The journey back to Oakenford was tense and quiet. Emil rode with me on Nox's back, his small body pressed against mine as we moved through the forest.

  The knights - who'd finally introduced themselves as Mikel, Roslyn, and Alfern - formed a protective triangle around us, their weapons never fully sheathed while Fei circled overhead.

  "How did you find us?" Roslyn asked, walking beside Nox. Her voice carried curiosity rather than suspicion.

  "My wolf tracked Emil's scent,"

  "Impressive.."

  Emil shifted against me, and I felt him tense. "Vera?"

  "I'm here," I said softly.

  "The memories..." he whispered, so quietly only I could hear. "They're getting mixed up."

  I didn't know what he meant, but I tightened my arms around him. Whatever was happening in his mind, I'd help him through it.

  At least he was talking. Jorik would be glad to know, though the news would come tangled with everything else.

  Still, what did he mean by memories? Was it the trauma? Something else?

  No use thinking about it now. I shelved the thought but I made a mental note to ask him later about it.

  We traveled in silence for several minutes before my curiosity won out.

  "Lady Elara," I said, directing my question to the knights. "You mentioned her before. Who is she?"

  "She's kind," Emil said before any of the knights could answer. "She always smells like jasmine and old books."

  The three knights stopped walking. Roslyn's face went pale.

  "My prince," she said carefully, "you've never met Lady Elara. She left for the Sanctuary before you were born."

  Emil frowned, his fingers stilling on the wooden horse. "But I... I remember her study. The walls that were covered in stars. The crystal orb she used." He paused, confusion crossing his face. "Or maybe I don't? It's hard to tell."

  Mikel exchanged a sharp look with Alfern. "What else do you remember about her?"

  "She..." Emil's brow furrowed deeper. "She taught me weather magic. No, wait. Mother taught me that.

  Then he shook his head, pressing closer against me. "I don't know. The memories tangle."

  “Memories?” I asked.

  "Perhaps he heard stories," Alfern suggested quietly, though doubt colored his voice. "Princess Alicia may have spoken of Lady Elara to him."

  “Perhaps…”

  "The prince needs to rest," Alfern said, though his hand hovered near the mind-healer's stone.

  The stone pulsed with gentle blue light, and I felt Emil's breathing steady against my back. Within moments, he'd fallen asleep, his small form relaxing into me.

  "Is something wrong?" I asked, looking between the three knights. "What's happening to him?"

  Mikel and Roslyn exchanged weighted glances. Alfern carefully returned the mind-healer's stone to its pouch.

  "Prophecy dreams," Mikel said finally, though uncertainty threaded through his voice. "Princess Alicia experienced them as well. Visions of futures that might come to pass."

  "The bloodline gift," Roslyn added, her gaze lingering on Emil's sleeping face. "But in a child so young, and with such vivid detail..."

  "He carries his mother's power," Alfern said, studying the pouch where he'd stowed the stone.

  I must have looked as confused as I felt, because Alfern's expression shifted into something almost patient.

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  "Bloodline gifts are rare abilities that certain individuals possess," he explained, his voice lowering so as not to wake Emil. "These powers can pass from parent to child, growing stronger or weaker with each generation. Princess Alicia and the royal family of Solus all carry the gift of Future Sight—the ability to perceive events that have not yet occurred."

  "The princess could glimpse fragments," Roslyn added quietly. "Moments, sometimes days ahead. But what Emil described..." She trailed off, shaking her head.

  "If the prince truly possesses this gift at such a young age," Mikel said, his scarred face grave, "it would explain the clarity of his visions. Most don't manifest the sight until adolescence."

  Alfern nodded slowly. "That the gift has awakened in him now, after such trauma... it's unprecedented. But not impossible."

  "Wait. You said the royal family of Solus all have this gift?"

  "Yes," Roslyn confirmed.

  "Then wouldn't that make it valuable? Something to protect?"

  "The bloodline gift of Solus is their most closely guarded treasure," Mikel said carefully. "It has kept their kingdom safe for generations. When Princess Alicia chose to marry King Malachar, she risked diluting that power, spreading it beyond Solus's borders."

  "The entire kingdom opposed the marriage," Roslyn said, bitterness sharpening her words. "The royal court, the High Mages, even the common people. They all stood against it. They knew what Malachar was—a conqueror, a tyrant. To give him access to the bloodline, to risk Future Sight falling into his hands..."

  "There were protests in the streets," Alfern added. "Nobles threatened to withdraw their support from the crown. The Archmage himself forbade the union."

  "Some proposed killing her," Mikel said, his voice dropping. "To protect the gift. Better one death than letting it spread to Drakmoor's bloodline." He paused, pain crossing his features. "But the royal family couldn't bear it. She was beloved, the youngest daughter. They couldn't bring themselves to end her life."

  "So Princess Alicia threatened to do it herself," Roslyn continued, her hands clenching. "She swore that if they denied her the marriage, she would take her own life. The kingdom would lose both the princess and the gift she carried."

  Alfern's jaw tightened. "She backed them into a corner. They couldn't kill her. They couldn't let her die by her own hand. The only option left was to let her go."

  "So they banished her instead," Mikel finished. "Severed all ties, declared her dead to the kingdom.”

  "Such a shame," Roslyn murmured, her voice hollow. "She was beloved before that. The people called her the Silver Star, said she would bring a new age of prosperity. Then she threw it all away for a monster. Threatened to die for him."

  The three knights fell into melancholy silence, their grief still raw despite the years.

  But something about the story didn't sit right with me. I looked down at Emil's sleeping face, thought of his strange memories and fractured visions.

  "But why?" I asked, keeping my voice low. "Why would Princess Alicia choose to marry Malachar if she could see the future? She must have known what kind of man he was. Everyone knew he was corrupt, power-hungry—"

  "We've asked ourselves that question for years," Roslyn interrupted, frustration bleeding through. "The princess never explained her reasoning. She simply announced her intention to marry him, threatened her own life when opposed, and left for Drakmoor with only a handful of us."

  "It made no sense," Mikel agreed. "King Malachar's reputation preceded him. His conquest of the border kingdoms, the way he crushed dissent, how he burned entire villages that refused to bend the knee... The princess knew all of this. Yet she went willingly. Desperately, even."

  "She fought her own father for the right to marry him," Alfern added. "Risked everything. Her title, her family, her home. Put a knife to her own throat and swore she'd use it. For what? A man who would eventually murder her?"

  A suspicion formed in my mind, cold and uncomfortable.

  "She saw something, right?" I said slowly.

  The words landed like stones in still water.

  Mikel's shoulders sagged. Roslyn closed her eyes. Alfern stared at the trees ahead, his hand frozen on the stone's pouch.

  "We don't know," Roslyn finally said. Her voice carried no inflection, no hope. "We've asked ourselves that same question since the day she announced her intentions."

  "It's the only explanation that makes sense," Mikel added. He rubbed his scarred face, the gesture worn smooth by repetition. "But she never told us. Never gave us even a hint."

  "We begged her," Alfern said. His fingers tightened on the pouch until his knuckles went white. "All of us. If she'd seen something, if there was a reason... we would have understood. We would have supported her." He paused. "But she said nothing."

  No one spoke for several minutes.

  I glanced at each knight in turn. Mikel walked with his head down, jaw working like he was chewing on words he'd swallowed years ago. Roslyn's eyes stayed fixed ahead, but her hand kept drifting to her sword hilt as if checking it was still there. Alfern hadn't looked at any of us since he'd finished speaking.

  We continued walking in heavy silence, each lost in our own thoughts.

  But internally, my mind raced. The pieces didn't fit together cleanly, but they suggested a pattern.

  Something was deeply wrong here. Princess Alicia hadn't just made a sacrifice—she'd seen something that terrified her enough to abandon everything she loved. Something bad enough that marrying Malachar, bearing his child, and eventually dying by his hand seemed like the better option. Something worth holding a blade to her own throat to ensure it happened.

  What could be worse than that?

  What future could be so dark that self-destruction seemed like a mercy compared to preventing this marriage?

  My thoughts drifted to my own abilities. The power to create and bond with creatures, to reshape living tissue into new forms. Was this also a bloodline gift? Or was it something else entirely, something connected to my arrival in this world, to the impossibility of my very existence here?

  I had no answers. But something told me I would find them soon enough.

  Whatever Princess Alicia had foreseen, whatever drove her to make such an impossible choice, I had a feeling we were only beginning to understand the consequences.

  The thought chilled me more than the air ever could.