raamimanda

The stars did not warn me.
Not when she smiled like dusk,
or when her silence felt like prophecy.

She was a secret wrapped in silk,
a prayer the gods forgot to answer.
And I-
I was just a name waiting to be rewritten.

They spoke of duty,
of oaths, and blood, and kings.
But I listened only to the way she breathed
when no one else dared to.

Now the wind howls through hollow halls,
and the world is ash-touched and quiet.
Still, I would not unlove her.
Even now.
Even here.
Even at the end.

In Her Name,I Burned

Not a soft drizzle, but a violent storm that tore through the heavens and soaked the earth in its fury—as if the sky itself knew what was coming and chose to mourn early.

They rode like shadows through the darkened forest, cloaks heavy with water, the hooves of their horses thundering across mud and memory.

Alric rode beside her, his jaw set, his eyes locked on the narrow path ahead. He didn't ask where she was taking him. He would follow her to the edge of the world—and, if fate demanded, beyond it.

Behind them, a hunting party grew closer with every heartbeat. Not soldiers. Not strangers. But her brother's finest men. And Darian.

The same man who once stood at her side, who once dreamed of the throne she stole from his future.

Now, he hunted her like a traitor.

By dawn, they reached the cliffs near the river. Their horses collapsed from exhaustion. The world was silent again.

Saren dropped to her knees, gasping.

Alric turned to her, breathless but calm. "It doesn't have to be."

"We won't make it past the border. He'll never stop. Not until we're both dead."

Alric knelt in front of her. "Then let it be death."

He reached for her hands, held them against his chest. "Let it be death, if it means I die with you. Not as a duke. Not as a pawn. But as a man who loved you, fully and freely."

"I'm sorry," she choked. "For everything. If I could go back—if I had one more chance—I'd burn the world down just to be your wife."

Alric smiled, soft and tired. "I knew."

"I knew what you were," he said. "From the beginning. And I still chose you."

He wrapped his arms around her as the first light of morning broke through the trees.

And when the arrows came—silent and sure—they pierced through both bodies as one.

They died in each other's arms. No crowns. No kingdom. No war.

Only a love too powerful for a world not meant to hold it.

A letter, later found by a servant hidden behind a loose stone:

To the girl who should have ruled,

And the man who loved her enough to burn for her—

May your ashes stain the sky with what could've been."

Chapter 30 - In Her Name, I Burned