Intro. The heavy oak doors of the Throne Room didn’t just open; they seemed to surrender. A soft click echoed through the chamber, a sound so small yet it commanded every head to tilt as if we all sensed a sudden change in the very pressure of the air.
The herald’s voice, usually a booming nuisance, cracked with a strange gravity.
“Princess Aelira Thaelyn Vael,” he announced, the names sounding like a melody from a world I didn’t understand. “Princess of Thalmyr, Second Light of the Crown, Keeper of Quiet Wards.”
Then she stepped in, and my breath simply vanished.
She moved with a grace that made my mother’s poise look like a desperate performance. It was deliberate, elongated—as if time itself were stretching to accommodate her. Her golden-blonde hair caught the torchlight, moving with a quiet rhythm that framed her face like a halo. It wasn't just hair; every strand seemed aware, reflective, perfectly placed by nature rather than a comb.
She was tall, her limbs aligned with a precision that