Chapter 32 The Mother's Flame

• The air in the royal archives was thick with dust and forgotten history.
• Elara stood alone beneath the arched ceiling, holding a scroll wrapped in crimson ribbon—sealed with a symbol she had never seen before: a phoenix engulfed in ash.
• “Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered, thinking of the woman who raised her—so graceful, so careful with every word. Her mother had always been the perfect queen consort, never letting anything beyond love or duty show.