When Lord Sylas's smooth voice faded, the hall erupted once more into murmurs and speculative whispers.
Delegates leaned toward one another, their words weaving through the chamber like restless winds.
Some nodded at the suggestion, others frowned, and yet, amidst the uproar, one figure glowed with unrestrained delight.
Lady Calista.
Her face brightened like dawn breaking over dark waters. At last, fate had shifted in her favor. Yes, she thought, her chest tightening with exhilaration. Yes, this is what I have always wanted.
Aurelia had always stolen the light that should have been hers.
Both daughters of Azarion, both born on the same day...yet Calista's birth had been little more than a whisper beside the triumphant celebration of Aurelia's arrival.
She had come into the world scarcely an hour earlier, but what did that matter when Aurelia's mother was the Flame Lord's true wife, while hers was not?
