“So, you left just like that?” His low, rumbling voice tickled the child’s ears.
The grand duke’s slender yet powerful palms held the tiny claws of his bear daughter, playing with the doughy pale fingers, amused and fascinated by how such short, chubby things hid such tremendous bursting power.
Seraphina nodded, the jingling bells resting on her half-buns answering in her stead.
“Upset?” Amaris poked his daughter’s pouty cheeks tenderly.
“Just sad… Daddy, why do people always hurt someone’s precious?” the little girl mumbled.
Was I also such a hateful existence to… him? She could not help pondering as a pair of piercing crimson irises disturbed her mind. Soul-stirring eyes that used to gnaw her bones and rattle her teeth in terror.
“People are selfish, Seraphina. The same goes for me. I would hurt someone’s precious if it meant to protect mine,” her father’s tranquil voice led her away from the distant memory.
The child raised her head and locked her blinding golden orbs with the slightly darker ones. Her scalding eyes were truly breathtaking as they shone with profoundness without ripples whilst never losing the sparkling mischief. Even at such close proximity, he could not detect a speck of impurity in them.
The grand duke gently rubbed the edges of the upturned doe eyes, causing the child to blink repeatedly to wash away the ticklishness left behind by the thin callouses. Finally, Seraphina chuckled aloud as the gloom in her chest lightened with the tenderness brought by her father.
As the golden rays of the sun adorned the gentle hues of the evening, the doors to the study were knocked twice, and the young heir entered.
“Father,” Ihan called, his exhaustion plain to the ears.
“Ihan,” the man acknowledged, his gaze silently reassuring the young man.
“Father, younger sister,” the young man took his time in a silent study, calming his mind and steadying his shaken breath.
“The object of the curse… was not mother,” the heir’s first statement startled the child, causing her tiny being to jolt.
“Elder brother Deimos?” her milky voice trembled.
The grand duke patted the little girl’s back and explained in his smooth, velvety voice,
“Lilianne’s last pregnancy was different from the previous two. Her symptoms were the opposite, and even her aura, for the first time, was stable. When she carried Ihan and Aegaeon, her aura was unstable to the point of going berserk. Such contradiction… caused many to believe that the baby was a girl. Soon, the whole of the north was brimming in expectation to welcome the first ever female Callenso to be born after generations.”
“Someone wanted to turn the baby into a monster and… force daddy to kill his daughter with his own hands,” Unbeknownst to the father and son pair, the little girl’s pearly canines elongated silently as the tips bore hard to ignore itches.
“And Leah was the perfect pawn,” the heir affirmed.
“The method?” The grand duke steered the conversation, hoping to distract his little redhead from asking ‘why.’
Unfortunately, his understanding of his daughter still fell short as Seraphina immediately caught on to the man’s efforts to spare her from the wretchedness of the human heart.
Growing up in one crib, eating the same food, wearing the same clothes, and calling each other sisters... An endearment was what they had, and a friendship was what they had nurtured. However, in the face of the self and interest, all were for naught. Leah must have believed that they were equal, but the moment Lilianne got enthroned as the one and only grand duchess of Crevaria, the false belief shattered. Hiding her ugly heart and venomous intentions, passing each day drowning in greed and fantasy, waiting and stalking for that single moment to come before, finally, hunting. It was, indeed, a brilliant move. Father did not love her grace deeply but, nevertheless, held devotion for her as his other half and the mother of his children. If Lilianne had given birth to a daughter, it would probably have turned into more than that. Something that Leah could never possibly blemish or intervene. Therefore, the rumor of a female descendant must have pushed her to the limits. Moreover, the subjects and vassals would not tolerate a woman who gave birth to such a creature, a demonic monster, as their female lord. Even if father protected her position as a grand duchess, as a mother, Lilianne would have collapsed. The curse was the perfect solution… only if the child was truly a girl. However, it was Deimos, a boy, and the curse befell on her grace instead.
“She received a potion and a spell from an unknown sorcerer. When mother’s water broke, she stole her wet innerwear and poured the potion on it before feeding it into the fire. The spell was chanted until the fire burned out,” the young heir’s words pulled the little girl back from her wandering thoughts.
Instantaneously, Seraphina’s breath stalled a second when the word ‘sorcerer’ sunk.
A sorcerer… to the female descendant of House Callenso… No, don’t tell me… the little girl felt her stomach cramping in muted horror.
“As for the spell…” the young man halted for a moment before taking out a bloodied piece of paper from his pocket and read aloud slowly and clearly, syllable by syllable.
The grand duke and his son were oblivious to the words these unfamiliar and foreign sounds formed into as this seemingly rubbishy verbalizing was a language that they had never encountered before in their lives. However, the moment this strange string of articulation resonated into Seraphina’s head, her whole body dropped in temperature, bones aching, before flaring up like a roaring blaze, and her tiny body was terrorized by excruciating muscle spasms.
For her, an ancient divine beast, it was a reverberation, collapse, rage, and grief.
The anguish of the howling beasts and beastmen continued for ninety-nine nights. The bared fangs shattered, and the extended claws splintered. Their bodies wrecked, and their freedom smothered. The tortured souls wept in tears and blood as they cried to their gods to redeem them from their sufferings. Ninety-nine beasts and beastmen, abandoned by their gods, ninety-nine days and nights, with unanswered prayers, and ninety-nine drops of blood, from the hearts defeated with resentment. Your prayers will never end, and neither do your resentments. The fire will burn, your gods will listen, and the chosen one will bear. The girl born under the protection of the northern shadows will answer to your gods.
“Seraphina,” the grand duke’s worried whisper caressed the little girl’s ears.
He sensed the child’s body stiffening and her body heat rising rapidly as Ihan finished reading the incantation.
“Little sister,” the young heir also noticed the abnormalities of the little girl as her bright golden eyes started moistening and her pale ivory cheeks slowly burnt crimson, resembling her unruly waves. In the blink of an eye, her gaze lost focus, as her little hands balled into two ghastly fists.
“Seraphina!” Amaris’s alarmed roar resounded through the study as the child suddenly convulsed and threw up violently.
She heaved with short, broken breaths as tears cascaded against her resolve. However, only she herself understood that it was not a physiological reaction caused by retching.
“Fire, one of the sacred elements that the beasts and beastmen worshipped… One must never dirty the prayer’s fire with blood and filth, as it becomes the bridge to their gods… the supreme ancient divine beasts… and… and...” The little girl spoke between dry heaving and crying.
“Seraphina, calm down. Breathe slowly,” the grand duke hugged the child, patting her back as the heir opened the windows, allowing the slightly chilly summer breeze of the northern evening to greet the suffocating girl.
As the wind patted her wet cheeks and the air entering her lungs became fresher and livelier, Seraphina finally managed to subdue the stifling breathlessness.
“Please put me down,” she requested her father weakly.
As soon as the soles of her shoes hit the floor, she shifted into her fox form, her snowy white fur glimmering with faint hues of amber and violet, reflecting the rays of the evening sun. She jumped onto the window couch, coiled her tiny body into a ring, and let the heavy eyelids hide the ethereal goldens of her.
“Seraphina,” Amaris gently called for his daughter, his heart aching with the fragility of his daughter.
“All beasts and beastmen are under the rule of the supreme ancient divine beasts, the dragons. However, they are prideful and unrestrained creatures aloof from the secular world. So, instead, the four ancient divine beasts of four heavenly elements, rein. It is their duty to protect their people and beasts. The royal white stag of golden antlers, the ruler of the element earth, the two-tailed winged blue tiger, the ruler of the element wind, the queen of the mer clan, the ruler of the element water, and… the nine-tailed fox, the ruler of the element fire,” Seraphina spoke, her very being terrifyingly still.
“It was my kind. They captured, tortured, and slaughtered my kind. Ninety-nine beasts and beastmen were lost to make the potion, and it was their resentment that fed the curse,” she bit each word so that the whimpers would not escape her lips.
Seraphina’s grief was evident and much felt. After her rebirth, she swore to live for her family, the people who truly cherished and accepted her for who she was, redeem her sins for those she had hurt, and never waste emotions and affection for another. However, it seemed there was no room for such selfishness in this world. Under the blissful ignorance, a connection, such that Seraphina could never turn her back on, took root in her. And it hurt her immensely.
“… No mage or sorceress can undo the curse,” Seraphina finally opened her eyes, and the pain within still brewed fresh, visible to the Callensos.
“Little sister,” the young heir knelt on one knee in front of the tiny yet otherworldly elegant beast and gently patted her head like he always had, both in this life and the previous.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, coaxing his younger sister, despite he himself was breaking apart as the realization that his mother could not be saved sunk.
It has always been like this. No matter how hurt or how much pain you were in, you would gently smile at me as if everything was fine as if everything would be fine as long as I was.
The grand duke’s long, paced strides reached the brother and sister pair, and his large palm landed on his son’s head before ruffling the young heir’s fine long silver strands.
“Your sister said no mage or sorceress can undo. Not no one can undo,” he lightly flicked the teenager’s forehead, picked up the seemingly boneless furry creature, and let it nestle in his embrace with care.
The man’s words and actions were like a ray of splitting sunshine piercing through the dark gloomy clouds. It was unserious as it can be, yet wrung dry the heavy bitter air in the room whilst effortlessly herding the duo’s attention from grief-stricken loss back to the future where hope and expectations still prevailed.
.
.
.
The atmosphere was tense yet queerly comical. On an enormous bed sat a little girl, as solemn as her petite body, large doe eyes, untamed red curls, and ruffled pajama can make her appear, and facing her was a linear row of her family’s men, sitting in an orderly manner according to their heights and ranks.
“Why are you so stupid?” Shoulder-length silver-haired boy reprimanded, his breath full of despise and irritation.
“Who are you calling stupid, little devil!” A burly teenager donning honey-brown curls shot back.
“Can’t you two keep it down for a moment?” The eldest of the three questioned, his palm itching to smack their heads.
“Boys,” at last, a deep low voice shut the trio.
“In simple words, because I am too young, a cub to be precise, the curse cannot be broken. The sacrificed beasts and beastmen all had fire cores, making the curse even more potent. If my instinct is correct, I would need at least five tails to fight against it. Ratuna belongs to the wind tribe, Ysir to earth, but I am pure fire. So, even if I borrow their energy, at most, I would have three tails for a short period of time. Taking more than that would damage their life forces,” Seraphina summarized.
“We need to find more beastal energy. Better if they possess fire cores,” Deimos followed.
“But we can’t find them in such a short time,” Aegaeon roughly combed his already disheveled hair.
You do not have to, a glacial voice, penetrating yet unthreatening, startled the children as a winged lion emerged from the grand duke’s shadow.
“Ratuna,” the little girl sprang towards the humongous beast, clinging onto her pitch-black body covered with pulsating golden energy veins that illuminated the room.
“What do you mean?” Seraphina raised her head.
Shadow is an interesting existence. Just like a mirror reflection, it contains the living thing’s energy. When these extremely tiny sources of energy accumulate through thousands and millions of living things, we, the shadow beasts, are born. However, even after forming consciousness, a shadow is still a shadow. It can never leave the darkness that traps it in, only hearing and feeling the world through energies. That is until a Callenso’s aura unleashes it from its world. Callensos give us freedom, and we are grateful for that. When shadow masters die, their beasts self-destruct. They abandon their life forces, feeding all of their energy into the shadow world, empowering the birth of a new shadow beast, and their souls enter reincarnation. However, not all were fortunate. There is one shadow beast with a fire core that failed to self-destruct.
“Failed?” The grand duke repeated, his sharp mind instantly catching the point.
Its energy was far too violent and destructive that the shadow beast itself could not completely control it. Only with its master’s aura, it could tame that enormous amount of power. However, after the death of its master, it lost control of its energy, failed to self-destruct, and eventually turned into a shadow. No shadow beast wishes to return to that eternal prison… but it was given no choice.
“Whose shadow beast…” the second young master did not complete his question as the answer was already in his blood.
“The strongest shadow beast to ever descent the lands… a beast with a fire core,” Seraphina’s scalp tingled as epiphany found her.
“Ratuna, you are asking me to summon ‘her’?” Despite the child’s astounded expression stuck between laughter and weeping was the first to grace the Callensos, only a mute silence shrouded the room.
“If it was any other beast, then we could gamble. But her…” Ihan, the heir, took a breath to push down the heart that was threatening to spill through his throat.
“…let’s try it,” the little girl’s abrupt statement shocked the men.
“Seraphina,” the grand duke’s calm voice reverberated, neither forbidding nor encouraging, but only worrying.
“I’ve decided. I will do it, daddy. Her grace cannot hold on much longer. This is the one and the only right path. I, I will summon her… Cecilia’s shadow beast, Khilen, the basilisk.”
“So, you left just like that?” His low, rumbling voice tickled the child’s ears.
The grand duke’s slender yet powerful palms held the tiny claws of his bear daughter, playing with the doughy pale fingers, amused and fascinated by how such short, chubby things hid such tremendous bursting power.
Seraphina nodded, the jingling bells resting on her half-buns answering in her stead.
“Upset?” Amaris poked his daughter’s pouty cheeks tenderly.
“Just sad… Daddy, why do people always hurt someone’s precious?” the little girl mumbled.
Was I also such a hateful existence to… him? She could not help pondering as a pair of piercing crimson irises disturbed her mind. Soul-stirring eyes that used to gnaw her bones and rattle her teeth in terror.
“People are selfish, Seraphina. The same goes for me. I would hurt someone’s precious if it meant to protect mine,” her father’s tranquil voice led her away from the distant memory.
The child raised her head and locked her blinding golden orbs with the slightly darker ones. Her scalding eyes were truly breathtaking as they shone with profoundness without ripples whilst never losing the sparkling mischief. Even at such close proximity, he could not detect a speck of impurity in them.
The grand duke gently rubbed the edges of the upturned doe eyes, causing the child to blink repeatedly to wash away the ticklishness left behind by the thin callouses. Finally, Seraphina chuckled aloud as the gloom in her chest lightened with the tenderness brought by her father.
As the golden rays of the sun adorned the gentle hues of the evening, the doors to the study were knocked twice, and the young heir entered.
“Father,” Ihan called, his exhaustion plain to the ears.
“Ihan,” the man acknowledged, his gaze silently reassuring the young man.
“Father, younger sister,” the young man took his time in a silent study, calming his mind and steadying his shaken breath.
“The object of the curse… was not mother,” the heir’s first statement startled the child, causing her tiny being to jolt.
“Elder brother Deimos?” her milky voice trembled.
The grand duke patted the little girl’s back and explained in his smooth, velvety voice,
“Lilianne’s last pregnancy was different from the previous two. Her symptoms were the opposite, and even her aura, for the first time, was stable. When she carried Ihan and Aegaeon, her aura was unstable to the point of going berserk. Such contradiction… caused many to believe that the baby was a girl. Soon, the whole of the north was brimming in expectation to welcome the first ever female Callenso to be born after generations.”
“Someone wanted to turn the baby into a monster and… force daddy to kill his daughter with his own hands,” Unbeknownst to the father and son pair, the little girl’s pearly canines elongated silently as the tips bore hard to ignore itches.
“And Leah was the perfect pawn,” the heir affirmed.
“The method?” The grand duke steered the conversation, hoping to distract his little redhead from asking ‘why.’
Unfortunately, his understanding of his daughter still fell short as Seraphina immediately caught on to the man’s efforts to spare her from the wretchedness of the human heart.
Growing up in one crib, eating the same food, wearing the same clothes, and calling each other sisters... An endearment was what they had, and a friendship was what they had nurtured. However, in the face of the self and interest, all were for naught. Leah must have believed that they were equal, but the moment Lilianne got enthroned as the one and only grand duchess of Crevaria, the false belief shattered. Hiding her ugly heart and venomous intentions, passing each day drowning in greed and fantasy, waiting and stalking for that single moment to come before, finally, hunting. It was, indeed, a brilliant move. Father did not love her grace deeply but, nevertheless, held devotion for her as his other half and the mother of his children. If Lilianne had given birth to a daughter, it would probably have turned into more than that. Something that Leah could never possibly blemish or intervene. Therefore, the rumor of a female descendant must have pushed her to the limits. Moreover, the subjects and vassals would not tolerate a woman who gave birth to such a creature, a demonic monster, as their female lord. Even if father protected her position as a grand duchess, as a mother, Lilianne would have collapsed. The curse was the perfect solution… only if the child was truly a girl. However, it was Deimos, a boy, and the curse befell on her grace instead.
“She received a potion and a spell from an unknown sorcerer. When mother’s water broke, she stole her wet innerwear and poured the potion on it before feeding it into the fire. The spell was chanted until the fire burned out,” the young heir’s words pulled the little girl back from her wandering thoughts.
Instantaneously, Seraphina’s breath stalled a second when the word ‘sorcerer’ sunk.
A sorcerer… to the female descendant of House Callenso… No, don’t tell me… the little girl felt her stomach cramping in muted horror.
“As for the spell…” the young man halted for a moment before taking out a bloodied piece of paper from his pocket and read aloud slowly and clearly, syllable by syllable.
The grand duke and his son were oblivious to the words these unfamiliar and foreign sounds formed into as this seemingly rubbishy verbalizing was a language that they had never encountered before in their lives. However, the moment this strange string of articulation resonated into Seraphina’s head, her whole body dropped in temperature, bones aching, before flaring up like a roaring blaze, and her tiny body was terrorized by excruciating muscle spasms.
For her, an ancient divine beast, it was a reverberation, collapse, rage, and grief.
The anguish of the howling beasts and beastmen continued for ninety-nine nights. The bared fangs shattered, and the extended claws splintered. Their bodies wrecked, and their freedom smothered. The tortured souls wept in tears and blood as they cried to their gods to redeem them from their sufferings. Ninety-nine beasts and beastmen, abandoned by their gods, ninety-nine days and nights, with unanswered prayers, and ninety-nine drops of blood, from the hearts defeated with resentment. Your prayers will never end, and neither do your resentments. The fire will burn, your gods will listen, and the chosen one will bear. The girl born under the protection of the northern shadows will answer to your gods.
“Seraphina,” the grand duke’s worried whisper caressed the little girl’s ears.
He sensed the child’s body stiffening and her body heat rising rapidly as Ihan finished reading the incantation.
“Little sister,” the young heir also noticed the abnormalities of the little girl as her bright golden eyes started moistening and her pale ivory cheeks slowly burnt crimson, resembling her unruly waves. In the blink of an eye, her gaze lost focus, as her little hands balled into two ghastly fists.
“Seraphina!” Amaris’s alarmed roar resounded through the study as the child suddenly convulsed and threw up violently.
She heaved with short, broken breaths as tears cascaded against her resolve. However, only she herself understood that it was not a physiological reaction caused by retching.
“Fire, one of the sacred elements that the beasts and beastmen worshipped… One must never dirty the prayer’s fire with blood and filth, as it becomes the bridge to their gods… the supreme ancient divine beasts… and… and...” The little girl spoke between dry heaving and crying.
“Seraphina, calm down. Breathe slowly,” the grand duke hugged the child, patting her back as the heir opened the windows, allowing the slightly chilly summer breeze of the northern evening to greet the suffocating girl.
As the wind patted her wet cheeks and the air entering her lungs became fresher and livelier, Seraphina finally managed to subdue the stifling breathlessness.
“Please put me down,” she requested her father weakly.
As soon as the soles of her shoes hit the floor, she shifted into her fox form, her snowy white fur glimmering with faint hues of amber and violet, reflecting the rays of the evening sun. She jumped onto the window couch, coiled her tiny body into a ring, and let the heavy eyelids hide the ethereal goldens of her.
“Seraphina,” Amaris gently called for his daughter, his heart aching with the fragility of his daughter.
“All beasts and beastmen are under the rule of the supreme ancient divine beasts, the dragons. However, they are prideful and unrestrained creatures aloof from the secular world. So, instead, the four ancient divine beasts of four heavenly elements, rein. It is their duty to protect their people and beasts. The royal white stag of golden antlers, the ruler of the element earth, the two-tailed winged blue tiger, the ruler of the element wind, the queen of the mer clan, the ruler of the element water, and… the nine-tailed fox, the ruler of the element fire,” Seraphina spoke, her very being terrifyingly still.
“It was my kind. They captured, tortured, and slaughtered my kind. Ninety-nine beasts and beastmen were lost to make the potion, and it was their resentment that fed the curse,” she bit each word so that the whimpers would not escape her lips.
Seraphina’s grief was evident and much felt. After her rebirth, she swore to live for her family, the people who truly cherished and accepted her for who she was, redeem her sins for those she had hurt, and never waste emotions and affection for another. However, it seemed there was no room for such selfishness in this world. Under the blissful ignorance, a connection, such that Seraphina could never turn her back on, took root in her. And it hurt her immensely.
“… No mage or sorceress can undo the curse,” Seraphina finally opened her eyes, and the pain within still brewed fresh, visible to the Callensos.
“Little sister,” the young heir knelt on one knee in front of the tiny yet otherworldly elegant beast and gently patted her head like he always had, both in this life and the previous.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, coaxing his younger sister, despite he himself was breaking apart as the realization that his mother could not be saved sunk.
It has always been like this. No matter how hurt or how much pain you were in, you would gently smile at me as if everything was fine as if everything would be fine as long as I was.
The grand duke’s long, paced strides reached the brother and sister pair, and his large palm landed on his son’s head before ruffling the young heir’s fine long silver strands.
“Your sister said no mage or sorceress can undo. Not no one can undo,” he lightly flicked the teenager’s forehead, picked up the seemingly boneless furry creature, and let it nestle in his embrace with care.
The man’s words and actions were like a ray of splitting sunshine piercing through the dark gloomy clouds. It was unserious as it can be, yet wrung dry the heavy bitter air in the room whilst effortlessly herding the duo’s attention from grief-stricken loss back to the future where hope and expectations still prevailed.
.
.
.
The atmosphere was tense yet queerly comical. On an enormous bed sat a little girl, as solemn as her petite body, large doe eyes, untamed red curls, and ruffled pajama can make her appear, and facing her was a linear row of her family’s men, sitting in an orderly manner according to their heights and ranks.
“Why are you so stupid?” Shoulder-length silver-haired boy reprimanded, his breath full of despise and irritation.
“Who are you calling stupid, little devil!” A burly teenager donning honey-brown curls shot back.
“Can’t you two keep it down for a moment?” The eldest of the three questioned, his palm itching to smack their heads.
“Boys,” at last, a deep low voice shut the trio.
“In simple words, because I am too young, a cub to be precise, the curse cannot be broken. The sacrificed beasts and beastmen all had fire cores, making the curse even more potent. If my instinct is correct, I would need at least five tails to fight against it. Ratuna belongs to the wind tribe, Ysir to earth, but I am pure fire. So, even if I borrow their energy, at most, I would have three tails for a short period of time. Taking more than that would damage their life forces,” Seraphina summarized.
“We need to find more beastal energy. Better if they possess fire cores,” Deimos followed.
“But we can’t find them in such a short time,” Aegaeon roughly combed his already disheveled hair.
You do not have to, a glacial voice, penetrating yet unthreatening, startled the children as a winged lion emerged from the grand duke’s shadow.
“Ratuna,” the little girl sprang towards the humongous beast, clinging onto her pitch-black body covered with pulsating golden energy veins that illuminated the room.
“What do you mean?” Seraphina raised her head.
Shadow is an interesting existence. Just like a mirror reflection, it contains the living thing’s energy. When these extremely tiny sources of energy accumulate through thousands and millions of living things, we, the shadow beasts, are born. However, even after forming consciousness, a shadow is still a shadow. It can never leave the darkness that traps it in, only hearing and feeling the world through energies. That is until a Callenso’s aura unleashes it from its world. Callensos give us freedom, and we are grateful for that. When shadow masters die, their beasts self-destruct. They abandon their life forces, feeding all of their energy into the shadow world, empowering the birth of a new shadow beast, and their souls enter reincarnation. However, not all were fortunate. There is one shadow beast with a fire core that failed to self-destruct.
“Failed?” The grand duke repeated, his sharp mind instantly catching the point.
Its energy was far too violent and destructive that the shadow beast itself could not completely control it. Only with its master’s aura, it could tame that enormous amount of power. However, after the death of its master, it lost control of its energy, failed to self-destruct, and eventually turned into a shadow. No shadow beast wishes to return to that eternal prison… but it was given no choice.
“Whose shadow beast…” the second young master did not complete his question as the answer was already in his blood.
“The strongest shadow beast to ever descent the lands… a beast with a fire core,” Seraphina’s scalp tingled as epiphany found her.
“Ratuna, you are asking me to summon ‘her’?” Despite the child’s astounded expression stuck between laughter and weeping was the first to grace the Callensos, only a mute silence shrouded the room.
“If it was any other beast, then we could gamble. But her…” Ihan, the heir, took a breath to push down the heart that was threatening to spill through his throat.
“…let’s try it,” the little girl’s abrupt statement shocked the men.
“Seraphina,” the grand duke’s calm voice reverberated, neither forbidding nor encouraging, but only worrying.
“I’ve decided. I will do it, daddy. Her grace cannot hold on much longer. This is the one and the only right path. I, I will summon her… Cecilia’s shadow beast, Khilen, the basilisk.”
