CHAPTER TEN

Questions Only the Lost Ask

For several long moments after the visions faded, no one moved.

The Hall of Ancestors had fallen silent once again, the ancient magic retreating into the obsidian table until only the silver flame remained, flickering softly at its center as though nothing extraordinary had happened at all.

Yet the room felt different.

Lighter somehow.

As though the Hall itself had finally recognized the girl it had waited eighteen years to welcome home.

Eveline remained standing beside the table, her fingers absentmindedly tracing the cool edge of the ancient stone. Her mind still struggled to separate memory from reality.

She had watched dragons soar over cities.

Queens wear a living Crown.

Forests bloom beneath a single touch.

Shadows obey whispered commands.

None of it had felt like stories.

It had felt...

real.

She let out a slow breath before turning back toward the others.

"So..."

Her voice echoed gently through the vast chamber.

"Can I finally ask questions?"

For the first time that morning...

Alaric laughed.

Not loudly.

Just enough to soften the heaviness lingering in the room.

"I was beginning to wonder how long it would take."

Eveline folded her arms.

"I've been remarkably patient."

Aeron raised an eyebrow.

"You interrupted me seven times."

"I said remarkably."

"Not perfectly."

Even Nysera's lips curved into the faintest smile.

The tension eased.

Only a little.

But enough.

Alaric gestured toward the chairs surrounding the great obsidian table.

"Sit."

"This conversation deserves time."

One by one, they returned to their seats.

The silver flame between them burned steadily, casting gentle light across faces that, only moments before, had been illuminated by centuries of living memories.

Eveline looked from one person to another.

Alaric.

Elara.

Aeron.

Nysera.

Four people who had known the truth about her long before she had.

Four people who had spent eighteen years carrying secrets she had only begun to uncover.

She drew a steadying breath.

Then asked the question that had been growing inside her since the moment Elara had pulled her through the Veil.

"...Why me?"

Silence.

Not uncomfortable.

Thoughtful.

Alaric regarded her for several moments before answering.

"What do you mean, child?"

"I mean..."

She searched for the right words.

"Out of everyone..."

"Why was I born into this?"

Her hands moved helplessly as she spoke.

"I wasn't asking to be the heir to some magical kingdom."

"I wasn't asking to have people hunting me."

"I wasn't asking to inherit a throne I've never even seen."

Her voice grew quieter.

"I spent seventeen years trying to be normal."

She laughed softly, though there was little humor in it.

"And now, apparently, I'm anything but."

The words settled over the chamber.

Alaric's expression softened.

"No one chooses the family into which they are born."

His voice carried the quiet certainty of someone who had lived long enough to understand both joy and grief.

"No prince chooses a crown."

"No child chooses their parents."

"No daughter chooses the burdens left behind for her."

Nysera spoke next, her silver eyes resting gently upon Eveline.

"Nor do we choose the stories into which we are written."

Eveline looked at her.

"...That's a very poetic way of saying my life is incredibly inconvenient."

"It is."

Nysera inclined her head ever so slightly.

"But no less true."

Aeron folded his hands atop the table.

"You ask why you."

"The truth is..."

"There was never anyone else."

"You are the daughter of High Queen Lunara and High King Aurelian."

"Their blood lives in you."

"The Crown recognizes blood."

"It cannot be persuaded."

"It cannot be stolen."

"It cannot simply decide it prefers someone else."

"It has waited..."

His gaze met hers.

"...for you."

The words hung in the air.

Heavy.

Unavoidable.

Eveline looked down at her hands.

The same hands that had spilled coffee on lecture notes.

That had thrown punches at men twice her size.

That had held Elara's hand crossing busy streets.

Nothing about them looked royal.

Nothing about her felt extraordinary.

"...I still don't understand."

Alaric nodded.

"I know."

"And perhaps..."

He smiled sadly.

"...you never fully will."

Because sometimes the question wasn't "Why me?"

Sometimes...

Life simply answered,

"Because no one else could have been."

For a while, no one spoke.

The silence wasn't uncomfortable anymore.

It felt... necessary.

Eveline leaned back in her chair, staring absentmindedly at the silver flame dancing at the center of the table. Somewhere beyond the thick stone walls of the Hall, the wind carried the distant cry of a creature she couldn't name, its haunting call echoing across the mountains before fading into silence.

She smiled to herself.

Yesterday morning she had been worried about missing breakfast.

Now she was sitting in an ancient hall beneath a mountain, surrounded by people who spoke about living crowns and kingdoms hidden between worlds as though they were discussing the weather.

Life was strange.

"...Alright."

She rested her elbows on the table.

"I think I'm asking the wrong questions."

Alaric tilted his head.

"Oh?"

"I keep asking about me."

She looked around the chamber.

"But I know almost nothing about..." She gestured helplessly toward the enchanted table. "...all of this."

Her gaze settled on Aeron.

"So..."

"Tell me about Vaeloria."

Aeron smiled faintly.

"I had hoped you would ask."

With a gentle wave of his hand, the obsidian table shimmered once more.

This time, the magic was calmer.

The mountain did not disappear.

The Hall remained around them.

Instead, a miniature kingdom slowly rose from the table's surface, no taller than a few inches. Tiny rivers shimmered like threads of liquid silver, forests swayed beneath invisible winds, and mountains lifted proudly from the stone, their snow-covered peaks glowing beneath an artificial sun that hovered high above the map.

Clouds drifted lazily across the tiny sky.

A dragon no larger than Eveline's thumb glided over the eastern mountains before disappearing behind a peak.

She immediately leaned closer.

"...It's still moving."

"The Kingdom is always moving," Aeron replied. "So is the map."

"That's mildly terrifying."

"It is also remarkably useful."

Aeron extended a finger toward the miniature kingdom.

"This..."

"The Kingdom of Vaeloria."

His hand swept slowly across the landscape.

"Stretching from the Frostbound Peaks of the north to the Ember Coast in the south, from the Whispering Forests in the west to the Crystal Sea in the east."

"It has stood for more than three thousand years."

Eveline's eyebrows shot upward.

"...Three thousand?"

Nysera nodded.

"And even that is only as far back as our written histories reach."

"There are ruins within Vaeloria that are older still."

"...You're telling me there are places even you don't know about?"

For the first time...

Nysera looked genuinely thoughtful.

"There are places," she admitted quietly, "where even memory hesitates to walk."

Eveline blinked.

"...That's both fascinating and deeply unsettling."

Alaric chuckled softly.

"You'll find that describes much of Vaeloria."

Aeron continued.

"The kingdom is divided into five great territories, each historically protected by one of the Five Great Houses. Although they differ in culture, traditions, and magical specialities, together they have preserved the realm since the Crown fell silent eighteen years ago."

"The Five Houses do not rule Vaeloria," Alaric added.

"They govern it."

"The distinction is important."

Eveline frowned.

"I don't understand."

"No one sits upon the Throne," Aeron explained.

"There has been no crowned ruler since your parents died."

"The Council of Five governs together, making decisions by agreement—or, more often, by argument."

"So..." Eveline said slowly.

"The kingdom has basically been run by five incredibly powerful families trying not to kill each other for eighteen years?"

The four adults exchanged amused glances.

"...That," Alaric admitted, "is a surprisingly accurate summary."

"I knew it."

She pointed triumphantly.

"Politics is the same in every universe."

Even Elara laughed.

It was brief.

But genuine.

The sound warmed the room.

After a moment, Eveline's eyes drifted back to the miniature forests where tiny winged creatures darted between glowing trees.

Another question surfaced almost immediately.

"...How many magical creatures are there?"

Aeron opened his mouth.

Then stopped.

Nysera answered instead.

"We do not know."

Eveline stared.

"...What?"

"No one knows."

"...Seriously?"

"There has never been a complete record."

Nysera's voice was calm, almost reverent.

"Some creatures reveal themselves only once every few centuries."

"Others dwell so deep within the ancient forests that even our greatest explorers have never found them."

"There are species believed extinct that occasionally return without explanation."

"And there are creatures spoken of only in songs, whose existence no scholar has ever been able to prove or disprove."

"So..."

"There isn't a magical encyclopedia?"

Alaric smiled.

"There have been many attempts."

"They all become outdated."

Aeron nodded toward the map.

"The creatures most commonly encountered are well documented."

As he spoke, tiny illusions rose from the enchanted table.

A magnificent dragon unfurled its wings, circling lazily above the mountains.

"Dragons."

Another appeared.

A griffin, its golden feathers gleaming as it soared through the miniature sky before landing proudly atop a cliff.

"Griffins."

The forests shimmered.

A graceful stag stepped into a moonlit clearing, silver antlers glowing softly like polished crystal.

Its hooves left trails of starlight wherever they touched the earth.

"Moon Stags."

Then came wolves with pale blue eyes that sparkled like frost.

Tiny foxes whose tails burned with harmless ember-like flames.

Crystal ravens whose feathers caught the light like gemstones.

River spirits danced above flowing streams, their forms shifting between mist and water.

High above them all...

Something immense drifted through the clouds.

It resembled a whale.

Except it swam through the sky itself.

Eveline's jaw slowly dropped.

"...Is..."

"...Is that a whale?"

"A Sky Whale," Aeron replied.

"They are exceptionally rare."

"They migrate above the highest mountain ranges every few decades."

"...Of course they do."

She rubbed her temples dramatically.

"You know..."

"I crossed into another dimension."

"I accepted dragons surprisingly quickly."

"But I think flying whales might be where I draw the line."

Alaric laughed outright this time.

"I'm afraid Vaeloria has never been particularly interested in where humans draw their lines."

The tiny Sky Whale released a haunting song that echoed softly through the Hall before disappearing into the enchanted clouds.

Eveline watched it until it vanished from sight.

Then she smiled.

A real smile.

"...I think..."

She whispered.

"...I'm going to like it here."

For several moments after the tiny Sky Whale disappeared beyond the enchanted clouds, no one spoke.

The miniature kingdom continued to breathe quietly upon the obsidian table. Rivers flowed. Forests swayed beneath invisible winds. Somewhere in the eastern mountains, a dragon lazily circled its nest before disappearing behind snow-covered peaks.

Eveline watched it all with quiet wonder.

Everything felt...

Impossible.

Beautiful.

Ancient.

She could spend days simply watching the map.

Weeks.

Perhaps even years.

Yet despite everything she had seen that morning...

One question refused to leave her mind.

Slowly, she turned away from the map.

Her eyes found Elara.

Not Aeron.

Not Nysera.

Not even Alaric.

Elara.

The woman who had raised her.

"...Can I ask you something?"

Elara looked up immediately.

"You never have to ask permission."

Eveline smiled faintly.

"I suppose that's true."

She hesitated.

For the first time since entering the Hall...

She looked nervous.

"When did you know?"

Elara frowned softly.

"Know what?"

"...That I wasn't ordinary."

Silence settled over the chamber.

The kind that came not from uncertainty...

But from memory.

Elara's gaze drifted toward the silver flame burning between them.

"I knew," she said quietly.

"...before you took your first breath."

Eveline blinked.

"You were there?"

"I was."

Her smile was distant now, softened by memories only she could see.

"I was in the palace the night you were born."

"The entire kingdom celebrated."

"There were flowers in every corridor."

"Musicians played until dawn."

"Your father insisted every child born that day receive a gift from the palace."

Alaric smiled to himself.

"That sounds like Aurelian."

"It was."

Elara laughed softly.

"He said happiness should never belong only to kings."

The room grew quiet again.

"And my mother?"

Elara looked at her.

Then smiled.

"Oh..."

"Luna was impossible."

Eveline raised an eyebrow.

"Impossible?"

"Entirely."

Alaric chuckled.

"I warned Aurelian."

"You encouraged her," Elara corrected.

"I absolutely did."

Even Aeron's usually composed expression softened.

Nysera simply closed her eyes, as though she could still hear Lunara's laughter echoing through the years.

"What was she like?" Eveline asked.

This time...

Everyone answered.

"She climbed trees."

Alaric.

"She skipped royal banquets because she found them unbearably dull."

Aeron.

"She once disappeared for an entire afternoon because she decided she wanted to learn how bakers made honey cakes."

Elara.

"She returned covered in flour."

Nysera's voice was almost amused.

"And declared herself a master baker."

Elara laughed.

"The palace kitchen disagreed."

"So did the honey cakes."

A genuine laugh escaped Eveline before she could stop it.

"...She sounds ridiculous."

"She was."

Alaric's smile was filled with unbearable affection.

"And magnificent."

Eveline looked around the table.

"I always imagined queens as..."

She searched for the word.

"Perfect."

Alaric shook his head.

"No."

"Luna was wonderfully imperfect."

"She forgot meetings."

"Lost books."

"Got mud on expensive gowns."

"Argued with scholars."

"And believed every wounded animal deserved a home."

Aeron sighed dramatically.

"The palace had, at one point, three injured hawks, two wolves, an exceptionally rude griffin, and something none of us could identify living in the eastern gardens."

"It bit the gardeners."

"It bit everyone," Elara corrected.

Even Nysera smiled.

"It adored Lunara."

"Of course it did."

Eveline couldn't stop smiling.

For the first time...

Her mother wasn't a portrait.

She wasn't a High Queen.

She wasn't a tragedy.

She was...

A person.

Someone she might have laughed with.

Someone she might have argued with.

Someone she suddenly missed with an ache so fierce it caught her by surprise.

"I wish..."

Her voice faltered.

"I wish I'd known them."

Nobody answered immediately.

Because there wasn't an answer.

Only grief.

Elara slowly reached across the table, covering Eveline's hand with her own.

"I know."

Those two words carried eighteen years of sorrow.

"I used to tell myself," Elara continued quietly, "that if I did my job well enough... one day you would hate me."

Eveline frowned.

"What?"

"I thought..."

Elara laughed weakly.

"I thought you would grow up angry that I never told you the truth."

"I thought you'd blame me for every lie."

Her fingers tightened around Eveline's.

"And perhaps..."

"I deserved that."

"You don't."

Eveline answered so quickly that everyone looked at her.

"You don't."

Elara blinked.

"You gave up everything."

"I didn't know that before."

"But I do now."

"You raised me."

"You loved me."

"You kept me alive."

"What exactly am I supposed to hate you for?"

Tears shimmered in Elara's eyes.

"I was supposed to protect the future High Queen."

Her voice cracked.

"I reminded myself of that every single day."

She smiled through tears.

"But somewhere along the way..."

"I stopped seeing a princess."

"I stopped seeing the Crown."

"I stopped seeing prophecy."

She looked at Eveline.

"I only saw the little girl who refused to eat vegetables unless I pretended the broccoli was enchanted."

Eveline covered her face.

"...You promised never to tell anyone."

"I lied."

"You really did."

"I also told everyone you cried whenever you lost your favorite stuffed rabbit."

"ELARA!"

Alaric burst into laughter.

Even Aeron failed to suppress his smile.

Nysera looked almost scandalized.

"You named it Sir Fluffles," Elara added.

"Oh, this is betrayal."

"It absolutely is."

"You are the worst guardian in the history of guardians."

"I've been called worse."

Laughter echoed through the Hall.

Warm.

Real.

For just a few precious moments...

There was no Crown.

No danger.

No politics.

Only a family.

A strange, broken, newly reunited family.

When the laughter finally faded, Eveline walked around the table without saying a word.

She wrapped her arms around Elara.

The older woman froze.

Then, slowly...

She hugged her back.

Tightly.

As though she had been waiting eighteen years for permission.

Across the table, Alaric quietly looked away, giving them the privacy they deserved.

Aeron busied himself adjusting the enchanted map.

Nysera simply watched with gentle, knowing eyes.

No one interrupted.

Some moments deserved silence.

After a long while, Eveline stepped back, wiping at the corner of her eye before anyone could pretend not to notice.

She cleared her throat dramatically.

"Right."

"That was enough emotional damage for one morning."

Alaric smiled.

"You inherited your mother's habit of changing the subject whenever feelings became involved."

"I inherited survival instincts."

She returned to her chair, took one look at the tiny dragon still circling the enchanted mountains, and pointed toward Aeron.

"My turn again."

Aeron folded his hands.

"I'm listening."

"I've seen dragons."

"I've seen shadows."

"I've seen magical forests."

"I've seen everyone else's magic."

She leaned forward.

"So..."

"What can I do?"

The smiles around the table slowly disappeared.

No one answered.

Eveline sighed.

"...Why does everyone suddenly look like I asked the hardest question in the world?"

Nysera met her eyes.

"Because, child..."

"It is."

The words settled over the Hall like falling snow.

For several long moments, no one spoke.

The enchanted map continued its quiet dance across the obsidian table. Tiny rivers shimmered beneath miniature bridges, forests swayed beneath invisible winds, and somewhere in the eastern mountains a dragon no larger than Eveline's hand glided lazily through the illusion before disappearing behind snow-covered peaks.

Everything looked peaceful.

Simple.

As though kingdoms had never known war.

As though crowns had never demanded sacrifice.

Eveline looked from one face to another.

Alaric.

Aeron.

Elara.

Nysera.

Each of them wore the same expression.

Not fear.

Not guilt.

Simply...

uncertainty.

She frowned.

"I don't understand."

Her voice was quieter now.

"You've all known who I was long before I did."

She pointed toward Alaric.

"You're my grandfather."

Toward Elara.

"You raised me."

Toward Aeron.

"You knew my parents."

Finally, Nysera.

"You knew my mother before she became Queen."

She spread her hands helplessly.

"So how can none of you tell me the one thing I actually want to know?"

No one answered immediately.

It wasn't avoidance.

It was because each of them seemed to be searching for words that had never existed.

Finally, Aeron broke the silence.

"Because no one has ever been able to answer that question."

With a gentle movement of his hand, the enchanted kingdom dissolved into streams of silver light.

The rivers disappeared.

The forests faded.

The mountains crumbled into shimmering dust.

Then...

New figures slowly rose from the obsidian table.

Not illusions.

Memories.

The first was a woman crowned in silver.

She stood with her eyes closed while thousands of tiny stars circled around her like living fireflies, bending to her will without a single spoken word.

The image shifted.

A king appeared where she had stood.

Dark clouds gathered above him.

Lightning danced across his fingertips before arcing harmlessly into the sky, illuminating the mountains behind him.

Another Queen.

She knelt upon barren earth.

The moment her fingers brushed the ground...

Flowers erupted in every direction.

Entire forests bloomed in seconds.

The seasons themselves seemed to obey her.

The vision changed again.

A monarch walked through shadows that shimmered with silver light instead of darkness.

Another commanded oceans that rose like walls around him.

Another stood beside dragons so enormous they dwarfed castles.

One ruler whispered something too quiet to hear...

And the stars themselves rearranged across the heavens.

One after another...

Kings.

Queens.

Centuries of rulers.

Each surrounded by magic unlike anything that came before.

Eveline watched in complete silence.

"They're all..."

She searched for the word.

"...different."

Aeron nodded.

"Every High King."

"Every High Queen."

"The Hall remembers them all."

"And no two were ever alike."

Nysera stepped toward the visions, the silver light reflecting softly in her eyes.

"Some commanded the elements."

"Some spoke to creatures long vanished from the world."

"Some could heal wounds thought impossible."

"Some possessed gifts that history itself has forgotten."

Alaric folded his hands before him.

"There has never been a pattern."

"Never a rule."

"The magic of the Crown does not pass from mother to daughter."

"Or father to son."

"It awakens."

"And when it does..."

"It becomes something entirely its own."

Eveline looked back toward the glowing figures.

"So my mother's magic..."

"Belonged only to Lunara," Nysera replied.

"My father's?"

"His alone."

"And mine?"

Silence.

Again.

Eveline let out an exaggerated sigh before gently lowering her forehead onto the table with a soft thunk.

"I knew it."

Her voice came out muffled against the stone.

"I absolutely knew everyone was going to do this again."

Alaric couldn't help laughing.

"We truly aren't trying to frustrate you."

"It feels very personal."

"It isn't."

She lifted her head just enough to glare at them.

"So let me see if I've understood correctly."

"The entire kingdom has been searching for me for eighteen years..."

"People have been willing to kill for the Crown..."

"I'm apparently the future High Queen..."

She pointed dramatically at herself.

"...and not one of you has the slightest idea what I can actually do?"

Aeron smiled apologetically.

"That is... an accurate summary."

Eveline stared at him.

"That is the most terrifying sentence anyone has spoken today."

"I rather suspected you'd say that."

Before anyone else could speak, Elara's voice quietly filled the room.

"I used to watch you while you slept."

Everyone turned toward her.

She looked almost embarrassed to admit it.

"When you were little."

"I kept waiting."

"For dreams."

"For strange lights."

"For accidental bursts of magic."

"For anything."

She smiled sadly.

"There was never anything."

"I almost convinced myself..."

"...that perhaps your magic had simply chosen not to awaken."

Eveline looked at her.

"Was that possible?"

"No."

Nysera answered gently.

"But hope has always ignored what is possible."

Elara lowered her eyes.

"I knew better."

"I knew the blood of the Crown could never simply disappear."

"But sometimes..."

She laughed softly through the sadness.

"I wished I could be wrong."

"Because if you never awakened..."

"If you were just..."

She swallowed.

"...my ordinary little girl..."

"Then perhaps no one would ever come looking for you."

The words hung heavily in the Hall.

Eveline reached across the table and squeezed Elara's hand.

"You spent eighteen years wishing I'd never become who I was supposed to be."

Elara looked at her.

"I spent eighteen years wishing you could have a normal life."

Silence settled between them.

Warm.

Painful.

Honest.

After a while, Eveline drew in a slow breath.

Then she looked back at Aeron.

"So..."

"If nobody knows what my magic is..."

"How am I supposed to discover it?"

For the first time since the conversation had begun...

Aeron smiled.

It wasn't amused.

It was almost relieved.

"That..."

He said quietly.

"Is one question I can answer."

He placed his hand upon the obsidian table once more.

Silver runes bloomed beneath his fingertips.

The Hall trembled ever so slightly.

"There is only one place in all of Vaeloria where the gifts of ancient bloodlines are understood."

The silver light burst upward.

"...And in three days..."

Aeron said as an entirely new vision began to form above the table,

"...we will take you there."

Eveline blinked.

"...Where?"

Aeron's smile widened ever so slightly.

"Veils Academy."