The deeper Selene searched, the less she trusted anything she found.
Nothing in Varyon was simple.
Not loyalty.
Not alliances.
Not even history.
"What you see in the court isn't the truth," Kael said as they stood over a spread of documents in the war chamber. "It's a version of it."
Selene's eyes moved across the papers—names, dates, hidden correspondences.
"And the real version?" she asked.
Kael's voice was quiet.
"Buried."
Selene exhaled slowly.
"Then we dig."
Hours turned into something heavier than time. Patterns began to form—subtle at first, then undeniable.
Certain noble houses communicating in secret.
Funds moving without record.
Messages sent… then erased.
And then—
A name appeared.
Selene stilled.
"No," she said softly.
Kael didn't speak.
He didn't need to.
Her eyes locked onto the name again.
Her father.
Not directly.
But close enough.
Close enough to make it real.
"This doesn't mean—" she started.
"It means something," Kael interrupted gently—but firmly.
Selene stepped back slightly, her mind racing.
The marriage.
The attack.
The silence after she left.
The replacement plans.
It all aligned too cleanly.
"He knew," she said quietly.
Not as a question.
As a realization.
Kael watched her carefully. "He positioned you."
Selene let out a slow breath, her chest rising and falling steadily.
"As leverage," she finished.
Silence filled the room.
But Selene didn't break.
Didn't crumble.
Because something inside her had already shifted long before this moment.
"I was never meant to win," she said.
Kael didn't respond.
Selene looked up, her eyes clearer now—sharper.
"Good."
That caught him off guard.
"Good?" he repeated.
Selene nodded once.
"Because now I don't owe anyone anything."
A pause.
"No expectations. No loyalty to something that already discarded me."
Her voice hardened—not in pain, but in clarity.
"I choose what happens next."
Kael stepped closer, studying her.
"You're letting go of everything that made you who you were."
Selene met his gaze.
"No," she said quietly.
"I'm deciding what still deserves to remain."
And in that moment—
There was no doubt left.
The past had lost its hold on her.