00:00Every woman who touched the Raven King died within seven days.
00:06Some turned to ice in their sleep.
00:09Some stopped breathing while whispering his name.
00:12One clawed her own eyes out after seeing the darkness living inside him.
00:18For three centuries, the kingdom of Noctis watched queens, servants, and lovers perish the moment they loved Elian Vare.
00:31So the king stopped allowing anyone near him.
00:35No touch, no warmth, no love.
00:40Then one night, a servant girl walked into his throne room and survived his touch.
00:50That was the moment the curse began to panic.
00:55The first thing Mira noticed about the fortress was the silence.
01:00Not normal silence.
01:03Dead silence.
01:05No birds sang above the black towers.
01:09No servants laughed in the halls.
01:12Even the fireplaces crackled softly, as if afraid of disturbing something ancient.
01:18Lurking inside the walls.
01:22People whispered only one thing there.
01:25The Raven King.
01:28Mira had heard the stories long before arriving in Noctis.
01:33A cursed ruler.
01:35A monster wearing a human face.
01:37A king whose lovers died screaming.
01:42But stories never frightened her much anymore.
01:46Not after the plague took her mother.
01:48Not after watching her younger brother freeze to death during the winter famine,
01:53while nobles locked their grain stores behind iron gates.
01:58Fear stopped meaning anything after enough suffering.
02:03That was why she accepted the servant contract.
02:07Either she survived the cursed castle, or she died somewhere warm.
02:12The throne room doors groaned open.
02:16And for the first time, Mira saw him.
02:21Elion sat upon a throne carved from black stone and raven bones,
02:27cloaked in shadows so heavy they almost looked alive.
02:30His silver eyes were fixed on the court below him with cold indifference.
02:37Beautiful.
02:39Terrifying.
02:41Exhausted.
02:43That was what surprised her most.
02:46The king did not look evil.
02:48He looked tired.
02:51Then his gaze lifted toward her.
02:55The entire room changed.
02:58A violent pressure slammed through Elion's chest so suddenly his fingers crushed the armrest beneath him.
03:07Crack.
03:08Stone shattered.
03:10The curse awakened instantly.
03:14Inside his veins, darkness writhed like starving snakes.
03:20Her.
03:22After three hundred years, his mate had finally appeared.
03:29And the curse was already hungry for her.
03:34Elion avoided her for thirteen days.
03:38He assigned guards to protect her from a distance.
03:41Moved her quarters farther from his own.
03:43Ordered servants never to leave her alone.
03:46He told himself it was caution.
03:49But the truth was uglier.
03:52He was obsessed.
03:54Every night, ravens watched her through castle windows and returned to him carrying fragments of her life.
04:03She sings while cleaning.
04:04She feeds stray cats behind the kitchens.
04:08She cries in her sleep.
04:11That last one destroyed him.
04:14Because Elion knew suffering.
04:17He recognized it instantly in others.
04:19One evening, Mera entered the forbidden library, searching for winter records.
04:28She climbed a ladder toward a high shelf when the wood suddenly cracked beneath her.
04:34She slipped.
04:37A strong hand caught her wrist.
04:40The moment Elion touched her, the curse exploded awake.
04:45Dark frost burst across the bookshelves.
04:49Candles died instantly.
04:51And Mera saw it.
04:54Not with her eyes.
04:56With her soul.
04:58A creature living inside him.
05:02Massive.
05:04Starving.
05:05Wrapped around his heart like black chains.
05:09Elion released her immediately, stumbling backward like he had touched fire.
05:15Don't, he said sharply.
05:19Mera stared at him, shaken, but alive.
05:24Alive.
05:26That had never happened before.
05:30Elion looked horrified.
05:32You should fear me.
05:34Why?
05:36His jaw tightened.
05:39Then slowly, the shadows around his body began moving on their own.
05:45Like claws.
05:47You saw it, didn't you?
05:51Mera swallowed carefully.
05:54The thing inside you.
05:58For the first time in centuries, the Raven King looked afraid.
06:04It speaks to me, he whispered.
06:08It wears the voices of dead women.
06:11Every woman who ever loved me still lives inside the curse.
06:16I hear them every night.
06:20Mera's breath caught.
06:23Alien stepped backward into darkness.
06:26I do not kill my lovers quickly, Mera.
06:30The curse feeds on love itself.
06:33The more they love me, the slower they die.
06:39Silence filled the library.
06:42Then Mera asked the one question nobody else ever had.
06:46Who cursed you?
06:52Alien froze.
06:53Not how.
06:55Who?
06:58Finally, he answered.
07:00My father.
07:02Three hundred years earlier,
07:05King Valor Veyr feared losing his son to love.
07:10So he made a pact with an ancient shadow entity.
07:15The curse would protect the bloodline from weakness.
07:19No woman would ever control the Raven King.
07:24Any love directed toward Elion would be devoured before it could threaten the throne.
07:30But curses evolve.
07:34Over centuries, it became something worse.
07:39Hungry.
07:40Sentient.
07:43Possessive.
07:44And now, it wanted Mera.
07:50That night, Elion entered her chambers determined to end it.
07:56You leave before sunrise, he ordered coldly.
08:02Mera stood from beside the fireplace.
08:05And if I refuse?
08:07His silver eyes darkened.
08:11Then you die.
08:13Maybe I'm tired of surviving.
08:16The words hit harder than any blade.
08:21Elion stared at her carefully and finally understood.
08:26Mera was not fearless.
08:29She was broken.
08:31There's nothing waiting for me outside this castle, she admitted quietly.
08:37No family.
08:39No home.
08:41No future.
08:43The curse stirred happily inside him.
08:47Loneliness recognized loneliness.
08:52Elion moved toward her despite every instinct screaming not to.
08:57You do not understand what loving me becomes.
09:02Then show me.
09:05Wrong answer.
09:08The shadows exploded.
09:10Darkness engulfed the chamber walls.
09:13The curse finally stopped hiding.
09:17A monstrous silhouette rose behind Elion.
09:20Enormous wings.
09:22Hollow eyes.
09:23Chains twisting through smoke and bone.
09:27Mera could barely breathe.
09:30The entity spoke using dozens of female voices at once.
09:35He is ours.
09:38Elion dropped to one knee in agony.
09:41Black veins spreading across his throat.
09:45Run!
09:46He roared.
09:47But Mera saw something beneath the horror.
09:50Not evil.
09:52Pain.
09:53The curse was not protecting Elion.
09:57It was consuming him.
09:59Slowly.
10:01Every year.
10:03Every loss.
10:04Every death had fed it.
10:07And for the first time in centuries.
10:10Someone saw the king.
10:13Instead of the monster.
10:16Mera walked toward him.
10:18The entity screamed.
10:21Don't touch him.
10:24But she grabbed Elion's face with both hands anyway.
10:28And suddenly she saw everything.
10:33Every dead lover.
10:36Every lonely century.
10:39Every suicidal thought he buried.
10:43Every night he begged the curse to kill him instead.
10:49Myrra began crying instantly.
10:54Not from fear.
10:56From grief.
10:58You stayed alive for all this?
11:02She whispered.
11:05Elion broke.
11:07The curse attacked immediately.
11:11Dark chains erupted around Mera's body.
11:15Crushing the air from her lungs.
11:17Frost spread beneath her feet.
11:20Blood streamed from her nose as the entity shrieked in rage.
11:26He cannot be loved.
11:31Elion's eyes widened in horror.
11:35Mera!
11:36Let go!
11:38But she refused.
11:41Instead, she pulled him closer.
11:46And kissed him.
11:49The curse detonated.
11:52The fortress shook violently.
11:54Every mirror shattered.
11:56Outside, the kingdom vanished beneath a storm of blood.
12:00Black snow.
12:03Mera felt the curse entering her body.
12:06Cold.
12:08Ancient.
12:09Endless.
12:11It wanted to hollow her out from the inside.
12:14And for one terrible moment,
12:18she understood why the others died.
12:22The curse fed on selfish love.
12:26Possession.
12:28Obsession.
12:29Obsession.
12:30Fear.
12:32But Elion's love had changed.
12:35Somewhere across centuries of suffering,
12:39he stopped wanting to own love.
12:42He only wanted someone to survive him.
12:47That was the flaw.
12:49That was why the curse could finally break.
12:54Elion realized it too late.
12:57To destroy the entity permanently,
13:00someone had to willingly carry its pain.
13:04Forever.
13:06No.
13:07He whispered.
13:11Mira smiled weakly through tears.
13:15You carried it alone long enough.
13:19Silver light erupted from her chest.
13:22The darkness screamed as Mira pulled the curse into herself.
13:27With every chain,
13:29every shadow,
13:32every dead voice,
13:34gone.
13:37The entity collapsed inward violently
13:40before dissolving into ash and moonlight.
13:45Then,
13:48silence.
13:50Complete silence.
13:53For the first time in 300 years,
13:59Elion could no longer hear the dead.
14:02But Mira collapsed.
14:07Spring arrived in Noctis overnight.
14:11Ice melted across the kingdom.
14:13Dead forests bloomed again.
14:17Sunlight touched the Black Fortress
14:20for the first time in centuries.
14:23And in the center of it all,
14:26The Raven King
14:28held Mira in trembling arms
14:32beside the ruined throne.
14:35Alive.
14:37Barely.
14:39A silver crescent now glowed beneath her skin,
14:43directly above her heart.
14:46Not the curse.
14:48Its scar.
14:50Its memory.
14:52Its cost.
14:55Elion brushed shaking fingers across her face.
15:00You saved me.
15:03Mira gave a faint smile.
15:06No.
15:07She whispered softly.
15:10I shared you.
15:13And for the first time in his immortal life,
15:17the Raven King cried.
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