Hours had passed since the banquet had reached its drunken peak, allowing the dead of night to swallow the grand palace of Suncity. It was a window of time just long enough for Sebastian's frantic horse to have completed its exhausting journey back from the Sun Jungle temple. He had not even reached the holy altar; the raw, blistered handprint burning on his arm had violently flared up halfway through the jungle, a telepathic warning that the child was in mortal peril. He had ridden his horse to near-collapse to make it back in time.
Now, deep inside the forgotten royal wing, the terrifying golden light of the Sun Goddess was pulsating through the cracks of Miranda's wooden door.
"Hey, what is that?" one of Queen El's elite guards muttered, blinking heavily as he noticed the strange, ethereal glow bleeding into the dark hallway. Talia stood right behind him, a look of twisted anticipation on her face.
"The poison should have killed her by now," Talia whispered sharply, her shifty eyes narrowing. "Open the door. If she is performing some sort of forbidden magic, the King must see it."
The guard stepped forward, his armored hand reaching out. His fingers wrapped around the brass doorknob, slowly beginning to twist it.
"Stop right there!"
A loud, frantic voice echoed down the corridor. The guard froze, instantly snapping his hand back as Sebastian burst around the corner. The Chief Eunuch was a sight of pure panic; his robes were disheveled, covered in jungle mud, and sweat poured down his chubby cheeks as he gasped for air.
"What are you fools doing standing around?!" Sebastian screamed, his face completely flushed as he ran toward them. "A fire! A rapidly spreading fire has broken out in the lower kitchens and is climbing the eastern support beams! The palace is under attack! Evacuate the second queen and Princess Elvira this instant!"
The sheer authority and desperate terror in Sebastian's voice caught the guards completely off guard. Talia blinked, looking between the glowing door and the frantic eunuch. "But the light in this room—"
"Are you insane, girl?!" Sebastian barked, grabbing the guard by his armor and physically shoving him toward the main hall. "The King's lineage is at risk! If Princess Elvira breathes in a single drop of smoke, your heads will roll before sunrise! Go! Now!"
Terrified of the King's wrath, the guards didn't hesitate. They turned on their heels, drawing their swords as they sprinted down the hallway to sound the alarms, dragging a reluctant Talia along with them.
Meanwhile, deep within the grand throne room, King Krollos suddenly snapped his eyes open. He sat upright on his throne, his golden eyes wide with an emotion he had never felt in his entire life: absolute, primitive fear.
A wave of strange, celestial power had just rippled through the palace walls. It didn't feel like the small, tamed sparks his daughter Elvira had produced. This was something ancient, heavy, and infinitely stronger than him. His own solar energy felt small and suffocated in its presence.
"Guards!" Krollos roared, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and panic. "Guards, to me! Search every inch of this palace! Find the source of that aura immediately! Anyone wielding an unauthorized power is to be executed on the spot!"
Back in the isolated hallway, Sebastian didn't waste a single second. The moment the guards vanished, he threw Miranda's door open. The blinding golden light slammed into him, but he ignored the heat, rushing inside to find the fourteen-year-old girl unconscious on the floor, her body still radiating a soft, celestial hum.
"Forgive me, little one," Sebastian whispered, tears pricking his eyes.
Pulling a flask of flammable oil from his heavy robes, Sebastian aggressively splashed it across her old cot, her folded sparring uniform, and the wooden support beams of her bedroom. Pulling a flint from his pocket, he struck it, sending a cascade of sparks into the dry oil.
Whoosh!
Violent, hungry orange flames immediately erupted, catching the wood and thick smoke began to billow out into the hallway. Sebastian lifted Miranda's limp body into his arms, using his heavy, mud-stained cloak to shield her from the heat as he moved toward the hidden servants' escape tunnel. To the rest of Suncity, the reject princess was about to burn to ash.