The next day slipped in like a blade easing from its sheath—silent, certain, and already stained with blood that hadn't yet been spilled.
In the royal suite once claimed by a proud princess, Shia Solace sat cross-legged on molten-gold silk sheets.
Sunlight streamed through tall arched windows, turning her long white hair to shifting silver where faint black streaks caught the glow.
Her golden eyes, sharp and watchful, focused on nothing as frost traced delicate patterns over the snowflake sigil shining on her chest.
For weeks, she'd barely left the room. Not because Ash's revenge had broken her—no.
She'd just been waiting, letting the palace whisper its gossip into her ears through every guard who flushed at her smile, every butler who fumbled when she touched his sleeve. They thought they were serving a fame-chasing fairy.
They didn't know they were feeding a wolf.
"Hehe, the day's finally here," she murmured, springing from the bed with the ease of someone half her age.
Then the facade dropped.
The fairy was gone.
In her place stood a cold, striking beauty, chiseled from winter's steel.
"Tsk. As if that bastard is worth my time. SSS rank or not, my name will be built by my own hands." She spoke with a pride that was hard to hide.
She also possessed A-rank talents and bloodline, but there was something within her that defied her existence—an aspect that aided her in ways no one could possibly imagine.
[Aspect: Frozen Heart (A-rank) -A crystalline snowflake sigil branded directly over the user's heart, the only cold thing in your entire existence.
-Absolute Zero Presence
The user can drop her emotional and mana signature to be untraceable within a 30-meter radius. Detection arrays, soul-scanning treasures, and even A-rank perception talents read you as empty air. You can walk through the most heavily warded palace in the world and register as a cold breeze.
-Mirror of Still Flame
The user can create up to seven perfect clones made of solid, mirrored light. These clones radiate your exact appearance, voice, and fire/light aura. They can fight, speak, and even "die" convincingly, fooling all but the most intimate inspection. Only one is ever real; the rest are hollow decoys you control remotely.
-Frozen Masquerade-
Once per day, for up to one hour, the user can lock one of her mirror-clones into a perfect, autonomous performance. The chosen clone gains a fabricated heartbeat, body heat, minor emotional fluctuations, and can pass any normal truth-detection or soul-scan for the duration.
-During this time the real Shia becomes completely invisible and intangible to all forms of detection except direct physical contact.
-Drawback – Eternal Frostbite
Every second the user spends suppressing your Radiant Helios bloodline with Frozen Heart, actual ice will spread across your real body from the snowflake sigil. If the user overuses the Aspect (more than 3 hours total per week), the frost reaches your core and begins freezing your fire mana from the inside.
The only way to thaw it is to release all clones and let your natural white-gold flames burn at full power for an equal amount of time, something that cannot be done while hiding or maintaining a masquerade.
The longer the user stays off the radar, the more your own bloodline tries to kill you.]
----
This was her ace in the hole.
For years, she'd played the tipsy fairy for the crowd, all while concealing the face of an icy beauty.
She pressed two fingers to the snowflake, and the air around her dropped ten degrees in a heartbeat. Candles flickered and sputtered, while her golden eyes clouded over like frost-coated glass as the Frozen Heart awoke in full.
Across the room, light twisted and folded in on itself until a perfect double stepped out of nowhere.
Same hair, same face, same regal white silk gown that caught the firelight and spilled it like molten gold. Even the faint frost tracing over its collarbones was there—a flawless illusion.
The real Shia looked at her living reflection and smiled like someone who was only just beginning.
"Let's see how this goes."
Both Shias glanced toward the window.
Far below, the royal road wavered in the heat haze as six sleek obsidian mana-carriages roared toward the palace gates, crimson banners snapping like fresh-spilled blood in the wind.
"If the kingdom falls today, then…" they said together, voices blending like chiming bells.
"Go," the real Shia commanded. "I'll watch from here."
The clone's lips curved into the bright, nervous smile the court expected of a bride. With swaying hips and flushed cheeks, she drifted out the door to meet her fate, wearing Shia's face.
The real Shia lingered at the window, frost creeping faster now, thin blue veins climbing her neck as the snowflake seared colder than any fire.
----
In the throne room, King Caelum prowled like a restless lion, his face caught between fury and a strained composure.
Ever since the shattered collar and Lyssandra's taunting note, sleep had abandoned him.
Wrapped in his ceremonial mantle of white gold, he still felt the lingering weight of Sonna's whispered promise clinging to his skin like a thin layer of sweat.
Even now, her voice echoed in his ears—quite literally.
'King Caelum~ Ah.... Once my son arrives, promise me you will agree to one of his requests. He won't ask for much... AH! Yes HARDER!!! Tell me Caelum.... do you promise?'
[A/N: Just to clarify, the things Sonna "said" aren't real; they're all in his imagination.]
While he was lost in his own thoughts, Aster followed quietly behind, golden eyes half-lidded, hands tucked into the wide sleeves of his robe. He hadn't spoken since sunrise, simply observing everyone's movements.
"Mother is acting strange again," Aster had noted, seeing that his father looked sleep-deprived and she was nowhere to be found.
He then noticed Sonna's personal handmaid hurrying past, arms full of fresh crimson roses for the welcoming bouquet.
Something about the woman's smile made his shadow twitch.
Caelum paused at the top of the grand staircase just as Shia appeared beside them—the clone, naturally. She bounced on her toes like an overexcited bride, cheeks flushed, fingers fidgeting with her skirts.
"Father, Brother," she chirped, her voice laced with just the right touch of nerves. Caelum barely spared her a glance.
"You two, just follow my lead," he muttered, rolling his shoulders.
"If I agree, you agree. Got it?"
Aster's expression stayed as smooth as glass, though within the mirrored halls of his mind, thoughts were already in motion. As mentioned before, he had been watching Kale, knowing that three kingdoms had fallen to him in just six months...
He'd been puzzling over his father's strange request, the thought turning over and over in his mind.
'To agree… is that his Talent?'
Shia's clone giggled, pressing closer to Caelum's arm.
"Alright, Father… but I still want to take him for myself."
Caelum rolled his eyes, still lost in the lingering memory of Sonna's perfume, hearing her breathy moan as she demanded that single promise while riding him without mercy. (All his imagination)
Outside, the mana engines of the lead carriage exhaled into silence.
Dust drifted down. Crimson banners snapped in the hot wind.
Kale Voss descended from his hovering throne, black hair lashing across winter-blue eyes, his smile as sharp as a blade. Sylvara flowed at his left in liquid black silk, while Rhea loomed at his right in crimson scale armor, greatsword planted before her like a silent challenge.
He halted ten paces from the royal family, extending a gloved hand toward Caelum, his smile stretching to reveal teeth.
"Fine day we're having, isn't it, Your Majesty?"