The royal castle of Helios was thrown into chaos, a perfect word to explain the panic that had set in.
The newly crowned King, Lumiel Helios hadn't returned.
It hadn't taken long for Eliana to piece together the reason behind her son's disappearance.
The empty bed, the guards's and servants's testimonies, the direction he had been seen walking eveyrthing pointed toward the tower and so the Flame of Helios.
He had gone to attempt to the ritual.
Once her brain reached that fact, horror had quickly settled inside her.
She knew him.
She knew her boy.
Lumiel wasn't ready.
He wasn't stable.
He was a fragile.
He had fainted at his own coronation, for gods's sake!
Falling under the pressure of the crown!
So, in the the dark hours of the night, a terrible thought had taken root in her mind…
Lumiel hadn't gone to the Flame to attempt the ritual…
He had gone to end it all.
He had chosen death at last instead of the throne.
It had been a week.
Seven days of silence and silence torture.
The archives were clearly, written in ink.
The previous Heirs who succeeded their first ritual returned within a day perhaps there at the absolute most.
Her husband, the previous King had walked out of that tower in two days when he was seventeen.
But beyond three days…no one who attempted the ritual didn't return beyond three years, never came back.
They had failed it, consumed by the Flame.
Eliana was aware of it, she had looked for it after all to cling in any hopes.
Yet she refused to accept it.
She stood outside the tower day after day, waiting for any glimpse of her son, her first child.
Her only comfort if shared misery could be called comfort was her daughter, Lenora, also Lenora's younger sister.
Contrary to Eliana, Lenora however had already prepared and started grieving her brother.
She didn't share her mother's denial.
When the third day came and gone with no signs of her brother, she had broken down weeping until she had nothing left to give.
She knew the truth.
Her brother wasn't strong enough.
He never had been ready for that.
He was kind yes, soft.
The gentle Lumiel who liked poetry and avoided conflict but kindness wasn't enough to face the Flame.
She believed just as her mother that Lumiel had chosen the Ritual as glorified suicide unfortunately.
And by all Gods, she resented him for it.
How dare he?
How dare he leave them like this?
Right after their father's death?
How dare he leave them alone to afce a court of nobles who only cared about themselves? Who only waited for this opportunity?
They weren't even waiting for a body anymore. They were already convening in the throne hall, their voices echoing loudly and very enthusiastically about the future of the Kingdom with arrogance they had never shown when their father still breathed.
It honestly made her blood boil.
They didn't even mention their mother, Eliana as potential Queen Regent. To them she was already a lost cause, a weeping widow and a broken mother.
Obviously both women knew exactly what was happening, they could feel the power slipping from their fingers like sand along their own safety. The court was like a pack of hyenas waiting for the right moment to tear into the dying lioness but neither of the had the strength to face it.
Marconius Helios had been a peaceful King, some Calle him soft, mocked his almost desperate need to see peace in every conflicts but he had been strong where it needed to be.
As a husband and as a father, he had been their shield. His existence alone had kept all the ambitious wolves at bay.
His loss already had been quite a hammer blow for them but losing Lumiel not even two days later? That shattered what was left of hope for them.
The world was ruthless to women without protectors. Even if Lumiel had been weak-minded, even if he lacked confidence, his mer existence, blood of the Sun pumping through his veins had been a wall, a symbol that no one could deny and logically go against.
Now that he was gone however, the last wall had fallen.
"I—I won't accept this! I will never accept this!"
Eliana's screams tore through her dry and hoarse throat continuously. She stood on her knees before the tower, her hands clawing at the dirt's tears ran down her cheeks.
She couldn't enter.
The wards would incinerate her before she could take three steps. So she stayed on the edge, begging.
Praying to Helios, praying to Apollina.
To any God who light be listening to her cries.
"Please! Give back my son! I beg of you!"
But only silence answered her.
"Mother…"
Lenora stood behind, her voice trembling as she looked at her crying mother.
Her eyes red-reimmed and exhausted filled up once again with tears seeing her mother like this on the verge of breaking.
"Please! Anything but my son! Give him back to me!"
Lenora quickly knelt besides her mother and hugged her shoulders trying to calm her own trembling.
"I—I beg of you! Please…give him back…" Eliana continued crying.
It had been a week.
Lenora wanted to say it.
The words were right there, at the tip of her tongue.
He was gone.
They had to move forward.
They had to survive now.
But she couldn't.
If she said it out loud, she gave voice to the reality that Lumiel might be really dead and she was terrified it would shatter her mother but also herself completely.
She had to be strong. She had to find the willpower to protect her mother and herself from the nightmare coming for them.
Without protector, they were nothing more than assets now. Livestocks to be traded, tools to be used.
Lenora especially was aware of it.
She was of marriageable age, the last child of the previous King, a walking, and breathing seal of legitimacy for whoever manage to force her into marriage.
She would be targeted, hunted and she might not having any choices but accept it if she wanted ti protect her mother, the only family she had left.
Eliana still wrapped in Lenora's embrace, lowered her empty gaze. Her finger trembling against Lenora's arm weakly.
"Lenora…What had happened to us…"
"It will be fine, Mother…"
Lenora forced the words from her lips.
"So please…stay with me," she added quietly tightening her huge, clinging to her mother, begging her silently to leave her as well, to not leave her alone.
Just by her daughter's voice and trembling, Eliana understood what she meant.
Clarity, motherly one flickered once back in Eliana's eyes. Seeing her always cheerful daughter and fierce reduced to this trembling child…
She hugged back quickly her daughter giving her however little comfort she could.
Maybe it was time for her to open her eyes.
To stop staring at was gone and look at what was still left, her precious daughter and last child.
She couldn't to lose her remaining child.
She had to stay strong.
At least until Lenora was safe.
She had to—
Suddenly the air shifted.
A shockwave or rather heatwave rippled through the atmosphere.
Both Eliana and Lenora pulled away from each other, heads snapping up.
It was the Flame of Helios.
That miniature sun was pulsating…
After Marconius's death, it had dimmed like a dying ember now it shone with renewed ferocity that turned the night sky into an almost a noon, illuminating the whole capital.
And then they saw it.
A speck of fire like a flicker of candle, separated itself from the main body of the Flame before plummeting like a falling stare rolled from the heart of the Flame streaking down the length of tower before slamming strongly into the groiundwith a crash that shook the eared beneath them.
Eliana and Lenora both jumped on their feet.
They moved unconsciously just stopping outside the tower's threshold.
The head radiating from within was strong enough to burn them immediately to ashes.
Even Lenora with royal blood, felt threatened by the heat.
They could only stand at the edge, narrowing their eyes at the crater trying to catch a glimpse of what had crashed into the floor.
Silence stretched out.
Neither women smoke but the hope in their faces was clearly visible.
They held their breath and watched.
Tears already resumed streaming down Eliana's cheeks as she clasped her hands together in prayer.
Then…from the depth of crater, a wave of golden heat rippled outwardly.
And a hand appeared, gripping the edge of the broken stones.
It didn't look like flesh, it seemed glowing, veins tracing patters of liquid gold along the skin.
Then slowly, a figure pulled itself up and out.
Lenora's hand flew to her mouth.
Eliana couldn't even make a sound; her throat locked as tears of pure joy blurred her vision.
Standing there bathed in a golden aura that seemed to tremble with heat was a man.
Topless and transformed.
But neither Eliana and Lenora wouldn't be recognizing him.
He was taller, leaner, the softness of his cheeks and body had been burned away, replaced by a sculpted muscle that was visible even through the distorting waves of heat.
His curly golden hair moved under the golden aura and his eyes burned golden and amber.
Lumiel raised his hand staring at it as if seeing it for the first. He looked down at his chest then, at his arm engraved with golden runes that pulsed.
He had awakened.
Successfully.
A faint smile spread across his lips.
Then his eyes rolled back and stumbled forward, collapsing head first back into the crater.