Aeryn returned from the hidden chamber carrying the weight of ancient trauma. The truth of her power was not a gift, but a legacy born of rape, fury, and a dynasty built on vengeance.
The book closed with a soft, final sigh of old pages. Hawasa's cries, the blood-soaked cell, the stolen child, the memory still clung to Aeryn's skin. She rose slowly from the stone pedestal, her body shaking, eyes wide and haunted. The revelation had thickened the blood within her.
Staggering across the corridors, she finally reached her private chamber. Sakina was waiting by the hearth, her back straight, her gaze patiently fixed on the flames, as if she'd known Aeryn would come.
Aeryn entered silently, her foot streaked with ash and dust, and sank onto the couch. She did not speak. Sakina, having seen the look in the Queen's eyes, did not ask.
After a few tense minutes, Aeryn looked up, her throat dry, her voice barely a whisper. "She was raped." The word was foreign and violent on her tongue. "She tried to kill the child... and they took it. She never saw her child again."
Sakina closed her eyes, her expression unreadable. "Yes. That is the truth buried beneath the years. The one they tried so hard to keep from you."
Aeryn's voice rose, edged with fury. "Why? Why was this hidden? Why does no one speak her name? Why me? Why Now? Sakina, why?"
Sakina turned toward the hearth and tossed a handful of black powder into the flames. The fire shifted to an eerie, pulsing blue, casting sharp, strange shadows on the walls.
"Because power rooted in pain is often feared," she said. "And this power, your power, is not only old. It is cursed. Twisted through generations. You, Aeryn, are the first to carry all three veins of it in nearly a century. They thought it had extinguished. That it had died."
Aeryn blinked. "Three veins? Died?"
Sakina nodded slowly. "There are ancient blood magic tomes buried deep beneath the citadel. Hidden by women who once ruled when men could not comprehend the depth of magic they wielded. Your ancestors. Hawasa's daughter was one of them."
.........
"You mean... Hawasa's child? She survived? What happened to her?" Aeryn's breath caught.
"Yes. The child lived. She was named Anya," Sakina revealed. "The guard who stole the baby was killed for his knowledge. Anya was raised in secret by a concubine of the Imperial Cinder Hegemony who claimed the child as the King's. When Anya came of age, the concubine, in a moment of malice, told her the truth: that she was the illegitimate child of a rape victim who had fled."
"Anya did her own research, found out the full truth, and discovered the gift, no, the curse, of Haemomancy ran in her very veins. She went mad with the pain, wrecked havoc, and became a monstrous sanguine artist. She played with blood, vein, and life and soul. She was recaptured."
"Did she ever meet her mother?" Aeryn asked, fear gripping her throat.
"She tried. She finally had the spirit to come face to face with her. But when Anya was close, Hawasa died. Without ever knowing her own blood and flesh was alive, carrying the legacy she had started in torment."
Sakina paused for emphasis. "Anya, fueled by inherited pain and fury, founded Sahirra and this Dynasty. She unlocked the art her mother had begun in torment, shaping a power so raw, so terrifying, that three nations knelt before her. She didn't take a throne. She built it."
Aeryn held her head tightly. "I don't understand. How did Hawasa escape in the first place?"
Sakina's expression darkened, the blue fire casting sharp lines across her face. "She waited until she had mastered her art in secret. Then, one full moon, she broke free, killing the guards who tried to touch her again. She vanished, hiding in plain sight as an innkeeper in a quiet village."
............
Aeryn listened, barely breathing. "Then why was she re-caught?"
"Your highness, she ran away, but she never forgot," Sakina said. "Her pain had grown so sharp it no longer recognized innocence. Every full moon, she used her gift to kidnap villagers. She dragged them to a cave, imprisoning them. She told herself it was justice. Revenge. For the chains they once bound her in."
"And then?"
"Then she met a girl," Sakina said, her voice dropping. "A young hydromancer from the Southern Azure Tribe. Hawasa, perhaps seeking connection, entrusted her secret to this girl. The girl, horrified by the art of Haemomancy, refused it. Until she was forced to use it against Hawasa herself, to save her friends."
Aeryn frowned. "Who was this girl?"
"She was the one who studied Hawasa's curse, modified it, and then buried it so deeply that no one knew she held the forbidden arts. She feared it would destroy more than it could protect. After their battle, the village captured Hawasa. She was sent to the Southern Azure Dominion, exiled with the condition she never leave Wolf Cove."
"So she lived?" Aeryn whispered.
"For a while. But veterans of the Hegemony, still bitter with the scars she had left behind, ambushed her on her journey. She was old, and they eventually captured her again. She died in their custody, of old age, quietly, forgotten by most."
.
.
Join my Patron Accuscripter community today for just $4 and read 10 Chapters Ahead of the public release schedule!