A Few Days Earlier
Evening light slowly soaked into the palace marble, gilding the edges of its columns and casting long shadows across the corridors. Shion stood hidden in the shade of one pillar, motionless, almost part of the stone itself. It wasn't the first time she watched this same scene from afar—Sylphia and her mother, Veynessa, sharing soft laughter by one of the gardens, their world radiant and untouchable.
The faint scent of qi-blossoms drifted through the air—gentle, sweet, entirely at odds with the storm twisting inside her.
Sylphia looked beautiful in that light. As always. The sun caught in her hair, and when she smiled, even the light itself seemed to retreat in reverence.
Shion didn't know what exactly tightened in her chest. Was it jealousy? Longing? Gratitude? Maybe all of it at once.
Her fingers clenched the fabric of her sleeve.
"Why her...? Why not me?"
