SWNOVELXO Chapter 17: Chapter 17 – The Sound of Splintering Fate
They returned to the surface before dawn.
Kaelith's steps were slower, heavier-not from fatigue, but from the sheer weight of what he now knew. His entire lineage had been built on forgetting. And now, remembering felt like dragging centuries behind his shoulders.
Elara walked beside him in silence.
Not out of distance, but respect. She knew what it was to carry memory like a crown-too heavy, too painful to polish.
The guards at the upper gate stood at attention. No questions. They didn't dare. Not when the prince walked like the past was still dripping from his boots.
Back in the guest chamber, Elara washed her hands slowly in the basin. Ash stained her fingers. Not real ash. Memory ash.
Kaelith leaned against the doorframe, arms folded. He hadn't spoken since they reached her room.
"Say it," she said without looking at him.
He exhaled. "You were right."
"I wasn't looking for validation."
"I know."
"But I'll take it anyway," she added softly.
Kaelith stepped inside. "The mirror showed me everything. Every version of you. And what I did to each one."
Elara turned. "Not always your fault."
"But always my choice," he said.
She didn't deny it.
"And yet," he said, stepping closer, "you still came back for me."
"I always will," she said. "Until one of us finally chooses truth over fear."
Kaelith stared at her, eyes storm-dark. "Then let's choose it now."
Elsewhere, the palace's high court began to stir.
Whispers moved faster than guards.
Servants passed secrets like bread. The prince had vanished in the night. Returned hours later. Pale. Changed.
And someone-something-had left markings on the altar chamber that hadn't glowed in centuries.
It didn't take long before a messenger knelt before the Queen Dowager.
She listened.
And when the servant finished, she whispered one name.
"Elanora."
That same morning, hidden beneath the chapel ruins, the Silent Order gathered in a circle.
The leader stepped forward-a woman draped in pure white, her mask shaped like the face of a lioness.
She raised her hand.
The room fell silent.
"The line has been crossed," she said.
"The prince has remembered."
"The girl has returned."
"The curse has thinned."
Another figure spoke. "Shall we stop it?"
"No," the lioness replied. "We test it."
"What do you command?"
A pause.
Then her voice cut like silk over steel.
"Let her be hunted."
Later that day, as Kaelith sat with his council, pretending normalcy, a sealed letter was slipped into his hand.
No markings. No wax.
Just a single line written in ancient ink:
"The vow unbroken shall become your noose."
He stood immediately.
The council stilled. "Your Majesty?"
He didn't answer.
He was already moving.
He found Elara in the courtyard, eyes closed as she stood beneath the single tree in bloom-a white blossom tree from the east gardens.
She opened her eyes the moment she sensed him. "They know, don't they?"
He handed her the letter.
She read it in silence.
Then folded it carefully and tucked it into her sleeve.
"They're coming," she said.
Kaelith nodded.
"Let them," she added.
He raised an eyebrow. "Confident?"
"No," she said. "But I'm tired of running."
He stepped closer. "Then what now?"
She looked up at him.
"We stop living in fragments."
That night, Elara did not return to the guest chambers.
She walked into the prince's wing without hesitation and entered his private study, where books lined the walls like loyal soldiers and the fire burned high in the hearth.
Kaelith was waiting.
He looked up from the window. "You're sure?"
She nodded. "If they want to hunt me, let them see who I truly am."
"And who's that?"
She stepped forward, eyes glowing faintly with the same violet light the altar had revealed.
"The one who broke fate to love you."