Silence settled over the castle after Thalias fall, as if the stone walls themselves mourned.
Soldiers slackened their swords, and the last echoes of battle turned into pained groans and the hiss of splintering timbers.
Yet Kaeliths task had only begun.
She whipped around to the wounded king, his skin growing ashen while poison coursed through him.
Kneeling beside him, Kaelith shoved the charred scroll-the key Thalia meant to burn-into the queens trembling fingers.
Its the cure-or at least a route toward one.
With unsteady breath, Kaelith spread the paper out.
The lines twisted like a maze of ciphers for Thalias circle, but buried among them was a plain recipe.
Drawing on her alchemical lessons and whatever the castles still-stocked shelf could yield, Kaelith raced the clock.
As guards closed a ring around their sovereigns, she combined dried petals, venom, and whispering magic-stuff most would call mad.
Every drop that touched Corvens lips pushed the toxin back another inch.
Gradually his heartbeat steadied, and a hint of color warmed his cheeks.
Its working Kaelith murmured, tears on the verge of spilling but held in check by sheer grit.
For a heartbeat she pressed her brow to his, letting the bond forged in love, loyalty, and shared sacrifice drag him back from the brink of death.
When the king cracked his eyes open, Kaelith exhaled a shaky breath she hadnt realized she was holding.
Corven please stay with me.
He nodded, his voice too raw to speak, but the squeeze of his fingers promised what words could never say.
Meanwhile, soldiers pulled Thalia away and locked her behind heavy bars, the first step toward the trial her crimes demanded.
Viscount Elric, bagged in the final skirmish, said nothing, his silent defeat the last banner of the conspiracy coming down.
The people of Ravencourt thronged the courtyard, battered and dazed yet steeled together to rebuild their tomorrow.