And the light didn’t burn. It embraced.
The memory bent—and reshaped into something new.
Esther’s breath hitched as the scene shifted into a room she recognized only from descriptions: her parents’ private study.
Estella sat beside her father. His jaw clenched with worry.
“Arcturus,” Estella said softly, “you must arrange a marriage contract between Lupin and Kraggmar’s daughter.”
Esther’s heart stopped at the revelation.
Arcturus frowned. “Estella, why on earth—?”
“Because,” she said gently, “we will need Kraggmar’s alliance. In one of my visions, war comes to our doorstep. And only Kraggmar stands with us.”
“You’re certain?”
“I’m certain enough.”
She did not mention her death. She hid that truth with shaking resolve.
Esther pressed a hand over her mouth. Lupin was the one promised. Not her. She was never the sacrifice. She was the reason she fought so hard to prevent war. She was loved all this time.
Then—
“Mother! Father!”
A young Lupin burst into the room, terror twisting his face.
“It’s Essie—she collapsed—she’s not waking up—!”
Arcturus leapt to his feet. “What happened!?”
Lupin sobbed. “The maid—she brought her tea—then she—then Basil—”
The scene snapped into motion.
They ran.
The world blurred until Esther stood in the guest corridor she’d known all her life, but never like this—
Baroness Levon knelt on the floor, cradling a tiny, limp body: six-year-old Esther, unmoving in her lap.
“Please—please wake up,” the Baroness begged through tears.
Basil stood nearby, drenched in blood—his own and the maid’s. The maid’s chest was seared open. Basil’s arm hung uselessly.
“I—I stopped her,” he rasped. “She—she tried to self-destruct after poisoning the princess. I saved Irene. And Lupin. But—”
His knees buckled.
Arcturus fell beside his daughter with a strangled cry.
Estella went still. The world around her faded as she knelt, staring at the tiny child who wasn’t breathing.
“Arcturus,” she whispered, voice breaking, “hold her steady.”
He obeyed without question—because he already knew what his wife was about to do.
