Ryophlira POV

Ari didn’t just wake me; she shook me until my teeth rattled.

"Ryophlira! Wake up! The council won’t wait, and neither will your father!"

I groaned, pulling the duvet over my head, but it was useless. My eyes were swollen and gritty, glued shut from the hours I’d spent crying into my mother’s shoulder. My chest felt like it was made of lead. The warmth of last night’s family reconciliation had faded, leaving behind the cold, hard reality: today was the day I officially became a pawn of the North.

Ari didn’t give me time to wallow. She hauled me out of bed, her face a mask of frantic determination. Within minutes, a small army of maids had descended upon me. They stripped me of my nightclothes and eased me into a bath scented with expensive oils, soaps and crushed roses. They scrubbed my skin until it glowed pink, as if they could wash away the "curse" everyone claimed I carried.

Then came the armor. It wasn’t steel, but it was just as heavy. They draped me in a gown of shimmering blood-red the color of a dying star. The lace sleeves clung to my arms, and the corset cinched my waist until every breath felt like a victory. I stepped into a pair of crystal heels that clicked sharply against the marble, adding a few precious inches to my 5’1" frame.

Ari spent an hour on my hair. She brushed the silver-white curls until they flowed like a silken waterfall, cascading all the way down past my knees. As she tucked a final red-threaded braid behind my ear, I caught my reflection in the mirror.

I looked like a Queen. But I felt like a lamb being led to the slaughter.

"Ari," I whispered, my voice cracking. "Am I making a mistake? Is it too late to... to chicken out?" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The room went quiet. The other maids lowered their heads, but Ari stopped brushing. She placed a firm, warm hand on my shoulder, meeting my eyes in the reflection.

"Princess," she said softly. "I will do anything to make you happy. If you want to run, I’ll pack the bags myself. I will support you until my last breath. But...

" She hesitated. "You have to be ready for the storm that follows. The wars, the fallout... the consequences."

I looked at my hands. They were trembling. I took a deep, shuddering breath, forcing the fire in my blood to steady my nerves.

"I can do this," I whispered to the girl in the mirror. "I have to."

A heavy knock sounded at the door. Riegthar stepped in, his face softened by a sad, proud smile as he saw me in the red gown.

"You look beautiful, Ry," he said, walking over to offer his arm.

"I’m proud of you. Truly. Not everyone has the heart to sacrifice their life for their family."

"It’s a nice way of saying I’m the sacrificial lamb," I joked weakly, but I took his arm.

We walked down the grand corridor together, our parents waiting at the palace gates. The drive to City Hall was a blur of silence and tension.

When we arrived, the Royal Guards snapped to attention, their armor gleaming under the morning sun as they escorted us into the heart of the city’s power. The doors to the Grand Chamber swung open.

The air in the room vanished. Every King, Queen, and Heir from the four kingdoms was there. The King of the East sat with his wife and son, eyes dazed. At the far end, the King of the South sat with his wife and heir, their expressions unreadable but predatory.

They all stood, offering the shallow, polite bows required by protocol. My father took his seat at the head of the obsidian table this was our kingdom, after all. I took my place on his left, my heart racing so violently I could hear it pulsing in my ears. Then, the North arrived.

Yue-Senn sat directly next to me. Even sitting down, frame casting a literal shadow over my chair. His expression was a mask of ice, professional and cold, yet his presence was suffocating.

As the scribes began to read the opening declarations, I stared straight ahead, my hands clasped tightly in my lap. Suddenly, I felt a ghost of a sensation.

Yue-Senn reached for a glass of water, and as he did, his hand "accidentally" brushed against mine.

It wasn’t a quick tap. His fingers lingered, I risked a glance at him.His face remained a statue of Northern stone, focused on the documents. But as he pulled his hand back, a slight, almost imperceptible smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Was this a start of something new between us.

The room was so quiet that the scratching of the scribe’s quill sounded like a bone scraping against stone. The official was pale, his voice trembling as he unrolled the heavy parchment sealed with the black wax of the North. He cleared his throat once, twice, before the words finally tumbled out.

"By the blood of the Kageyama line and the decree of King Kaizor Kageyama hereby announces his immediate abdication. Effective upon the sealing of the marriage contract, today. The crown of the North shall pass to his only heir, Yue-Senn Tokio Kageyama."

The silence didn’t just break, it shattered.

It started as a low, frantic humming of whispers that quickly escalated into a roar of disbelief. Chairs scraped harshly against the marble floor. I felt the air in the room thicken with the sudden, violent spike of magical signatures.

The East and South weren’t just surprised they were terrified.

"Abdication?" the Crown Prince of the East muttered, his eyes darting between Yue-Senn and the man sitting in his father’s chair.

"This was supposed to be a marriage alliance, not a coronation."

"Silence!" a voice boomed.

King Sideon of the South stood up, his hand held high, palm flat toward the scribe. He didn’t look angry he looked like he had just seen a ghost. His eyes, dark and sharp as obsidian, were narrowed to slits as they fixed on Yue-Senn.

"Stop the reading," Sideon commanded.

The scribe froze, the parchment crinkling in his shaking hands.

Sideon leaned over the table, his knuckles white. He ignored my father. He ignored the Northern King. He looked directly at the man sitting next to me.

"You’re stepping down now, Kaizor?" Sideon’s voice was a low, dangerous drawl.

"In the middle of a peace summit? Before the ink on the treaty is even dry?"

He turned his gaze toward Yue-Senn, his lip curling. "The North has always been a den of wolves. You are handing the most aggressive military force in the world to a boy who hasn’t even seen thirty winters?" Sideon looked around the room, his voice rising to address the other kings.

"Are we all truly going to sit here and watch?"

I felt the temperature in the room begin to drop. Yue-Senn next to me didn’t move an inch. He didn’t even look at Sideon. He calmly picked up his glass of water again, took a slow sip, and set it down with a click that seemed to echo like a gunshot in the noisy room.

"Sideon," my father warned, his voice a low growl. "You are a guest in my hall. Sit down."

"I will sit when I get an answer!" Sideon snapped, slamming his fist onto the table. The water in the glasses rippled violently.

"Why the hurry, Kaizor? Is the North so desperate for a new King?"

I looked at Yue-Senn. His ice-cold expression hadn’t shifted, but the "smile" I had seen earlier was gone. In its place was something far more terrifying: absolute, calm indifference.

He slowly turned his head toward the King of the South.

"My father is tired," Yue-Senn said, his voice smooth and deep, cutting through Sideon’s hysterics. "And I am not."

"If you have a problem with the succession, Sideon... I suggest you take it up with me after the ceremony."

Yue-Senn’s green eyes flickered with a light that looked like the aurora over a graveyard.

"Though, I doubt you’ll like the answer you receive."

Sideon paled, his gaze flickering to me, then back to the Prince. My fate wasn’t just being sealed, it was being turned into a declaration of war.