Yureiv hadn't spoken since his return. His painted form remained still, yet something in the shadows of the canvas seemed fractured. His gaze was fixed on the void, no longer seeing the room, nor the people around him. He was lost somewhere between memory and mourning.
"Yureiv?" Ania's small voice called out, unsure but concerned. She reached toward him from Sofie's arms.
Still, he said nothing.
"Yureiv," Diego tried again, stepping cautiously toward the canvas, "what did you see?"
When Yureiv finally spoke, it came like sand, dry and strained. "There are things a soul should never witness, let alone survive. And she… she endured it all. In silence. Alone."
The room fell deathly still. Even the air felt suspended, holding its breath.
Slacovich's expression darkened. "Tell us what happened."
Yureiv slowly turned his painted face toward them. There was anguish in his eyes, unmistakable, unbearable. "Urdeil didn't marry her for love. He didn't even marry her for politics. It was vengeance. Spite. His brother's Queen, taken and humiliated, locked away as a trophy in a gilded cage. He stripped her of dignity, of voice… of self."
He closed his eyes briefly, as if the memory burned. "She was violated. Repeatedly. And no one came. We never knew. We never looked."
Sofie's face paled. Her grip on Ania tightened for a heartbeat, then loosened as the child slid gently to the ground.
"No," she breathed, horrified. "No wonder… no wonder the ring carried grief."
General Richard stood like a marble statue, rigid and silent.
"She carried her agony with her to the grave," Yureiv continued, voice trembling. "And even in death, she was not free. The ring... it wasn't even used yet it fed more to her suffering."
Ania stepped quietly forward and placed her hand against the frame of the canvas.
"She says," Ania whispered, "you weren't supposed to see that, Yureiv. It was a memory buried deep, sealed for her peace. But now that you've seen it, she asks only one thing: don't look away from her now."
Yureiv's painted form bowed his head.
"I won't," he said. "I just… never knew how deep her sorrow went. And I swear, I will carry it with her this time."
Li leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms, her voice tight with emotion. "We've been dancing around politics, guessing at secrets, interpreting signs. But this, this is no longer a mystery. It's war. And it never ended."
At that moment, Tyler's datapad buzzed. He pulled it up, frowning, then his expression turned grave.
"Volton just moved one of his perfected Reapers into Sector Graylight," he announced. "Three thousand people evacuated. No casualties reported… but no attack either. He's probing the borders."
"He's watching us," Slacovich muttered. "Watching her."
Sofie turned toward Ania again, grounding herself with the child's quiet glow. "Does Queen Nimpha recall anything about the other Queens… the ones whose souls are said to still linger in the ring?"
Ania closed her eyes. The glow around her deepened into a soft aura, not her light, but something older, echoing through her tiny form.
"She says… not all were taken by the ring. Some fought against its pull. Some shattered under the strain. And one, only one, hid herself."
"Where?" Richard asked, voice low but intent.
Ania's eyes opened, pale with Nimpha's fire. "She buried her soul inside her own descendant. Nimpha doesn't know who, but during my fever, she heard her voice."
Ania looked up at Sofie. "She said, the cursed of your ancestors followed me, even lead me to you."
"Who was she referring to?" General Richard asked, since the tone and details given was not a stranger to him.
"Yureiv." Ania said looking at the canvas.
The words struck the room like thunder in a cathedral.
Sofie blinked, her breath catching. "A descendant… carrying a Queen's soul?"
"Not just carrying," Ania said. "Awakened. Alive."
All eyes turned toward Sofie, the realization dawning collectively.
Diego ran a hand down his face. "So we've been marching alongside her this whole time. Not just a Queen by blood… but one carrying a legacy we couldn't even name."
General Richard's voice came quietly. "It was never just your bloodline, Sofie. The ring answered you because it remembered her. Because you carry the soul it was forged for."
A sudden shift in the room's atmosphere followed.
The air thinned. The shadows lengthened. Then, without sound, the Shadow Guards emerged, their presence like gravity folding into form. They strode forth, silent and reverent, until they halted----
----not before Sofie…
----but before Ania.
One stepped forward. His voice was nothing but ash and echo. "Your Majesty. We recognize the soul beside you. Incomplete… but unmistakable. She was the one we failed."
The others bowed with him, lower than before. Their silence a greater language than words.
"They say," Ania translated, her voice soft but sure, "that they chose to undergo the experiment. To protect the royal bloodline. To preserve the future. But even so… she blames herself. And they blame themselves."
The Shadow Guard raised his head slightly. "We were too late. And now… we wander, bound by the sin of surviving her."
Ania paused, listening.
"She says… your loyalty was never questioned. But to kneel to her now, when the new Queen stands before you, is a great dishonor to your oaths."
The Shadow Guards turned without protest. Together, they faced Sofie, and fell to their knees once more.
"Your Majesty," they chorused. "We seek your forgiveness for dishonoring your reign."
Sofie stepped forward, regal in her silence, her posture unconsciously becoming that of the first Queen.
"You may rise," she said. "I don't consider it disrespect. Your regret is sacred. When this ends, I swear on the ring itself, I will release you all."
Gratitude rolled from the guards like warmth, even through their faceless forms. They bowed deeply, then rose with reverence.
Slacovich turned to Richard. "We've answered one question… but the ring still defies explanation. What exactly is it?"
Richard looked down at the ring glowing faintly on Sofie's hand.
"The Ring of Seal was once an insignia of loyalty, a symbol worn by the generals of Queen Lorraine, the first of the Black Knights. I was one of them. We pledged our souls to her, not through oath, but willing binding. Our loyalty wasn't symbolic. It was spiritual."
He paused, choosing his words.
"But Queen Lorraine went too far. She massacred the Elementalists. Their dying breath laid a curse on her. The insignia we wore… it twisted. Became the Ring. A cursed artifact meant to seal the soul it recognized."
He looked toward Yureiv with a hint of guilt.
"She should have perished. But instead, she hid. Slipped her soul into the safest place she could find, her bloodline. She passed into history as a memory. But the Ring waited."
"And when Sofie touched it…" Tyler began.
"It recognized her," Richard confirmed. "Not her blood alone. But the soul she carries. Lorraine. The First Queen."
Sofie looked down at the Ring of Seal, its dull gold no longer just metal, but alive.
"I thought I was chosen by lineage," she murmured. "But it was more than that. She's inside me."
Ania stepped onto the table again. She reached for Sofie, cupping her cheek gently with her small hand.
"She says… the Ring has found its Queen again. And this time, she'll rest inside, not be devoured."
She tapped the ring once. The light flared gently.
Slacovich's voice was cautious. "If the ring is awake… does that mean Sofie will be consumed by it like the others?"
Richard shook his head. "No. The Ring is no longer hungry. It's complete. It has found what it was searching for."
Sofie held Ania close, her heart steady now.
"All this time… I feared the power. I feared the source. But now I know. It's not cursed. It's history. It's legacy. And it's mine."
With the truth finally unearthed, something shifted, not in the room, but in Sofie herself. She stood not only as Queen by blood, but now as the awakening of a forgotten lineage.
The Ring glowed brighter, not ominously, but with purpose.
And now, for the first time since she claimed the throne, Sofie did not wonder where her power came from.
She knew.
And soon, Volton will get a taste of what her powers were capable of.