Amanda's breath caught as the elder's words echoed like distant thunder in her chest.
Queen?
The word didn't feel real. Not in this life, not anymore. It belonged to the girl who once trained beneath the silver trees, who once believed in destiny written by others. That girl had long since walked away.
But now, the past reached for her with quiet hands.
"What happened?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
The elder's gaze turned inward, the weight of years pressing behind his eyes. "The last king and queen… they both succumbed to a disease. We didn't even recognize it until it was too late. They were gone within days."
Amanda's heart sank. "Both of them? That fast?"
"Yes," he replied, and there was something fragile in his tone. "Despite our best efforts, there was nothing we could do to save them. Their passing left a void in our leadership, one that has yet to be filled."
She looked down, her thoughts scattered like fallen leaves. "I'm sorry," she said, the words dry on her tongue. "I didn't know."
Your feelings are shared by many, Amanda. The loss was a shock to us all. Even we, the elders, were left in disbelief. It happened so quickly that none of us had time to prepare or even comprehend the full extent of what was happening."
Amanda swallowed hard. The thought of that kind of sudden loss unsettled something deep in her.
"I can't imagine what it must have been like," she said. "But I don't think I can participate in this. There are so many others who are more deserving than I am."
The elder's eyes didn't waver. "You may not see it, but the others do. You have something that cannot be taught. And though I respect your hesitance… there's something more you should know."
Amanda blinked. "More?"
He nodded. "Should you agree to participate in the queen's selection, we are prepared to grant you certain exceptions."
Amanda's curiosity was piqued despite herself. "What do you mean?" she asked cautiously.
"The runes," he said, voice quiet. "The ones given to each of us within the sanctuary. You know they don't work beyond these borders. But you've already learned that, haven't you?"
Amanda stiffened.
The memory returned, sharp and unwanted. Cold steel. Mud under her boots. A flash of panic as she'd reached for her rune during the bandit ambush, and nothing. Just silence. Fear.
She glanced at her forearm and pressed her hand over the place where the mark lay dormant. The echo of that moment still lived in her muscles.
The elder watched her. He didn't speak the fear aloud.
"We are willing to allow you to retain the power of your rune outside the sanctuary, should you choose to participate in the selection. This would be a unique privilege, one that has never been granted before."
Amanda's breath hitched. "You'd… really do that?" Her voice was caught between disbelief and hope. "Even if I don't become queen?"
"Yes." The elder's answer came without hesitation. "You need only enter the rite. Afterward, the choice is still yours."
She looked around the chamber again. The walls pulsed faintly with life. Glowing veins of blue light, alive like the forest itself. The scent here was thick with moss and incense, heavy with expectation.
It was beautiful. It was suffocating.
Her thoughts twisted in a dozen directions at once. The freedom she'd fought for. The strength she'd earned. The loneliness of exile. The power she'd lost when the runes failed her beyond these borders.
And now this.
"I don't know," she murmured. "This place… it was never supposed to be my whole story."
"It doesn't have to be," the elder replied. "But power brings responsibility. And you've never turned away from that."
She flinched slightly at how closely that echoed her own thoughts. A part of her didn't want to admit how much she missed the clarity of her rune working as it once had. How vulnerable she'd felt without it.
"There's more," the elder added, and his voice deepened with meaning. "It also seems that you have reached the wall of level of power an elf can attain on their own," he said, his eyes gleaming with a mix of pride and expectation. "We can help you with your ascension as well, since you are already here. It is a rare gift, one that would grant you even greater abilities."
Her eyes widened.
The rune. Her survival. The throne. The promise of ascension.
Everything she'd lost.
Everything she still wanted.
Leo's face flashed across her thoughts. His battle scars. His quiet trust in her. She thought of the war they still had to fight. Of the enemies beyond this forest. Of the future they were shaping together.