The Nobles Deaths

Again, he asked me the same infuriating question about dark magic. His tone was deliberately casual—as if such forbidden knowledge were a trivial matter.

I could hardly hold back my contempt as I replied, "I do not have time to learn that thing. If that is a pig's heart you speak of, then perhaps it is the reason the attacks have finally ceased." The words tumbled from my lips, each syllable bitter with exhausted irony.

For a moment, he released my wrist, his grip slackening as though my words had cut through the tension between us. "There was no valid reason to go to war anymore," he said, his frustration resonating in the quiet gloom of the chamber.

"There is something far more important than endless bloodshed!" His voice rose, echoing off stone walls and stained banners hanging nearby.