Sleep never came quietly to queens.
And for Aurelia, it came dragging claws.
The chamber was still ...too still. Even the sea below the cliffs of valkoron had gone mute, as if holding its breath. Aurelia turned in her sheets, restless, her skin slick with sweat.
The night pressed down heavy and thick, and then, without warning, the world folded in on itself.
She was dreaming.
And the dream was made of fire.
She stood on a plain of black stone, the sky bleeding with streaks of red light. The air trembled; the earth groaned.
Then the ground split open.
From its depths rose a woman too vast for the world that tried to contain her ... a giant wreathed in flame. Her hair blazed like molten rivers, her skin burnished gold beneath the inferno. Cloth clung only where it dared, half-consumed by her own fire.
Each step she took made the ground quake. Lava gushed where her feet touched. The air burned with her breath.
Aurelia wanted to run.
But she couldn't move.
The giant's burning eyes ... twin suns of amber .... locked on her.
"You carry what they tried to bury," the titan's voice thundered, shaking the black sky.
"And when the storm meets the flame… the world will remember what it lost."
Aurelia's mouth opened, but her voice couldn't be heard, no sound came. Then a memory came to her, it was faint and she couldn't make out what it was. Then she saw a pool, a very beautiful pool. Then the memory vanished again
Behind the flame, the air darkened, something else stirred ,something vast moving in the distance....a shadow at the edge of the horizon.
It moved like smoke given life, It slithered closer, vast and dark, shifting between forms ... man, beast, and something beyond either. Its voice was the sound of wind over graves
"You were chained for a reason, Daughter of Fire," it hissed.
"Stay buried. Or burn them all."
The titan's fury flared, it's flames surging higher.
"I was fire before their chains. I was life before their lies!"
The two collided .... flame and shadow, Their collision tore the dream apart. Their clash split the world apart.
Fire exploded into the sky, darkness swallowed light, and for one heartbeat, Aurelia saw them both ...the titan's blazing hand reaching out toward her, her voice echoing through the ruin.
"Wake, my ember."
Aurelia screamed.
She bolted upright, breath ragged, her nightgown plastered to her skin.
"Lady Aurelia!"
Gwen burst in barefoot, hair tangled, sleep forgotten. Her bed of blankets by the wall was still warm where she'd been moments ago.
"My lady, what happened? Are you hurt?"
Aurelia pressed a trembling hand to her temple. "No… no, I just..." She swallowed hard. "The dreams are back."
Gwen froze. "The same one?"
Aurelia shook her head slowly. "No. Worse, this one was different. There was a woman ... enormous,taller than any mountain I've seen.
Her hair on fire, Gwen. She said something about... what they buried. And she fought something dark. I could feel the heat, Gwen. It burned."
Gwen came closer, her voice soft but urgent. "You're feverish again...."
"It's not fever," Aurelia whispered, staring at her trembling palms. "I could feel her heat. It was real. I could smell the smoke."
Gwen hesitated, then sat beside her. "You've dreamt strange things before, my lady. But maybe this one is just your mind..."
"No," Aurelia said sharply. Her eyes glowed faintly for a heartbeat ... gold. Gwen saw it and drew back
"Aurelia…"
"She's trying to tell me something," Aurelia whispered, more to herself than to Gwen. "Something that's waking inside me."
*****
Far across the castle, Vaelric Stormborne stood on his balcony, staring into the storm.
The clouds were bleeding red .... lightning forked through them like open wounds. He raised his hand, and the storm stilled for a breath.
A spark flickered to life in his palm. Tiny. Trembling. Fire.
He watched it burn, his eyes unreadable.
"Finally," he murmured. "It's begun."
He turned toward the heart of the palace, where his mother slept. The fire dimmed, then flared once more before dying in his fist.
"I hope you remember mother" he said quietly to the wind. " hope you both will remember."
Thunder rolled in reply, shaking the spires.
"It's coming," he added, voice almost lost to the storm. "And may the gods pity what stands in my way."
****
By morning, the skies cleared, leaving behind a silence that felt too deliberate.
Aurelia sat beside Valerian at the long breakfast table, her thoughts elsewhere. Sunlight poured through the tall windows, making her hair shimmer pale gold. She hadn't spoken much ... not of the dream, nor of the lingering hum under her skin.
The Queen Mother's chair sat empty, deliberately so. Lady Aelira had refused to dine "with the cursed creature."
But Valerian seemed unconcerned. "If she disapproves, she can eat in her garden," he said flatly, breaking a piece of bread.
Across from them, Princess Levina glanced between them with practiced grace. Her husband, Ser Corvin, looked as if he wished himself anywhere else.
"Your Majesty," Levina began, her tone sweet but cautious, "the court is still... unsettled by your choice. The city too."
"Let them be unsettled," Valerian said, sipping his wine. "The throne doesn't shake just because tongues do."
Corvin cleared his throat. "Perhaps easing them into it...perhaps keeping the Queen from public view for a time might..."
Valerian's gaze cut to him like a blade. "Hide her, you mean?"
Corvin swallowed. "I didn't..."
"I know what you meant," Valerian said quietly, but the air in the room seemed to grow heavier. Then, with deliberate calm, he reached for Aurelia's hand.
The gesture was small. But in the echoing hall, it sounded like a declaration.
"She is my Queen," he said, voice low, final. "And she stands beside me. Anyone who finds that unbearable may find another nation to serve."
The silence that followed was sharp as glass.
Levina smiled faintly, breaking it first. "Well," she said, her eyes glinting, "the storm has always chosen its own lightning."
Aurelia managed a small, genuine smile.
For the first time that morning, her pulse steadied.
But deep beneath the castle floors ... beyond stone, beyond light ... something ancient stirred. The faintest tremor of heat rolled through the dark.
Something was waking.