the ground, the lifeless faces of my family collapsing before me. The memory rushed back violently, like a flood crashing into my mind. I gasped, and tears fell again from my eyes.
I kept thinking of everything I had endured, every calamity like a never-ending hell. I replayed the last days in my mind, sorting memory from certainty, mistake from betrayal. Piece by piece, the threads of truth wove themselves before me like a broken canvas: I had taken the black stone, believing it was the stone of purification… but how did Sina know? How did she twist my mistake into a damning crime that now shackled me here?
The memory hurled fragmented images at me: the stone chamber, my hand reaching for the shrouded gem, the faint warmth that convinced me—it had to be the stone of healing. I hadn't known shadows lay hidden inside it, waiting to unleash a darkness greater than I could ever imagine. I had only sought relief from my pain, a way to escape the cage of guilt and solitude. But Sina… Sina seized that chance. She painted my ignorance in the darkest hue: deliberate murder.
Sina was no mere jealous woman whispering venom in shadows—she was cunning, weaving webs of lies through every circle. Eyes that spied from the dark, a tongue sharp as a blade. She must have understood the black stone's nature long before I did, perhaps even placed it where I would find it, ensuring my own hands would hold the fatal proof. I never chose vengeance; it was thrust upon me like a bomb tearing me from my own heart into the abyss of accusation.
Regret stabbed mercilessly. I wept until my eyes dried, mourning my foolishness, my desperate longing for healing that blinded me to every warning. If time could rewind, I would have thought only of my family first. If I had just one chance, I would have placed their safety before my reckless search for salvation. But now… it was too late. Now I had no strength left to defend myself. To everyone, I was already a criminal.
The tears poured out, the cell shrinking around me like a tomb swallowing my breath. My eyes fixed desperately on the door, as if waiting for a miracle to clear my name. Was this a nightmare? Or was it reality itself, determined to devour me to the last breath?
I heard footsteps. At first I thought they belonged to a guard—heavy, rough—but the sound was different, lighter, smoother. The door opened slowly, and into the cell stepped… Sina.
She entered as though she were a queen who had just claimed her triumph. Her elegant dress shimmered faintly, her mocking gaze glinting with cruel satisfaction. A smirk spread across her lips, though her eyes spoke louder than any words. She came closer, step by step, then crouched beside me, her face so near I could smell her sharp perfume filling the suffocating air. Her hand landed on my thigh, like she was grasping treasure.
"Where is the spoiled little daughter of the duke?" she whispered with a cruel chuckle. "Is this the girl they claimed would be the next duchess?"
A strange fury surged in me, an aching desire to spit out a word that would expose her. But I was bound, my body bleeding from within. She laughed, pulling out a black handkerchief—the same one she had once threatened me with. She raised it like a weapon, its weight heavier than its fabric, carrying a hidden threat, reviving memories I never wished to recall.
"Move, and you'll see…" she hissed coldly.
I shivered. The fear wasn't just of pain—it was of losing my voice, of losing the last remnants of myself. Yet something frail inside whispered: Don't break now. If you yield, it's the end.
I strained, fighting to move, desperate to tear the cloth apart. But the chains bit deeper, holding me prisoner. Sina turned with theatrical poise, pressing the handkerchief harder against my skin. The fabric burned, sharp pain racing across me, and darkness spread across my vision. I groaned faintly, "Ahh…"
Sina leaned close, whispering like a storyteller weaving poison:
"You know… your mother, the late duchess—just a commoner's daughter… worthless. How could she ever be duchess? Absurd. My mother is the one who deserves that title."
Her words fell like icy daggers, slashing at my roots. Each syllable poisoned my heart, mocking the memory of my mother. How dared she desecrate her name with such cruelty?
Then Sina's face twisted with malice, her smile like fangs.
"And yes… it was my mother who killed her. We forged her will, used black magic… we did everything. Your family's death, your curse, all of it… orchestrated by us. Know this: you are nothing."
The cell shrank tighter. The air itself tasted like cold metal. Her words echoed, turning into truths carved against my chest. I couldn't bear it—the tears burst out, boiling with rage. I longed to leap, to choke her, to scream You lie! My mother never— But the chains silenced me, stealing every chance.
Sina's voice drifted, mocking, as she turned to leave:
"And now… the duchy belongs to us. I will be empress, for I have made the emperor love me. As for you… you will be executed at dawn."
Her laugh rang long and sharp, bouncing off the stone walls, wrapping me in suffocating despair. She walked away arrogantly, her back turned as though she had already erased me from existence.
Alone, I collapsed in the dirt and cold, numbness creeping from my bound wrists to my weary feet. My mind sank under the weight of betrayal. She had turned my mistake—my desperate search for healing—into a crime beyond forgiveness.
Black moments passed, where I could no longer tell dream from waking. I thought of my mother, her gentle eyes, her hand placing bread in mine, whispering, Don't be afraid, little one. How I longed to hear it now.
…
At dawn, three guards entered, silent as judgment itself. Their eyes carried no mercy, only resolve. They dragged me out, ripping the shackles from my wrists with brutal force. My ribs screamed in pain.
Through damp corridors, past walls that smelled of iron and mold, they pulled me to the gallows. The wooden platform loomed above a crowd seething with tension. The air was thick with fear, wax, sweat, and muffled cries. Nobles stood tall in jeweled robes, the common folk shouted below: "Kill her! Kill her!" Their cries struck my chest like stones.
There, among the nobles, I saw her—Sina, composed and cold; her brother San beside her; and my aunt Elena watching with satisfaction. And among them, the emperor himself. His face carved in stone, his mouth unyielding.
He approached slowly, lifted my chin, his eyes cutting through me. One word left his lips like a bullet:
"Criminal."
It crashed over me like a storm. Rage erupted in my chest, uncontrollable. I shoved him, a reckless burst of fury. Gasps erupted, nobles whispering, the crowd roaring louder: "Kill her! Kill her!"
The emperor's face twisted with fury. He raised his sword, ready to sever my head. Time froze. Every gaze locked on me, waiting for the end.
But then… a shadow moved. From the crowd, a face I knew—a face I could never forget.
Before the sword could fall, a blade pierced the emperor's back. A cry, blood erupting like a crimson fountain. He fell, trembling. Guards surged forward, but a steady voice commanded them still.
It was him.
The second prince.
"Stop toying with my cousin's soul…" he said, his words aimed at me, warm yet powerful, as though they rewove the world itself. He grasped my hand. His touch was firm, burning with strange strength.
Suddenly, a force exploded inside me. A surge I didn't know I possessed. The wind roared violently, flinging the crowd away. Screams turned to echoes, chaos filling the air. The prince vanished from my side, but inside me… I felt two souls. Mine—and another.
A voice whispered within, familiar, echoing from long ago:
"This is your second chance… Don't waste it, Karina."
The words struck like lightning and balm, awakening something dead within me.
And then—everything vanished.
Silence. Empty air. A stillness as if the world had exhaled and closed its eyes.
All that remained was the certainty that something had changed forever.