The three days following the Awakening Test feels to slower than any Zaiveil had experienced.
Word of 'the princess with no charm' had indeed spread, just as Elder Cryzton feared, drifting from Charmer Town into the surrounding villages, then further still, whispered over tavern counters and market stalls until even the Stellar Tavern's regular patrons had an opinion on the matter.
"They say the Trial Stone lit up brighter than it ever has, then went completely dark, what do you suppose that means?"
Zaiveil overheard one of the palace maids whispering to another as she passed through the eastern corridor, careful to keep her steps light, enough not to announce her presence.
"Some folks are saying it's a bad omen. Others say that the princess is simply too powerful for the poor stone to handle." the second maid whispered back, unaware of who stood just around the corner.
"Either way, imagine being a princess for barely a week and already causing this much commotion."
Zaiveil continued walking before they noticed her, her expression carefully neutral, though something uncomfortable twisted low in her stomach.
She'd faced plenty of whispered judgment in her life as Phantom, cold assessments of her usefulness, her lethality, her worth to the Crosanta name.
But now, this felt different somehow,
it feels sharper, because for the first time, she actually cared what the answer turned out to be.
"Ignore them, Little Sis." Zyrcus said from behind her, having apparently witnessed the whole exchange himself. He fell into step beside her, hands tucked into his sleeves.
"Palace gossip burns hot and fades fast. Give it a week, and they'll be whispering about something else entirely."
"I'm not upset about them whispering about me, I'm upset because I don't have an answer I'm looking for either. Not yet." Zaiveil admitted, though her voice carried less certainty than she intended.
"That's what tonight's rite is for, Little Sis, you'll know the answer soon enough. " Zyrcus reminded her gently.
'Tonight?'
The word settled heavy in her chest.
The ritual chamber sat deep beneath the Celestial Elysium, accessible only through a narrow spiraling staircase that descended far past the public trial rooms above.
Zaiveil had never seen anything quite like it, walls carved with ancient runes that pulsed faintly gold, a circular platform at the room's center inlaid with silver lines forming an elaborate star pattern.
Elder Truze stood at the platform's edge alongside Elder Cryzton, both looking considerably more tired than they had three days prior, having spent the interim, gathering rare materials and finding answer through texts books older than the kingdom itself.
"Are you certain about this, Zai?" Empress Hernia asked one final time, her hands wrapped tightly around her daughter's, worry etched into every line of her face.
"Mother, I need to know the truth, whether i have a charm or none. Waiting for it won't change anything." Zaiveil said softly, squeezing her mother's hands in return.
"She's made her choice, My Empress. Let her see it through." Emperor Zyron placed a steadying hand on his wife's shoulder, though his own jaw remained tight with barely contained concern.
Her four brothers stood along the chamber's edge, uncharacteristically quiet. Even Zyver, who hadn't stopped talking nervously since dinner, had gone silent, his eyes was entirely fixed on his sister with open worry.
"Whatever happens, we'll be right here, for you." Herox said finally, breaking the silence.
Zaiveil nodded, grateful beyond words, before stepping onto the platform at Elder Truze's gesture.
"The rite will draw directly from your spiritual core, you may feel disoriented, perhaps pain. Try to remain calm regardless of what you experience because fighting the process will only prolong it." Elder Truze explained, his voice steady despite the gravity of his words.
"I understand, Elder." Zaiveil said, settling into the center of the star pattern.
Elder Cryzton took his position opposite Elder Truze, both raising their hands in unison as they began the incantation, ancient words flowing between them in a language Zaiveil didn't recognize but somehow she felt an faintly echo within her own chest, as though some distant part of her understood it regardless.
The silver lines beneath her feet flared to life, spreading warmth up through her legs, her spine, settling finally behind her ribs where that same ancient warmth from the Trial Stone had first stirred days ago.
"Focus inward, Princess. Let your soul answer it, rather than resisting." Elder Cryzton instructed, his voice tight with concentration.
Zaiveil closed her eyes, letting the warmth expand rather than fighting its pull. Memories flickered unbidden behind her eyelids, fragments too fast to fully grasp, the starlight and cosmos, a voice calling her by a name that wasn't quite her own, the same haunting sensation she'd felt standing before the Trial Stone.
The warmth built higher and sharper, until it bordered on pain, a pressure expanding from her chest outward like an ancient thing trying to claw its way free after centuries of dormant sleep.
"Something's happening, this resonance, I've never seen anything like this before." Elder Truze said sharply, his composed voice cracking with alarm.
She couldn't talk, the pressure inside her building toward something she couldn't quite name, it's ancient and vast and it's giving her a terrifyingly familiar feeling all at once.
"Elder Cryzton, what's happening to her?"" Empress Hernia's voice rose in alarm.
"Her soul, it's becoming more complete, unlike the first time her soul got back to her body." Elder Cryzton breathed, disbelief evident in every syllable.
The silver lines beneath Zaiveil's feet blazed brighter, climbing up the chamber walls now, illuminating the ancient runes carved into stone until the entire room glowed gold, bright enough that several of the gathered family members had to shield their eyes.
Then, above the platform, something began to take shape, faint at first, a shimmering outline of stars condensing into a symbol none of them had ever seen before, it was ancient symbol, spinning slowly above Zaiveil's head like a crown formed entirely like a starlight.
"Elder Truze, is that, could that possibly be–" Elder Prio's voice, previously skeptical, now trembled with something closer to reverence.
"Impossible!! This is too impossible!" Elder Cryzton voice rang out.
"I can't believe it, after all these centuries I've been alive. I never thought I would witness this thing in my whole lifetime." Elder Truze whispered, staring up at the spinning symbol with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Can someone explain what's happening!" Zyver demanded, his voice cracking with barely restrained panic, unable to look away from his sister suspended in golden light.
The symbol above Zaiveil pulsed once and twice, then unraveled entirely into a shower of falling starlight that cascaded down around her, settling into her skin like glimmering constellations before fading from sight entirely.
The golden light finally began to recede, the pressure in Zaiveil's chest easing at last as her feet touched solid ground once more, her breath was ragged but steady.
She opened her eyes to find every single person in the chamber staring at her in absolute, stunned silence.
"What? What happened? What did it all show?" she asked, her voice was hoarse.
Elder Cryzton stared at her for a long, trembling moment, tears gathering unbidden in his weathered eyes.
"My princess, I don't know how to believe this." he said finally, his voice thick with disbelief and something close to reverence.
"Elder Cryzton, tell me. What charm do I have? Do i really have a charm?" Zaiveil pressed, unease creeping back into her chest at the strange mixture of awe and fear coloring every face around her.