"This is my son, Rue Mallory," the emperor announced, his voice calm but firm as he introduced the young Rue to the empress and the crown prince.
"He's my younger brother?!" the prince beamed with joy, eyes sparkling at the thought of having a playmate, someone to share his lonely world. But beside him, the empress stood frozen, fury simmering beneath her composed facade as she looked upon the living evidence of her husband's betrayal.
Rue Mallory, barely able to meet her gaze, instinctively flinched, shrinking under the weight of her judgment.
"Do you expect me to welcome your bastard son?" the empress hissed, her voice low but laced with venom, every word carefully restrained to keep from exploding.
"Caleb, why don't you show Rue around the palace?" the emperor said.
The prince eagerly took Rue's hand and led him through the palace halls, unaware of the storm brewing behind them. Inside the chamber, the emperor and empress's conversation grew cold and sharp.
"He will not be living here in the palace. It will only spark rumors. He may be my blood, but Marquess Mallory has adopted him."
"So the old man knew about your affair," the empress scoffed, her hands clenched. "People will still talk. And what of Caleb? What will they say about our son?!"
"Caleb is still the crown prince. He will inherit the throne. Rue will inherit the marquess' title. That's how it will be."
"That bastard doesn't even deserve that title," she spat, her voice breaking.
Rue stood silently, watching these memories unfold like a cruel play. He stared out the window, where his younger self laughed beside the prince. A bitter ache welled in his chest. This past, these broken moments, were the ones he wished he could erase.
He turned away, and the scene shifted.
A scream echoed through the palace.
The young crown prince sobbed, begging for help. The emperor and his knights rushed in to find the young Rue collapsed on the floor, his body convulsing, froth escaping his lips.
"I just gave him a cookie—and then he—he started shaking!" Caleb cried, his hands trembling, fear and guilt written across his face.
Healers rushed Rue to a chamber, working desperately to keep him alive. Moments later, the grand chamberlain burst in, breathless with terror.
"There's been an assassination attempt at Marquess Mallory's estate. Lady Rose has been injured!"
The emperor's face darkened with rage. "Healers! Save my son. If he dies, all of you will follow!" he thundered, before storming off toward the estate, leaving his knight commander behind to watch over Rue.
Elsewhere, the sound of shattering glass rang through the empress' chamber.
"Is it that hard to kill a woman?!" she screamed, fury exploding at last.
"This was my mistake," Duke Vane said, bowing low. "I didn't expect the marquess to arrive early. But don't worry. I laced the cookies with a poison no healer can counter. The boy will be dead soon."
"I won't tolerate another failure, Duke Vane," the empress seethed. "Finish what you started."
"Understood, Your Imperial Majesty."
Back in Rue's room, panic thickened the air. The healers grew desperate.
"His body's rejecting our magic! The more we try, the worse it gets!"
"At this rate… he won't survive the hour."
"If only someone could use light magic…"
"I-I can…" Caleb whispered, his voice shaking with fear and hope. "I can use light magic. Will it… will it save him?"
One of the healers looked at him with a trembling smile. "Yes, Your Highness. You can save your brother."
The prince knelt beside Rue and took his hand. A golden light poured from his palms, bathing Rue's body in warmth. Slowly, the foaming ceased. Rue's breathing steadied. When the healers checked, every trace of poison was gone.
Word of Rue's miraculous recovery reached the empress and her fury reignited.
"Bring me Caleb!" she ordered.
As soon as he stepped inside, a slap cracked through the air. Caleb fell to the floor, stunned and trembling.
"H-How could you?!" she screamed, her eyes wild with rage.
"M-Mother?" Caleb whispered, confused and afraid.
"I did everything for you! That was our chance to rid you of that bastard and you healed him!"
"You… You were the one who poisoned my brother?" Caleb asked, horrified.
"Brother? He's not your brother!" she snapped. "He's the one who will take everything from you one day!"
Outside the room, the adult Rue watched. He knew what came next, he had lived it.
When he awoke in that bed and learned what had happened, he felt a cold wall rise in his heart. He was convinced the crown prince had poisoned him, healed him, only to deceive him later. Everything Caleb had shown him, the kindness, the joy, the brotherhood, he now saw as a cruel performance.
From that day, he returned the same false smile.
His hatred only deepened with every attack, every wound, every scream from his mother's lips. He vowed to take from Caleb the one thing he loved most.
And then, on Caleb's 17th birthday, Rue met her-Lady Cecilia. She was light. She was warmth. She was his revenge.
As he prepared to leave the palace for good, a voice haunting and all too familiar echoed behind him.
"Where are you going?"
He turned.
His heart froze.
Lady Cecilia stood before him, drenched in blood, exactly as she had been when she died.
"This is all your fault!" she cried, stepping closer, each footfall heavy with anguish.
"If you hadn't used me, left me there, I wouldn't have died!"
He knew this was an illusion. He knew it wasn't real.
But her words still stabbed into his heart with merciless precision.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice cracking under the weight of everything he'd done.
The Tree of Darkness pulsed with hunger, its growth accelerating as it devoured the group's pain, fear, and dwindling power. Dark roots coiled tighter around their limbs, feeding greedily on their despair.
The woman in the raven mask raised her hand once more, ready to unleash another wave of torment until a sudden, searing pain shot through her arm.
She looked down just in time to see her severed hand thud against the ground, fingers twitching unnaturally.
"Aaah!" she shrieked, clutching her bleeding wrist in horror.
"How dare you lay your hands on them."
Her breath caught. She turned and froze.
Standing before her, radiating light that pushed back the darkness, was the crown prince. His blade shimmered with pure energy, his eyes burning with righteous fury.
She instinctively stepped back and began regenerating her lost hand. As crimson tendrils twisted from her wound and reshaped her fingers, the plants and wildlife nearby withered into husks, the cost of her unholy restoration.
The prince's sword flared brighter. With a cry, he lunged forward, his blade a streak of light. The woman's arms morphed into wicked blades formed of blood, and she raised them to parry but the prince's strike cleaved through them like paper.
"Tch. Why him, of all people?" she hissed, staggering back. "If this keeps up, I'll burn through all my energy!"
Caleb's sharp eyes locked onto the Tree of Darkness, its grotesque roots embedded in the bodies of his comrades, draining them dry. With a flash of resolve, he stabbed his sword into the earth and channeled his light magic down through it.
"Divine Light - cleanse them!"
"No!" the raven-masked woman howled.
Light surged from the ground, erupting beneath the roots. One by one, they turned to ash, freeing the others from their living nightmare.
Rue collapsed to his knees, dizzy, breath ragged. "Y-Your Imperial Highness…?" he whispered, trying to focus on the glowing figure in front of him.
Caleb knelt beside him, worry flickering in his eyes. "I'm sorry, I know you're all drained… but I need your help. We have to end this. She's feeding on life to heal herself. We must strike together."
The woman snarled, realizing she was cornered. A wicked grin spread across her lips.
"Fine. If I must fall, I'll fall with glory."
The Tree of Darkness responded to her call. Its branches writhed, wrapping around her like a lover. With one final scream, she was dragged into its trunk and disappeared.
The bark split open.
A portal emerged within the trunk.
From it, horrors slithered and crawled. Monsters from realms unknown, snarling, shrieking, bringing with them the stench of rot. As the tree drained the life from the surrounding land, the air grew thick and cold. Flowers wilted. The grass browned. Birds fell from the sky.
"I'll keep the tree from drawing more life," Caleb said, planting himself between the trunk and the rest of the forest.
"Then we'll handle the monsters," Rue said, rising unsteadily to his feet beside Sir Lucian.
"I'll confront the tree directly," Princess Elery declared, stepping forward.
While Sir Lucian and Rue slashed their way through the swarm of monsters, and the crown prince radiated holy light to repel the tree's corruption, Elery knelt on the ground. Her fingers spread across the soil, her breath calm.
She whispered an invocation.
"I knock upon the realm below,
Where ancient roots and secrets grow.
I seek to speak, to feel, to see—
A darkened soul, come forth to me.
Now let the gate swing wide and free…
On one, two, three."
A hush fell.
Her eyes turned white as her consciousness plunged into the earth realm. It was silent. Cold. Void-like. The roots of the tree loomed like shadows in the mist.
And then she saw her.
A woman with long, silvery-white hair sat with her back turned, hunched over something, cobbling together a figure made of bones and shadows.
Elery stepped closer, her voice quiet but firm.
"Are you the spirit of the darkened tree?" Elery asked, her voice low and wary.
The woman stilled, her back turned. Slowly, she faced her and Elery's breath caught. Her eyes glowed crimson, her mouth smeared with fresh blood. Behind her, a limp body dangled, half-consumed. It was the woman they had just fought.
"You finally came to me, Nyssara," she smiled wickedly and launchied forward like a predator.
Elery dodged, heart pounding. "Who are you?! Are you not the spirit of the darkened tree?!"
"I am," the woman snarled. "But I am also not."
Before she could react, the spirit seized her by the throat. The cold grip tightened, lifting her off her feet.
"Give it back to me!" the spirit shrieked, face twisted in rage.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Elery gasped, clawing at the hand strangling her.
"My face!"
She was about to be devoured when a burst of brilliance shattered the void.
"Your Highness!" Sir Lucian's voice echoed, desperate and distant.
Her eyes flew open, and she gasped, pulling in the living air as though surfacing from drowning. Everything spun.
"Where is she?" she murmured, trying to sit up, dizziness pressing in from all sides.
"If you're looking for the woman we fought..." Rue's voice was grim. "She's dead. The tree began to rot on its own before the crown prince struck it. We found her body like... this."
They turned. The corpse lay torn in half just as Elery had seen it in the earth realm, being devoured by something far older and more monstrous than they had imagined.
Caleb approached the corpse. Their enemy's true face emerged and recognition struck him like a blade. She's one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting.
Sir Lucian noticed something shimmering lying on the ground.
"What do we do with this?"
Caleb looked at Elery. "Why don't you take it, Your Highness?"
She blinked. "Are you sure?"
"I can see it in your eyes. You've been searching for these people, it's only right that you take it"
A soft glow of purpose lit her face. "Thank you."
Then Caleb turned to Rue, his voice tight with anticipation. "Were you able to find Lady Cecilia?"
Rue hesitated, his gaze dropping to the ground. "Yes," he said quietly, almost as if the word pained him.
Caleb stepped closer, searching his brother's face. "How is she? Is she alright?"
Rue didn't answer immediately. His jaw clenched before he finally said, "It would be better if you see her yourself."
They regrouped with the other knights outside the cave where they captured and restrained the remaining grave merchants.
"Where is she?" the crown prince asked, eyes scanning the area with hope clinging to every breath.
Sir Conrad hesitated, his gaze flickering toward the marquess before giving a stiff nod. "Please follow me, Your Imperial Highness."
They walked in silence toward a wagon stationed near the treeline. The crown prince's steps grew heavier with each one he took, his heart pounding as if to warn him of the pain ahead. Then he saw it - a body, still and silent, covered with a white cloth.
He froze. The air felt colder.
"I asked you where she is," he demanded, his voice trembling as his eyes bore into his brother.
Rue didn't meet his gaze. "That is her, Your Imperial Highness."
The crown prince's chest tightened. "What do you mean this is her?" His hands moved on their own, pulling back the cloth and time seemed to stop.
Lady Cecilia's pale, lifeless face greeted him. Her skin was cold. No breath, no pulse. Just silence.
His legs gave out. He collapsed beside the wagon, disbelief painting his features.
"No... No..." he whispered, shaking his head. "This isn't real. She was just - she was supposed to be-"
He reached out and took her hand, gripping it tightly as if willing life back into her. But her fingers remained limp and cold.
"What happened?" he choked out.
"She fell off the cliff," Rue said, his voice hoarse with guilt. "I... I wasn't fast enough. If I had only arrived sooner - she might've…"
"No!!" the prince's voice cracked as anguish overtook him. "Cecilia!"
His wail echoed through the woods, raw and broken, cutting through the stillness like a blade. He pressed her hand to his forehead, tears streaming down his cheeks, his world shattering in the quiet aftermath.