By the time I left the records chamber, the palace had shifted into evening cadence. Guards rotated. Torches brightened. Doors closed earlier and stayed closed longer.
I moved without stopping until I reached the eastern corridor overlook.
From here, I could see part of Zaeran’s wing.
Her window was lit. She was still awake.
That alone told me she was not sleeping. Or if she was, it was the kind of sleep that didn’t count.
I leaned against the railing.
There were two ways to read her situation.
The first was simple: a princess being positioned into a strategic marriage, with internal resistance managed through misinformation and emotional destabilization.
The second was more dangerous.
A controlled fragmentation of trust networks around her.
Griselda as filter.
Odessa as architect.
Rostamir as instrument—or counterweight.
And Zaeran as the central variable being pushed toward predictability.
The problem with variables is that they rarely cooperate when they realize they are being solved.
But what role does Atarae have in this twisted game? Why is she separated from her throne?
A guard approached from behind.
“General Isaac,” he said carefully. “There is a message from General Griselda.”
I turned slightly.
He handed me a sealed slip.
I broke it open.
'Stop interfering into matters you're not supposed to be part of.'
That was not reassurance.
That was containment language.
I crushed the note in my hand.
So it was already there.
Then I understood something I did not like understanding.
Griselda was not merely protecting Zaeran.
She was shaping the conditions under which Zaeran would accept the reality provided to her. A deception.
And Zaeran had already started resisting the mold.
I looked back toward her window.
The light flickered once, as if someone had moved inside.
Good.
Movement meant uncertainty.
Uncertainty meant she was still herself.
I pushed off the railing.
Whatever this was becoming, it was no longer just an engagement arrangement.
It was a controlled fracture point.
And fractures never stayed contained.
Not in people like Zaeran.
Not in systems like this.
And certainly not in palaces that had forgotten how to tell the difference between protection and ownership.
41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZPdkhS3G9D
41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0aqx5rVKoj
41Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXOOqwklqIf
and then Add to home screen.