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The silence in the grand hall was heavy enough to crush a man. The echoes of the slap still seemed to vibrate off the golden columns, but all eyes were now locked on the girl’s collarbone. The crimson birthmark—a perfect, radiant shape of a rising sun—seemed to glow against her pale, bruised skin. / Chapter 5 / 6

Chapter 5 - The Night of Blood and Fire

The sounding of the palace bells rang out through the night—not a call to prayer, but the alarm of war.

From the windows of the tower, Aurora and the King looked down to see the courtyard engulfed in chaos. Duchess Malvina had used her immense wealth to hire a massive mercenary army, which had infiltrated the palace gates under the cover of darkness. The loyal royal guards were outnumbered, fighting desperately in the courtyards.

"She means to slaughter us all and claim the throne by force," King Aldous said, his face grim. He reached into a hidden compartment beneath the stone floor of his chambers and pulled out a legendary weapon: the Sunfury Sword, its blade forged from pure gold and star-iron. He handed a small, silver dagger to Aurora. "Stay behind me, my daughter. We fight our way to the garrison."

But as they descended into the great hall—the very place where the story had begun—they were cut off.

Duchess Malvina stood at the entrance of the court, surrounded by twenty heavily armed mercenaries. Beside her, a guard held Evelyn, whom they had broken out of the dungeons.

"Aldous," Malvina spoken coldly, her silk robes stained with the blood of the guards she had betrayed. "It ends tonight. Give up the crown, execute the bastard kitchen girl yourself, and perhaps I will let you live out your days in exile."

"I would rather see this kingdom burn to ashes before I hand it to a snake like you!" King Aldous declared, raising his sword.

The mercenaries charged. What followed was a brutal, chaotic clash of steel. The King, despite his age, fought with the ferocity of a lion, protecting Aurora with every swing of his blade. Aurora used her small size to slide beneath the strikes of the mercenaries, slicing their tendons and distracting them.

But the sheer numbers were overwhelming. A mercenary managed to strike the King from behind, slashing his leg. The King fell to one knee, gasping in pain, the Sunfury Sword slipping from his grasp.

Malvina laughed, stepping forward. "Finish him. And bring me the girl's head."

A massive mercenary raised his greatsword over the fallen King.

Aurora felt something stir deep within her chest. A fiery, ancient rage consumed her. She didn't see herself as a helpless servant anymore. She was the daughter of the Sun. She rushed forward, sliding across the stone floor, grabbing the heavy Sunfury Sword with both hands.

As she lifted the royal weapon, the sun mark on her collarbone flared with a blinding, blinding white heat. The golden blade of the sword erupted into actual flames, illuminating the entire grand hall. With a scream of pure defiance, Aurora swung the flaming sword, parrying the mercenary's heavy blade and sending him crashing into a golden column.

The mercenaries backed away in terror. The ancient legends were true: the true heir could wield the fire of the sun.

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The ink on the emergency audit report was barely dry when the secure terminal on my desk flashed a violent crimson. I hadn't slept in thirty-six hours, my eyes burning from staring at columns of ghost figures, duplicate invoices, and shell corporations linked to Dominic Rossi. But the red alert wasn’t from Rossi’s faction. It was an internal security flag originating from the estate’s main vault deep beneath the west wing.

The ink on the emergency audit report was barely dry when the secure ter...

The glass shattered into a thousand tiny diamonds on the marble, scattering the light from the chandeliers. The muffled laughter died instantly, replaced by a suffocating, heavy silence that crept outward from the grand staircase.

The glass shattered into a thousand tiny diamonds on the marble, scatter...

The heavy oak doors of my private study clicked shut behind us, locking out the clinical, terrifying silence of the kitchen. Evelyn Crane stood stiffly in front of my mahogany desk, her hands folded over her apron with the rigid precision of someone who had spent decades micromanaging every square inch of my estate. Behind her, Norah hovered near the doorway, clutching her clipboard like a shield.

The heavy oak doors of my private study clicked shut behind us, locking...

"No... it's impossible!" Malvina shrieked, backing away.

Evelyn, seeing the tide turn, grabbed a crossbow from a fallen guard, aimed it directly at Aurora’s heart, and pulled the trigger.

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