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00:00On the road to my wedding, my parents killed me.
00:02All because my father once made a blood pact with the Fae King.
00:06After 16 years, he must send a daughter into the deep woods for the consummation rite.
00:11My sister had somehow glimpsed the Fae King's true face,
00:15and she threatened to die rather than let anyone else marry him.
00:18But none of them knew.
00:19I was the one the Fae E. King had searched for across 500 years.
00:24I floated in mid-air, looking down at my own body sprawled across the ground.
00:28The moon silk gown spread open around me, like a blood-soaked flower.
00:32The black blood at the corner of my lips drew no one's attention.
00:36My parents were too busy pulling the gown from my limbs so they could dress my sister, Lyra Vos.
00:42They were quietly relieved.
00:44Lyra slid into the gown that had always been mine.
00:47She stood in the moonlight.
00:49Crimson silk, snow-pale skin, radiant as a goddess descended from the Elysian realm.
00:55Her cheeks flushed, trembling with excited anticipation.
00:59Father, mother, am I more beautiful than sister?
01:03Will the Fae King love me?
01:04My mother stepped forward and patted her hand with a tenderness I had never once received.
01:10Lyra has a plain face and a stutter.
01:12She cannot compare to you by half.
01:14My mother sighed with exaggerated pity.
01:17Though the Fae King is said to be a great lord,
01:20he cannot escape his bloodthirsty nature.
01:22We were always going to send your sister to satisfy the monster's pleasures.
01:27Whatever happened to her, whether she lived or died, it was never our concern.
01:32But you, my darling,
01:34why would you throw away all the fine young lords of Valor City to chase a Fae King?
01:40Lyra's pretty brow creased in displeasure.
01:43Mother, you simply don't understand.
01:45Lord Valen is devastatingly beautiful, gentle, and refined.
01:49No mortal man could ever compare to him.
01:54Deep in the mountain forest, a strange piping melody suddenly rang out.
01:59The fox approaches, all mortals, make way.
02:02Dozens of red foxes materialized from the trees,
02:06dense and silent, perching on branches and boulders.
02:09Even in death, I felt my phantom skin crawl.
02:13A fox wearing boots and a hat walked forward with two legs, stopping before my family.
02:18My parents stiffened into a row, blocking my body from view.
02:22The fox's voice sharpened to a shriek.
02:25Why is there the scent of mortal blood here?
02:27My parents exchanged a glance.
02:30Cold sweat dripped.
02:31My wraith drifted toward the fox envoy.
02:34I thought perhaps being a creature of the Fae Ae realm, it could see me.
02:38Perhaps it would avenge me.
02:40Its dark green eyes turned in my direction for a single instant.
02:44Then Lyra raised her hand and said, sweetly,
02:47I accidentally cut my hand just now.
02:50I apologize for dirtying the great lord's domain.
02:53She lifted her pale fingers.
02:55A few drops of blood welled up.
02:57The fox envoy studied her.
02:59Are you the bride the master is to wed?
03:01Miss Lyra Vos?
03:03Indeed.
03:05By my father's commission,
03:06I am here to fulfill the blood pot made sixteen years ago.
03:10To wed the Fae King.
03:14If you dare deceive the Fae King,
03:16you will suffer the flay and shatter bone punishment.
03:20Your soul will be burned by verdant fox fire
03:23and no, no release for all eternity.
03:27The threat was so severe my mother almost lunged forward to drag Lyra back.
03:32But Lyra was beyond reason.
03:34I am Alera Vos.
03:36I am the promised bride Lord Vaylin has waited sixteen years for.
03:39The fox envoy turned and led the procession forward.
03:43The hour has come.
03:44The bride enters the palacus.
03:47Lyra lowered her veil.
03:48Her red lips curved into a smile of triumphant desire.
03:52She had gotten everything she wanted.
03:54Countless foxes came running,
03:56rising on two legs to lift the bridal palanquin
03:59and carry it into the black depths of the mountain forest.
04:05When the fox procession vanished,
04:07my mother sank to the ground with a sob.
04:09The wild mountains.
04:11A fox's lair.
04:12An unknown creature for my poor Lyra.
04:14What a cruel Fae.
04:16I drifted before her.
04:17Her tears passed through my palm like ice water.
04:20The one who was supposed to enter that lair
04:22to become the Fae King's bride.
04:24That was me.
04:25But my mother had never shed a single tear for me.
04:28Twenty years ago,
04:29my father had failed the imperial examinations repeatedly.
04:33The family was destitute.
04:34On a mountain road home,
04:36he encountered a Fae King in silver hair and crimson robes.
04:39The Fae King offered to grant him one wish.
04:42My father knelt and begged.
04:44I wanted wealth.
04:46I wanted rank.
04:48I wanted to rise without effort.
04:50Whatever the price,
04:51I would pay it.
04:52When a daughter was born,
04:53at her sixteenth year,
04:55she was to be brought into the mountains to be wed.
04:58My father agreed without hesitation.
05:00He signed the blood pact
05:02and pressed his bloody thumb to the paper.
05:04In the first year,
05:05my mother gave birth to me.
05:07There was no joy in it,
05:08only relief.
05:09A vessel to fulfill the contract.
05:11They handed me to a nursemaid named Mara,
05:14housed me in the outer cottage,
05:15and forgot me.
05:16Three years later,
05:18Lyra was born.
05:19She was everything her name promised.
05:21Farrah's starlight,
05:22enchanting beauty,
05:23able to speak at one year,
05:25compose verse at five,
05:26and by ten,
05:27dance among flowers
05:28while butterflies settled on her skirts.
05:31By comparison,
05:32I was plain beyond measure.
05:34I didn't even resemble my parents.
05:36And I stuttered.
05:37They came to loathe me.
05:38I was not permitted
05:39past the front gate of the main hall.
05:41I was not allowed to call them mother and father.
05:44On the night of my sixteenth birthday,
05:46I was to be wed.
05:47Before the procession departed,
05:49my mother brought me a farewell cup of wine.
05:52She had mixed poison into it.
05:56I watched my father lift Lyra in his arms,
05:59unblinking,
06:00and after they turned away,
06:02I climbed a tree,
06:02and pretended it was my father holding me.
06:05To earn even a shadow of that love,
06:07I made myself obedient in every way.
06:10When they said,
06:10I must marry the Fae King,
06:12I did not protest.
06:14When they handed me the wine,
06:15I did not suspect.
06:17I drank every drop,
06:18grateful and trembling with surprise at being seen at all.
06:22Inside the bridal palanquin,
06:24the poison took hold.
06:25I clawed at the wooden walls
06:27until my fingers were shredded and raw.
06:29The pain was absolute.
06:31Viscera burning,
06:32black blood spilling from my lips.
06:35And then,
06:35at last,
06:36I went still.
06:37My parents rushed into the mountains,
06:39not to save me.
06:41They could not wait for my body to cool before stripping the gown.
06:44She had glimpsed violin once,
06:46and from that moment,
06:47she had thought of nothing else.
06:49She begged.
06:50She starved herself.
06:52My parents relented.
06:53They decided that on the wedding night,
06:55once I had died,
06:56Lyra would take my place.
06:58I was their blood, too.
07:00From first breath to last,
07:01I had not received a single moment of tenderness.
07:04We cannot leave her body here to be found.
07:07My mother glanced at the cliff edge.
07:09Do we carry her down?
07:11My father looked into the bottomless dark below.
07:14Throw her over.
07:16Leave nothing behind.
07:17They lifted me.
07:18They tossed my body over the edge.
07:20The sound of impact drifted up a moment later.
07:24They exhaled.
07:27Finally,
07:28that cursed thing is gone.
07:32My body shattered.
07:34The chain on my spirit broke free.
07:36My parents slipped into the darkness
07:38and descended the mountain.
07:42Lyra stood in my moon silk gown.
07:46Her veil lowered.
07:46A single corner of the fabric
07:49bore a faint smear of my blood.
07:51She could only see her own feet.
07:53But I had arrived first.
07:55I could see him clearly.
07:57The one who should have been mine.
07:59His robes were the red of blazing fire.
08:01His silver hair fell unbound to his ankles.
08:04A golden fox mask covered his face,
08:07leaving only his eyes exposed.
08:09Jade green, lucid, and still.
08:12He tensed, turned toward me.
08:14But Lyra caught his hand.
08:19Phelan,
08:20I am frightened.
08:22Her voice was honeyed, trembling.
08:24I remembered the voice she had used
08:26when I lay dying in the palanquin.
08:28Alara,
08:29you are plain and dull
08:31and can't even finish a sentence.
08:33If your own parents don't love you,
08:35why would the Fae King?
08:36Only I deserve to be his wife.
08:39My unwedded husband.
08:41His name was Violent Nightwale.
08:43Violent withdrew his gaze.
08:46Don't be afraid.
08:47I am here.
08:49Through the veil, Lyra's eyes glimmered.
08:51Her cheeks flushed.
08:52They bowed before heaven and earth.
08:55Valen Nightwale and Alara Vos.
08:57May this union endure.
08:59May this bond hold till silver turns to white.
09:03Golden script flared in the air.
09:05The blood pact my father had signed,
09:07but the light did not fade.
09:09The pact did not settle.
09:11A crack of thunder split the air
09:13and slammed into the candles on the altar.
09:15Even Lyra,
09:16so confident a moment before,
09:18went rigid with terror.
09:23Valen's true form rose without warning.
09:26Immense, snow-white,
09:28eight-tailed Fae form filling the chamber.
09:31His jade-green eyes bled to crimson.
09:33Talons closed around Lyra's shoulders.
09:36One twitch,
09:36and she would dissolve into nothing.
09:38The vast white fox lowered its head.
09:42You are not Alara.
09:44Where have you hidden her?
09:46Tell me.
09:48Lyra struggled beneath his talons.
09:50Tears streamed down her cheeks.
09:53Husband.
09:55I am Alara.
09:57I swear it.
09:58Valen reacted as if struck.
10:00His crimson beast.
10:02Eyes filled with surging, murderous intent.
10:05Who are you?
10:06Alara does not look like this.
10:08He lowered his face and inhaled,
10:10slow.
10:11You carry her blood scent.
10:13Where is she?
10:15Faced with a creature whose eyes made her look no bigger than a mote of dust.
10:19Lyra's composure finally shattered.
10:22She wept openly.
10:23I admit it.
10:25I am not Alara.
10:26But I love you sincerely.
10:28I don't care what you are.
10:30I'm not afraid of you.
10:31I only want to be your wife.
10:33I am more beautiful than her.
10:35I can compose poetry and paint.
10:38My family raised me to be the finest lady in all Velar City.
10:41The fairest lady of Velaria.
10:43I could bewitch all beings.
10:46Alara is nothing.
10:47She stutters.
10:48She cowers.
10:49She is useless.
10:50The blood pact only said a daughter must be sent.
10:53It named no specific daughter.
10:55Why should it not be me?
10:57I am the one worthy of a fey king who could bewitch all beings.
11:00He pinned her hand beneath his paw.
11:03Filthy mortal.
11:04You think you may touch me?
11:09Lyra's arm cracked beneath his paw.
11:12She screamed.
11:13My arm!
11:14To steal another's name brings the flay and shatter bone punishment.
11:19Your soul burns in verdant foxfire and never escapes.
11:22No!
11:23Please!
11:26I am beautiful!
11:28You wouldn't...
11:29I...
11:30I only love you!
11:32I only want...
11:33You coveted what was never yours.
11:36Does that not deserve death?
11:40Lyra's body rose into the air.
11:43She floated directly before my wraith.
11:45Her limbs were split open by invisible blades.
11:49The wraith that had been Lyra thrashed against an unseen boundary, trying to flee.
11:54Finding no escape, she turned to me.
11:56I was wrong!
11:57I should never have had you killed!
11:59Should never have stolen your intended!
12:01Beg the fey king on my behalf!
12:03Ask him to let me go!
12:04He could not see me, but he could see Lyra.
12:08Blood mist reddened his golden mask.
12:10Still you won't tell me.
12:12Where is Ellara?
12:16He raised his palm.
12:18Verdant foxfire gathered.
12:20Lyra broke.
12:21I'll tell you!
12:22She is dead!
12:23She died on the road here!
12:24She is at the base of the mountain!
12:26The verdant foxfire consumed Lyra's soul.
12:30Her shriek was deafening.
12:39I drifted before Valen.
12:41I opened my mouth to speak.
12:43He kept his head low, silver hair dripping blood.
12:48He was the fey king.
12:50At that moment his soul was shattering.
12:52He was nearly mad.
12:54His red robes swept past me.
12:56He had forgotten he could ride the wind.
12:59I followed Valen down the mountain path watching him stumble.
13:03He fell hard, did not stop to heal the wound, hauled himself up, and followed the blood scent.
13:20He found me at the base of the 10,000 foot cliff.
13:23My body was unrecognizable.
13:26He released a sound from somewhere beneath grief.
13:32He removed his crimson robe.
13:35His jade-green eyes had gone hollow, like two windows with nothing behind them.
13:40Tears fell into the blood pooled around me.
13:43Five hundred years I have harmed no one.
13:47Cosmic order, why can you still not let her be?
13:51So it was true.
13:52Even Feye could cry.
13:54I reached to brush the tears from his face.
13:56My spirit passed through him like smoke.
13:58Perhaps he felt the shift in the air.
14:00He lifted his head, searching.
14:02Alara, where are you?
14:04Alara!
14:05Alara!
14:06Alara!
14:07He might as well have been on opposite banks of the Eternal River.
14:10When searching wore him down.
14:12When hope drained out, he limped back to my body.
14:16He became a small white fox.
14:19He made a sound, soft.
14:21He cried.
14:21And while he cried, he licked my body back into shape.
14:25Piece by piece, reassembling what had been destroyed.
14:28He raised his small, round head and looked at it.
14:31Alara, I will bring you back.
14:34Whatever it costs.
14:38A memory surfaced.
14:40In the deep winter of my 15th year,
14:43Lyra and I both fell through the ice on a frozen pond.
14:46Help!
14:48Help me!
14:50Everyone rushed to save her.
14:51I sank alone.
15:02In the dark freezing water, someone pulled me up.
15:05Warm lips broke open my teeth.
15:07Air rushed in.
15:08On instinct, I clutched him and breathed him in.
15:11I spent the next several days in a fever.
15:13Mara was old and her care was imperfect.
15:15But at night, someone sat at my bedside.
15:18Don't be afraid, Alara.
15:19I'm here.
15:21Drink this.
15:22It has fey blood in it.
15:24You will recover quickly.
15:26In the fever haze, I heard Lyra come storming across the yard with her attendants.
15:30But she stopped in the doorway, stood rigid for a moment, and fled in silence.
15:35He shifted back to his fey form.
15:38He pressed his fey core against my cold, discolored lips.
15:42Don't.
15:43Don't.
15:44The pale, gleaming core still entered my body.
15:47I did not wake.
15:48Then a force seized my soul and dragged it.
15:52Backward.
15:53Deep.
15:55Through time.
16:00When the vertigo passed, I sat up.
16:02I did not recognize this room.
16:05A girl burst in.
16:06Third sister!
16:07Is the wound from the Abyssal Venom manga still giving you trouble?
16:10Do you know what father and uncle caught this time?
16:13A dream wreath?
16:15A serpent shade?
16:17Neither.
16:18The creature locked in the Erther cage right now is a completely snow-white fox king.
16:27Just waiting to be presented to Lady Serafina in exchange for a royal reward.
16:32Drawing fragments of memory from the servants I passed.
16:34This was 500 years ago.
16:36The Aleth Empire, when monsters roamed freely.
16:39I was Lyra Vos, third daughter of House Vos, one of the great monster hunter dynasties.
16:44Monster hunters captured and tamed fey creatures, delivered them to the imperial court.
16:48House Vos was the most celebrated of all.
16:52I found a tall Aether cage.
16:55Inside it, a white fox dozed lazily, pure fur, three enormous tails already behind him.
17:02He sensed my approach.
17:04Pale green eyes opened.
17:06Valen?
17:12A nameless little monster hunter.
17:14I crossed to the Aether cage.
17:15And yet you know my name.
17:18I am Alera Vos.
17:20500 years from now, you use your fey core trying to bring you back to life.
17:22His jade green eyes looked down at me with contempt.
17:27The fey core is my life's work.
17:30Why would I surrender it for one insignificant mortal?
17:34Little monster hunter.
17:36I have lived longer than you can imagine.
17:40I have eaten more people than you have ever seen.
17:43Try a story worth believing.
17:47Is there any way to send me back 500 years?
17:51The other Valen is still out there, waiting for me.
17:54Come closer.
17:55The Aether cage was built from a special material.
17:58If a fey creature touched the bars, the iron seared and scorched.
18:02Fey blood ran down the wound.
18:04I did not move.
18:05My eyes stung.
18:12He pressed forward anyway, indifferent to the pain.
18:15His small pink nose extended through the iron bars, sniffing along the length of me.
18:21Peculious.
18:22You do carry the trace of my fey core.
18:25Little monster hunter.
18:26What exactly are you?
18:28I turned, reaching to touch his nose.
18:30He had already pulled back.
18:31Those jade eyes appraised me.
18:33Yellow-haired girl.
18:35Average height.
18:36Average face.
18:37Not even equal to the lowest forest searing in my court.
18:41How could I possibly be bewitched by you?
18:44Why would I carve out my own core?
18:47I sputtered.
18:48My face burned.
18:50I pressed my hand to my chest.
18:52I am young.
18:52I will grow.
18:53I might become quite beautiful.
18:55Though really, who could rival Valen?
18:58A fey beauty was the crown of all creatures.
19:00He flicked a glance at where my hand pressed.
19:03I will wait for you to grow up.
19:04Mortal lives are only a hundred years.
19:06Barely a blink.
19:07It will pass.
19:08The hall doors opened.
19:10A young man in blue robes swept in, full of Green Peak Order power.
19:14Poised and extraordinary.
19:16His name surfaced in my borrowed memory.
19:19Kaol.
19:20It came out before I could stop it.
19:22Kaol.
19:23Lightward.
19:23The most gifted monster.
19:29Hunter of his generation.
19:30He had captured Valen with his own hands.
19:33His amber eyes went straight to the unhealed wound on Valen's side.
19:37His voice dropped to frost.
19:39Did the creature try to hurt you?
19:41No!
19:42But he was already drawing the black void whip and landing it across Valen's exposed eye.
19:48Beast.
19:49You are what you are.
19:51Fae must be broken.
19:53Must be taught.
19:55Valen didn't flinch.
19:57He sat perfectly still.
19:59A faint sneer on his beautiful fox face.
20:01The lashes fell.
20:03Blood soaked his white fur.
20:05I couldn't stand it.
20:06I grabbed Kyle's arm.
20:07Brother, stop!
20:08Please!
20:09Memory told me.
20:11Kyle and I had grown up together.
20:12We had entered the Green Peak Order side by side.
20:15He had always been slightly indulgent toward me.
20:18Kyle rolled up the void whip with unhurried calm.
20:22He reached over and touched the top of my head.
20:24Alara.
20:25Your abyssal venom wound isn't healed yet.
20:27The fae aura in here is heavy and foul.
20:30Go outside.
20:31This training isn't something you should watch.
20:33Valen's eyes snapped open.
20:35He spoke in the voice of a king.
20:37Remove your hand from her.
20:39Now.
20:43That single command enraged Kale completely.
20:46He drew the Demon Slayer sword.
20:48I went pale.
20:50Kale spoke a binding word.
20:51Invisible force pushed me toward the exit.
20:54The hall doors locked behind me.
20:56No matter what I did, they would not open.
20:59I waited until deep night, when the monster hunters had gone.
21:03I slipped into the hall.
21:04Violin lay in the ether cage, barely breathing.
21:08Fie blood spattered the floor in every direction.
21:11I pressed my hand over my mouth.
21:13After a long moment, I called his name very quietly.
21:17I threaded my small hand through the iron bars and stroked his large round fox head.
21:22The three tails that had always been proud and upright lay limp behind him.
21:26Even the fur under my palm felt cold and slick.
21:29It reminded me of a small white dog.
21:31Mara and I had kept in the outer cottage.
21:34Our little family.
21:35Depending on each other.
21:36Lyra had hated it for barking at her.
21:39She had ordered the servants drown it.
21:41I had searched for a full day.
21:43I found the small body floating on the surface of the river.
21:47When I pulled it from the water, it had felt like this.
21:50Cold and stiff.
21:51The warm fur matted into wet, clinging strands around my fingers.
21:55The ether cage suppressed his power.
21:58He could not heal himself.
22:00Left like this, he would either break or die.
22:03I drew the dagger from my belt.
22:05I opened the vein at my wrist.
22:08Warm blood welled up.
22:09I reached inside the cage.
22:11Drink this.
22:13Stay alive.
22:15Fae healed when they fed.
22:16It was why they could not be truly exterminated.
22:19A creature this powerful, given one meal, could recover from near death.
22:24What do you think you are doing?
22:27Offering a Fae king the blood of a monster hunter?
22:31I missed the gentle Valen from 500 years forward.
22:35This one was all fangs and pride.
22:37I grabbed the scruff of his neck and pulled him toward my wrist.
22:47Drink.
22:48Live.
22:49If you dare die.
22:51If he died, I had no way back.
22:53But that was not what frightened me.
22:54He hesitated.
22:55Then the rough, dragging sensation of his tongue found my skin.
22:59It hurt a little.
23:00He did not hold back.
23:01His teeth drew fresh cuts, letting the blood flow faster.
23:04I fed him for a long time, watching the wounds across his body close before withdrawing my hand.
23:10I'll come back tomorrow.
23:11When I stood, the room tilted.
23:13I braced against the cage to keep from falling.
23:16Valen watched me.
23:18Very still.
23:19His voice, when it came, was quiet.
23:22Why did you save me?
23:27Because you matter to me.
23:29I was deliberately vague.
23:31He let it go.
23:32I walked out of the hall and nearly stepped into Kale.
23:35He caught me when I stumbled.
23:37Lara, what's wrong?
23:38I pressed my arm against my side and told him the abyssal venom was flaring again.
23:43Come.
23:44I'll carry you.
23:45Kale was composed exceptional.
23:47Cold to almost everyone.
23:49Half the Green Peak Order were quietly in love with him.
23:52Yet here he was, lowering his straight spine to offer his back.
23:57It's fine.
23:57Kale, I'm fine.
23:58I bolted.
23:59His voice drifted after me, level and cool.
24:03The Fox King is a master of glamour.
24:05He is the apex of his kind.
24:08If he ever escapes, House Vos will not be enough to stop him.
24:14Alara, do not go near him again.
24:19The next morning, Sarah Vos, second daughter of the house, the girl who had been with me
24:24the day before, sat at my bedside, crunching a peach.
24:28Kale says your wound hasn't healed.
24:30He specially asked me to come keep you company.
24:33Tell me honestly, does Kale have feelings for you?
24:37He's the most outstanding of our generation.
24:41Half the noble families in Velour City are trying to align themselves with him.
24:45Valen had taken so much blood the night before, that even after sleeping, I was still dizzy.
24:51From outside came the crack of a whip.
24:53What's happening out there?
24:55Sarah glanced through the window.
24:57Taming session.
24:59They used void whips and binding tools on the caged creatures.
25:02The proud ones.
25:03The defiant ones.
25:04They died, rather than submit.
25:10Who are they working on today?
25:12My voice shook.
25:14Third sister.
25:15You're like a different person since the abysmium venom.
25:19It shouldn't affect your mind.
25:21Small creatures break quickly when they come to house Vos, obviously.
25:25But yesterday's catch is another matter.
25:27That fox king.
25:28Before she finished, I was already running.
25:31The Aether Seal formation had been set at the center of the training room.
25:35My father and two brothers were there with Kale, each holding a binding tool, striking from all directions.
25:42Blood, endless, fatal, cooling into the center of the formation.
25:46He could not hold his Fai-A form.
25:48He shifted into his human shape.
25:50He was covered entirely in red.
25:52No way to tell wound from wound.
25:54I stood in the doorway, trembling.
25:57Sarah's grip tightened on my hand.
25:59Her eyes were sharp as broken glass.
26:02You wouldn't plead for a Fai creature.
26:04This is our family's sacred duty.
26:05You never flinched before.
26:07She stopped, her face filled with horror.
26:10Allura, do you have feelings for this fox king?
26:13I corrected her quickly.
26:14I'm worried about Kale.
26:16If the creature breaks the formation...
26:19Right, right.
26:20You and Kale, everyone can see it.
26:22Once this fox king is sent to the palace as a gift for Lady Nephalena, I'll ask father to let
26:28you two wed.
26:29Even from that distance, through the formation, Valen could not have heard me, but he raised his head anyway.
26:36Through a curtain of silver hair, his extraordinary face turned toward me.
26:40His crimson eyes flickered.
26:42Rage, betrayal, and the specific pain of someone who has been deceived by the one they trusted.
26:48Then the broken, near-death creature exploded into motion.
26:51He tore through the Aether cage, lunged at Kale, and a fourth tail burst from his body.
26:57That night, the servants of House Vos scrubbed up the blood in the Aether seal formation.
27:02There was too much of it.
27:04They could not wash it clean.
27:05Some was my father's.
27:07Some was Kale's.
27:08Some was Valen's.
27:09He had grown a fourth tail in his fillet.
27:13Terrifyingly powerful, but still not enough.
27:16He had wounded my father and Kale before being driven into the deepest chamber of the Spire of Shadows.
27:2618 levels, white bone and no light.
27:29All the great Faea creatures that could not be broken were locked in its depths, left to drain away across
27:35centuries until they died.
27:37I could not imagine what he was enduring in there.
27:39My blood had been of no use to him after all.
27:42With wounds that severe, how long until he recovered?
27:45The Spire of Shadows was House Vos' forbidden ground.
27:49No one but the head of the family could approach.
27:52When Kale came to see me that evening, I turned him away.
27:56That was the last time I ever saw him.
27:59The next day, House Vos was destroyed.
28:01Lady Serafina had been leaning over the edge of Moonbloom Pond, admiring the fish.
28:07The Lunar Koi Leviathan leaped from the water and swallowed her herd.
28:11Emperor Valerius was stricken with terror.
28:13He called in every monster hunter in the empire.
28:17Together they slaughtered the Leviathan, and inside its stomach they found what remained of Lady Serafina, just bones.
28:23The Lunar Koi had been tamed by House Vos, delivered to the palace as a prize.
28:28No one had thought to check whether its submission was genuine.
28:32It had hated, it had waited, it had bided its time.
28:35The emperor trembled at how close he had come.
28:38He ordered every Faea creature in the palace purged, then decreed in secret, eliminate House Vos entirely.
28:45Let them serve as Lady Serafina's burial price.
28:48The slaughter came at midnight.
28:50House Vos was asleep when the blades found their throats.
28:54There were screams.
28:55Then running, then dying in the dark.
28:58The emperor had given the order, no survivors.
29:00Tens of thousands of imperial soldiers formed an unbroken ring around the estate.
29:06Those who escaped the house were cut down silently before they could make a sound.
29:10House Vos fought back, binding tools against arrows.
29:14The soldiers used children and elders as hostages, demanding the hunters lay down their weapons.
29:20Sera and I shared a courtyard.
29:22She pulled me through a landscape of fire and bodies, searching for any path out.
29:27We were both young, only a handful of hunts behind us, no binding tools of our own.
29:35Soldiers caught Sera, right in front of me, they cut her throat.
29:39Blood spread like a curtain pulled open.
29:42Alara, run!
29:44Find Kale, make him!
29:46Those were her last words.
29:48I didn't make it out either.
29:49An arrow capped in my back.
29:51I went cold and fell into the blood.
29:53The soldiers counted bodies.
29:54They thought I was dead.
29:57418 members of House Vos.
29:59Not one missing.
30:01Including elders, women and children.
30:05They set the estate on fire.
30:07After they left, I dragged myself across the scorched earth with my fingers,
30:11inching through the blood and ash toward the spire of shadows.
30:15With my father dead, the seal had broken.
30:17I pried open the entrance and fell through,
30:20until I landed in a heap of white bones at the deepest level.
30:23A thin shaft of pale dawn came through the narrow opening above.
30:26Every bone in my body was shattered.
30:28Every inch of my body burned.
30:30I found him, still bound in chains.
30:33He sat on a stone bench, silver hair to his ankles.
30:37Posture exquisite, utterly composed, utterly cold.
30:40Like a king who had merely relocated his throne.
30:43His upswept fey eyes half-lidded when he saw me.
30:46The third daughter of House Vos.
30:48What a wretched sight you are.
30:54Did your beloved Kael not come to collect his bride?
30:57I was in agony.
30:59I smile.
31:00House Vos was destroyed.
31:02Lloyd, I need one of your tails to keep me alive long enough to finish what I have to do.
31:09He leaned forward.
31:10His chained hand closed hard around my jaw.
31:13His fingers were ice, but no colder than the hollow in my chest.
31:17One hundred years of cultivation grows a single tail.
31:21Daughter of House Vos.
31:23Are you worth it?
31:24With my blood, I fed you.
31:28The blood from my coughing caught his palm.
31:31He pulled his hand back with faint revulsion.
31:33Yes.
31:34You fed me.
31:36You kept me alive to be captured properly.
31:39To be sent to the palace and used by Lady Serafana.
31:42And to perform at the pleasure of a filthy mortal every night.
31:48I didn't know.
31:49That was not part of Alera Vos's memory.
31:53No one had told me.
31:55Born into a hundred year dynasty of monster hunters and you didn't know?
32:01House Vos built its glory.
32:05Precisely on arrangements like that.
32:07Beloved by the Imperial Court precisely because of it.
32:11His hatred had calcified.
32:13There was nothing I could say.
32:14I reached for the iron locking his chains instead and split it open with the last of my house Vos
32:20blood power.
32:21Go.
32:22Call it repacement.
32:25For the fey core you'll give me in five hundred years.
32:29My jaw shook.
32:30I lay down in the bones and waited to dissolve.
32:33He didn't hesitate.
32:35He walked past me and left.
32:37Maybe if I died, I would return to Alera Vos's body.
32:40My limbs had gone cold.
32:42Only a point of warmth remained at my sternum.
32:45Then Violin came back.
32:47He flung a freshly severed tail at my feet.
32:50He was grinding his teeth.
32:52I have given you a tail.
32:54Your life is mine.
32:57Whatever I say, you obey.
33:01Betray me again.
33:03And no second chance.
33:05The white tail merged into my body.
33:08My shattered bones sealed.
33:09The Faki blood transformed me.
33:12It shifted my face.
33:14Softened it.
33:15Gave it a fey quality that mortals could not resist.
33:18It made me half mortal.
33:20Half fey.
33:22Yes.
33:23Everything I am is yours.
33:25I will not betray you again.
33:27Valen seemed to let go of something.
33:29He gathered me up.
33:30Pressed his face into my neck like a small creature seeking warmth.
33:34And muttered low.
33:35You should have said so from the beginning.
33:38And I forbid you to marry Kale.
33:41There was no more Alera Vos in the world.
33:43In the Imperial Palace.
33:45There was a new Lady Alera.
33:47The debt the Imperial family owed was to be repaid with their dynasty.
33:52One melody on the Lunar Lyre made Emperor Valerius lift his head.
33:56My half fey face held him transfixed.
33:58That night he summoned me to his chamber, impatient and wanting.
34:02His hand found the small of my back.
34:05I pressed my lips to his ear.
34:07Your Majesty.
34:09I will show you what it truly means to be blessed.
34:13He did not touch me.
34:14He collapsed on the Imperial bed, unconscious.
34:18Valen stepped from behind the bed curtains.
34:20Fang showing, visibly annoyed.
34:26Who gave him permission to touch you?
34:28I laughed.
34:32If I don't let the Emperor sink into decadence, how do I bring down his dynasty?
34:38I'm helping you.
34:40You could do it differently.
34:41He scowled.
34:42And a faint flush spread across his porcelain face, his eyes bright with feeling.
34:47If he had been a woman with the will to destroy kingdoms, one word from him would have been
34:52enough to make any ruler hand over his throne.
34:55I turned back to the window.
34:56Mortals have a hundred years.
34:59Fae have a thousand, or more.
35:02And the chance at ascension.
35:05I cannot be slow.
35:07I might not have enough time to topple his empire.
35:11He went still, the truth beneath my words.
35:13I was not even truly alive.
35:15I was a dead girl kept breathing by his Fae blood and sheer stubbornness.
35:20He reached for my hand and pulled me up to the palace roof, landing on the curved tiles
35:25in one leap.
35:26Why here, my hand stayed in his, to watch the moon.
35:30You've been a Fae creature for five hundred years and you still haven't seen enough of
35:34the moon?
35:35I stopped resisting.
35:37I lay down beside him and looked up.
35:39His long silver hair spread across the tiles.
35:41His face, impossibly beautiful, was better to look at than the moon.
35:45On the night of the full moon, a Fae creature's power is dampened.
35:51This is the cosmic order.
35:53It evens what is uneven.
35:55As he spoke, he became a small white fox, small enough to curl into my lap.
36:01He nestled into my arms, making soft sounds and was soon asleep.
36:05I had never been able to resist small, soft, warm creatures.
36:09Mara used to scold me, but I still smuggled the little dog into my blankets.
36:13How much less could I resist this snow-white fox with his luminous fur and perfect little
36:19pink nose?
36:20I had been watching, since the day I found him in the Aether Cage.
36:23In his sleep, Violin sneezed, he murmured.
36:27There will be a way.
36:28By morning, Emperor Valerius believed he had spent the night in paradise.
36:32He made me his imperial consort and buried me in gifts.
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