Chapter 4.3: When Flame Met Ice (Side Story)

𝟒.𝟑: When Flame met Ice

𝐓he first thing Zachary Aerelion ever learned was silence.

Not the comforting kind—the type wrapped in warm blankets and humming lullabies—but the cold, calculating silence of courtrooms and long marble halls.

He was the Crown Prince of Caelondria, the sole heir to the Aerelion throne. A boy carved into stone by duty. Revered before he could walk. Feared before he could read. And long before he understood what the word "expectation" meant, it was already chained to his ankles.

His parents—King Hadrian and Queen Calista—were distant and dignified. Not cruel, not unloving, just... unreachable. They had goals for him, lofty ones that left no room for error.