Chapter 6 - THE BLOOD OF THE SUN
Mara couldn't move. Her legs and arms felt as heavy as lead, calcifying into cold gray stone under the influence of the crimson curse unleashed by her mother’s dark heart.
Around her, the courtyard was horrifyingly silent. Three hundred royal guards stood frozen in mid-combat, turned into lifeless marble statues. Captain Kael and King Arthur were trapped on the balcony, unable to reach her as shadow-wraiths blocked the stairwells.
Celeste stood over Mara, pressing the heel of her silver boot into Mara’s chest, forcing the air out of her lungs.
“Look at you,” Celeste sneered, leaning down so her face was inches from Mara’s. “The great savior. The lost princess. Reduced back to what you always were—a filthy bug under my shoe.”
“Why... why are you doing this, Celeste?” Mara choked out, her throat turning to stone. “We are family!”
“Family?” Celeste laughed bitterly, her eyes flashing with insane hatred. “My father gave everything to this kingdom while your weak father mourned a dead baby for seventeen years! I was born to rule! I memorized every law, mastered every court etiquette, wore the tight corsets, played the fake smiles—and then YOU walk out of the kitchen with wet hair and take it all away in ONE SECOND!”
“You... you murdered innocent people for a crown,” Mara whispered.
“Power is not given, Aurelia. It is taken!” Celeste shrieked. She raised her dagger—the blade coated in the dark red blood of Eleanor’s heart—and aimed it straight at Mara’s throat. “And tonight, I take your life!”
As the blade descended, Mara closed her eyes.
Is this how it ends? she thought. After surviving the fire, after surviving seventeen years of abuse... do I die here as a statue?
No.
Inside her mind, in the deep, quiet dark where her soul resided, Mara heard a voice. It wasn't the dark, monstrous voice of her mother’s sorcery. It was the soft, gentle voice of the old maid who had raised her in the cold servant quarters—the woman who had sacrificed everything to keep her safe.
“Aurelia, my sweet girl... fire isn't meant to destroy. Fire is meant to warm the cold.”
Mara opened her eyes. The dark veins on her wrists stopped turning black. The crimson curse creeping up her body suddenly paused.
She realized her mistake. All night, she had been fighting with anger, with vengeance, with the desire to punish Celeste. She had been using her magic like her dark mother did—as a weapon of destruction.
She didn't need to burn the dark away. She needed to light up the realm.
Mara stopped resisting the magic. She let go of her anger. She surrendered her heart to absolute, pure love for the kingdom, for her father, and for the innocent people of Solaria.
FLARE!
The stone encasing Mara’s body cracked! Brilliant, blinding, pure WHITE fire—a magic higher than the golden Sun Fire, a holy magic long thought extinct—erupted from her soul!
The crimson curse turned into white steam. Celeste was blown backward, screaming as the light burned her eyes.
The white fire didn't destroy. It expanded in a massive, sweeping wave across the entire courtyard. As the white light touched the stone statues of the royal guards, the gray stone melted away! Three hundred soldiers gasped for air, restored to life, their injuries completely healed!
The shadow-wraiths howled in agony as the white light touched them, dissolving into harmless rose petals that floated down onto the marble floor.
Celeste scrambled backward in pure horror, dropping the dark heart into the ash. “No! No! It’s impossible! What kind of power is this?!”
Mara stood up, draped in a magnificent gown of solid white light, her phoenix mark glowing like a radiant star.
“This is not dark magic, Celeste,” Mara said softly, stepping forward. “This is the true spirit of Solaria.”
HOOOK / CLIFFHANGER:
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Before Mara could finish off Celeste, the ground beneath the court violently shook! A massive, skeletal hand made of black obsidian burst out from the center of the courtyard, crushing the royal fountain to dust! A voice like grinding stone boomed from beneath the earth: “THANK YOU FOR AWAKENING ME, MY DAUGHTER...”
The real villain of Solaria had finally arrived.
