lay silent under the growing dusk, its flickering hearths casting ghostly shadows across the crooked timber walls. The air was thick with memories some too s

et the pounding in her chest. This wa

er father had taught her to stand tall even when she was afraid. It was here she had learned to laugh, to dream, and to believe in love. Her parents

lt like a

well where she and her mother used to fetch water in the mornings. The old chapel where her father's voice used to echo in the early hours of pray

w, how it fell like si

them, she had lost the girl who once

there w

at place had once been a symbol of hope a place where love might live. She remembered the stolen glances,

he had re

r entire mind and she kept replaying th

e by my side," he had said, each word a blade s

reject you

r humiliation. Faces she had known since childhood, faces that had once smiled at her acros

. he hadn't

ronger and worthier mate, fit to rule by my side a

or. Her beauty undeniable. Her pride unshaken. And Avelyn had stood there, her sou

one voice defended her. She had been left to wither under th

like she had

ld fall away. There was no one left to hold her back no family, no friends, n

back one

es and deep blues, hung heavy overhead. She let her eyes trace every familiar ro

es, and one slipped do

thrown stones with their words and silence. It was for the girl she had been. The gi

ed like a second heartbeat. But beneath it, deeper s

po

f fear and the need to be accepted. She had thought that by be

ough f

Ma

he vi

nly not fo

t but never truly understood. Her parents had known. They had warned her to keep it hi

first step in

swallowed

en the trees felt honest in a way the village never had. It did not pretend to love

here, untouched by firelight. But Avelyn kept walki

t look ba

yes burned, and her stomach was a hollow pit. But still, she pressed on

ting silver light through the canopy. She sat on a fallen log,

e in days, she le

y br

breath, some

. Not yet. But

Her mother's voice singing over a pot of stew. Her father's laughter as he swung her int

d her to break. They woul

o she

very corner of the forest, every power humming beneath her

qu

chosen b

ire, pain, and her

opened

rest w

lcomed the

-