Raphael walked calmly through the mansion's left wing, where the apartments of the great matriarch of the family, Anna, were located.

  A deep, peaceful silence ruled over this part of the estate.

  Arriving in front of the doors of Anna's apartments, Raphael knocked on the door, entered and closed behind him without a word.

  He entered a spacious room, bathed by the moonlight subdued by silk curtains, thus giving the room an atmosphere of peace.

  The air was filled with a delicate floral fragrance, mingled with the richer scent of freshly brewed tea.

  Anna sat near the window, calmly reading a book, a steaming cup of tea resting on a small wooden table beside her.

  She was still dressed in her ceremonial outfit, her gaze absorbed in the pages before her.

  Raphael moved forward calmly, taking a few steps towards his mother.

  Anna didn't look up right away. She slowly closed the book as if nothing had happened, and put it on the wooden stool.

  "It's been so long since we had a private interview... What did you want to talk to me about that is so important? "

  His voice was soft, calm, but tinged with a natural authority that did not need to raise the tone.

  Raphael bowed slightly, then straightened his head.

  "I have an important decision to announce to you... mother"

  Anna gave a slight nod, inviting him to sit and go on.

  Rapha?l sat down calmly on a sofa in the room.

  He inhaled softly, and said:

  "I want to pause from the war of extension. After the fall of Glast..."

  After saying his words, Anna's gaze, so far calm, froze. She got up slowly. The atmosphere changed immediately. The peaceful warmth of the room gave way to a chilling tension, and the air suddenly increased.

  The wind outside hit the windows, as if to emphasize the gravity of his words.

  Anna took a few steps towards her son. His aura, invisible a few moments earlier, began to rise... first discreet... then more and more oppressive.

  The walls themselves seemed to vibrate under the pressure. The ground began to creak.

  Raphael felt a cold sweat slide down his back, while an invisible weight crushed his right shoulder.

  He put one knee on the ground, and his breathing became heavier. He did not dare to meet his mother's gaze, but he felt his piercing eyes on him, shining with cold anger.

  "What do you say?" she whispered.

  His voice was barely audible, but it resounded like a thunderbolt in Raphael's heart.

  Raphael clenched his teeth, then raised his head despite the pressure.

  "That doesn't mean I'm giving up, mother. I just hope that the next generation can grow up in a peaceful and conflict-free kingdom. "

  Anna remained silent. The aura around her intensed even more.

  Raphael resumed:

  "Even weakened and disabled, you remain an exceptional woman that no one dares to challenge... Mother."

  "You are the last of the Ingriss to have formed a contract with the family dragon. Our family owes its fame largely thanks to you, but now I wish the new generation to grow up in peace. "

  Anna remained silent.

  His aura fell slowly, and the room became silent.

  She looked away, and took a few steps towards the window, where the sky slowly turned to the indigo.

  "The new generation hm," she says thoughtfully.

  She slowly put her hand on the window, and began to observe the stars.

  "I also fight for the new generation. "

  "With everything I've been through, if we stop everything here... I'm afraid that past events will happen again. "

  After these words, she turned around, plunging her eyes into Raphael's. His look was no longer full of anger, but it was full of memories.

  And suddenly, his voice sounded calmly, a little more distant:

  "My son... I think it's time to tell you some of my story in detail. "

  As soon as Anna said her words, time seemed to stop.

  Seventy years earlier:

  The story does not begin with her.

  It begins long before... with an empire that believed it could defy time.

  In the past, long before the current kingdoms emerged from the ashes of history, only one name reigned throughout the continent: Ingrissia.

  For more than eight centuries, the empire of Ingrissia extended its domination over land and seas. At its head, the Ingriss family, wrapped in myths and power, ruled with undisputed authority. Their banner floated over the frozen mountains of the North, the dense forests of the South, the burning plains of the East, up to the merchant ports of the West.

  It was said that at that time, no war could break out without the agreement of the Ingriss, and that a simple decree of the emperor was enough to make the proudest nobles kneel.

  But even the largest noble houses are not safe from ruin.

  Everything was upside down at the death of Emperor Ada?r Ingriss, a feared and admired sovereign, whose disappearance during an expedition left such an immense void.

  His nine children, princes and princesses, refused to bow to each other. And in the shadow of the funeral, the factions were already forming.

  This was the beginning of a long fratricidal and bloody war, where loyalty was no longer worth anything, and where every heir dreamed of becoming the only master of the empire.

  Finally, it was the third son, Asher Ingriss, who ascended the throne. A powerful and cold man ready to do anything... even to make the blood of his own brothers and sisters flow.

  But Asher's reign was short-lived. Gnawed by a strange disease, he died only a few years after his coronation, leaving behind a young heir: Prince Rays.

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  The young Prince Rays was just a child when the crown was placed on his head. And it was not a golden crown, but invisible chains.

  The great nobles, who had waited for their hour in the shadows, saw there their opportunity. They handled Rays like a puppet, offering him pleasures, women, wine and music to better put him to sleep. The child-king grew up in lust, unaware that the elixir he was made to drink every night gradually stealed his will and reason.

  It was these same nobles who gave him the idea of shuffling the empire.

  — Why keep so many useless territories? They said.

  — Why not give more autonomy to the dukes and marquises?

  And Rays, blinded by flattery, signed without understanding.

  In a few years, Ingrissia's unit shattered. Duchies and marquisates proclaimed their independence, thus giving birth to several kingdoms.

  Then came the ultimate betrayal: knowing the powerful constitution of the Ingriss, the nobles had the right of succession banned for women, the study of the sword, and introduced a cruel rule:

  The succession will have to be done only in blood, and the throne will only return to the last prince still alive.

  The princesses were reduced to political marriage tools, locked in golden mansions. The young princes, for their part, grew up knowing that one day their brothers would be their worst enemies.

  Each generation became a little weaker, a little more submissive. And the nobles continued to reign.

  After three centuries, what had been the largest empire on the continent was no more than a small coastal kingdom, isolated, mocked, forgotten.

  The Ingriss family, once master of the world, barely survived, reduced to a lineage used.

  And it is in this broken era that it was born.

  Anna Ingriss, eleventh daughter of King Raideüs Straz Ingriss, a weak sovereign, manipulated like so many others before him.

  She grew up in the cold corridors of the royal palace, ignored by the majority of her siblings.

  His mother, the third queen, died without any ceremony.

  His childhood, although golden in appearance, was marked by silence, fleeing glances, and the absurd rules imposed on princesses.

  They were forbidden the art of the sword, as well as the study of great strategies. They were also forbidden to participate in family ceremonies.

  Their destiny was traced: to be silent, to smile, and to please.

  On his fifteenth birthday, this fate was announced to him as a sentence.

  That day, in the hall of the throne, his father watched him from his gold-adorned seat.

  His voice rose, without warmth, as if he was reciting a formality:

  "Anna, get ready to leave the kingdom. You will be married to the third prince of Fraw. You will leave in three days. "

  Anna had not reacted. She had no right to do so.

  She lowered her eyes, her fists clenched against her dress.

  A knot had formed in his throat, and in his heart, a bitter taste had settled.

  But she was content to nod, like all her sisters before her.

  That night, she did not sleep, she cried.

  Something in her had broken.

  The departure took place three days later. The carriage with the coat of arms of Ingrissia took the road under a stormy sky.

  The guards were silent, the rain fell in a fine drizzle, and Anna, in her corner, watched the rain through the windows of the carriage.

  She hadn't said a word since her father's announcement. She was young, but she already understood what it meant to "be born a woman" in her lineage.

  But fate, capricious, was not ready to let her follow this well-traced path.

  In the crossing of the Halgren mountains, the convoy was caught in a landslide.

  The ground collapsed under the weight of the carriage, and the horses, panicked, pulled the vehicle straight into the void.

  The carriage tipped. Screams. The shock.

  Then... the silence.

  When Anna opened her eyes, everything was blurry. His body was bruised, but as a living.

  She was at the bottom of a ravine, alone, in a hostile and silent nature.

  She tried to get up, staggered, then advanced slowly, her mind troubled.

  That's when she saw it.

  A boy barely younger than her. With black hair and the golden eyes, whose pupils were similar to those of a reptile. He watched him without a word.

  Then, without asking any questions, he approached and held out his hand.

  She should have fled. Scream. Refuse.

  But his instincts told him the opposite.

  This boy gave off a strange warmth. Almost familiar.

  Without knowing why, she trusted him, and followed him without a word, through a series of natural tunnels, to a huge cave, hidden behind thick lianas.

  The interior was of an unreal beauty.

  Crystals sparkled along the walls, diffusing a soft glow.

  An underground river slowly snaked between the rocks, and the air was warm, as if the cave was breathing.

  The boy stopped, turned to her, and said with a smile:

  "At the way, my name is Valthor... and I am the guardian dragon of the Ingriss"

  Before she could react, a light broke out around him.

  His body seemed to dislocate, to transform. Huge black wings sproused from his back. Scales appeared. His eyes took on a fierce intensity.

  In front of her, stood a huge, and majestic black dragon with golden eyes.

  Immense and powerful.

  The dragon stared at her.

  "Happy to meet you, descendant of the mythical king of heroes... Raiden.”