A Dangerous Revelation

The air within the fortress had grown heavier with tension. Evelyne could feel it pressing down on her like an unseen weight, a foreboding presence that made the flickering candlelight seem dimmer than usual. Azrael had been gone for hours, summoned to a meeting with his war council, leaving her alone in the chambers that no longer felt like a sanctuary.

She paced before the tall windows, her hands clenched into fists. The spirit's warning still echoed in her mind, a riddle she could not untangle. The pact is not as it seems. Lies. Deception. But what did it mean? She had tried to push it aside, to focus on understanding the world she had been forced into, but the words had burrowed into her thoughts, refusing to leave her in peace.

A knock at the door made her whirl around, her heart lurching. Lyria stepped inside, her violet eyes unreadable.

"The king has returned," she announced, her voice soft yet firm. "He wishes to see you immediately."