The Weight of Crown

Valtor's POV:

"Where's Mom?"

The words were small. Fragile. Too fragile for the vast marble halls of the High Temple of Varethiel.

I remembered it clearly—no matter how much I wished I didn't.

I was five years old. My boots were too large for my feet, tripping over the hems of ceremonial robes I didn't understand. The corridors smelled of iron and incense, the walls lined with faceless portraits of kings and queens I would be expected to surpass.

At the end of the long corridor, waiting for us, stood a priest cloaked in white robes stitched with red and black linen, the symbol of the Priesthood—the great golden sigil of the order—emblazoned across his chest in fine gold thread. Beside him, Queen Seraphina waited, her expression carved in sorrow, lips pulled into a smile too brittle to be called real. She looked at me, but I was too young then to name the weight in her eyes, only that it made my chest tighten.

Father didn't even glance down at me.