Chapter 12: Shattered Vows

Chains rattled as Leia was dragged into the Punishment Tower.

The iron door slammed shut behind her, leaving only torchlight and the stink of mildew.

“You like stories, don’t you?” one of the guards sneered. “Here’s one—cursed girl dies alone.”

They left her shackled to the stone wall.

Alone.

Again.

---

Hours passed.

Then days.

No one spoke. No one touched her.

But they made her listen.

Every morning, echoes of villagers screaming rang through the vents—recordings, played again and again. The same cries she remembered from the day her father was executed.

Her skin prickled.

Her bones itched.

The curse pulsed just beneath.

##Not yet##, she told herself.

---

The door opened.

Leia didn’t look up.

“Malric,” she said.

“You sound calm.”

“Because I’m not surprised.”

He approached slowly. “You know Cassian denounced the blood oath.”

She looked up sharply. “Liar.”

Malric held up a scroll—official, sealed.