The Crown of Sun and Shadows

𝐹𝑜𝓊𝓇

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Avyanna was as good as dead. She knew that as soon as she left the throne room without being dismissed.

But she couldn't take it, being in the same room, being mocked, by the man who forced her to brutally slaughter her family without knowing. It took three years before Arwan told her what caused her parents to perish. They were burned, severely, and when the King of Solara found them, they were stone nearly, the flames forcing them into an eternal agony. She had never hated her powers more, never hated the goddess who decided Avyanna was the one who would have that eternal blood shimmering in her veins. And when she asked Arwan at only eleven how it happened, he told her that he thought her untrained magic flared and tried to protect her brother. The only reason Arwan found her was because she had been physically glowing, no longer burning, just a beam of light that drew the master assassin to her. Arwan swore he hid her from the king, but she knew now, that he just wanted to leash her power for reasons unknown.

She was sitting on the balcony of her room, the sticky summer air her only companion as she let quiet tears roll down her cheeks. So much agony, so much pain ripped through her body. She was in the home of her enemy, and his son looked identical to him, with dark brown hair that was nearly black, and those black eyes with blue cracks. They were the eyes of her nightmares, and yet, her blood called to Killian, even if she didn't understand it.

"Miss Avyanna," She used her palm to wipe her cheeks, looking over at the maid who had become a shadow in her room, "Lady Esmeray is here, she'd like to talk."

"Sure," Avyanna nodded, resting her chin on her knees, "Send her in."

Avyanna looked over the lights of Kallistar, the buildings like twinkling stars in a sea of darkness. And she had never felt further from home. She'd lived in the streets of Kallistar, basked in its wealth and culture, she had been a traitor to her people, to the very people who still wait for her to return, but she couldn't go back, not ever, not when she believed what Hadeon called her. Monster. Hadeon didn't need to say it, because Avyanna already believed it with her soul, she would never be fit to be a ruler, not when she had taken too many lives, and dismantled so many families by selling them out for Arwan's political game. It didn't matter that she would be punished if she didn't do it, it didn't matter that she was the monster she was to survive. She was still a monster, she was just a monster with a conscience.

Esmeray stopped at the second chair on the balcony, slowly lowering herself into it, not saying anything. She was assessing the situation, assessing how to ask the question she needed to ask. Avyanna wasn't dumb, she could tell by the uneasy stare that Esmeray had found out something, and it didn't take much time to figure out that she had discovered who Avyanna truly was. "You know who I am."

Esmeray gave a tight nod, but there was no hate in her eyes when Avyanna turned to look at her, and for some reason that hit her chest like a physical blow. "Why didn't you go back?"

That was the magic question she had avoided for the past ten years, why hadn't she gone back? She hadn't gone back because of the obvious, there was no throne to return to. But how could she return to her home when it was scorched from the inside out, when the remnants of her family were still everywhere, just charred? How could she return to the place where she would be haunted by the fact that she killed her family? "Do you want the long answer?" Avyanna asked, blowing out a breath before she turned to look at the sea of buildings, so vastly different from how she remembered home. "Or must you return to your brute of a husband quickly?"

Esmeray laughed, shaking her head, the chocolate brown hair falling into her face, "My husband has made me mad, keep me out as long as possible."

Avyanna let a small smile touch her lips at that statement, "The most obvious is that there's no throne to return to. But the truth is, everyone believes that it was the King of Solara who murdered my family, your father, and to an extent, that's true. But I had so much untrained magic at the time, that I sent out a ring of flames unknowingly, trying to protect my brother, those flames burned so hot that I killed my family, I did that, not your father. And the idea of showing my face after running for so many years is terrifying, I was a child sure, but I abandoned my people when they needed me most. And I became a monster."