The rain in Oakhaven didn't wash away sins; it only turned the bloody into a dull, rusted red.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnuzLhPbZJ9
Elara Vance bowed on the cold floor with spike stone of the Plaza of Penance. Her white dress, once worth a commoner's lifetime of wages, was shredded at the hem and stained with red blood and the dirt of the dungeons. Above her, the sky was a bruised purple, dark heavy with the coming thunderstorm. No difference between day or night.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfDi4u7nHdd
"Lady Elara of House Vance," a voice boomed—the voice of the man she had spent ten years trying to love. Prince Alaric looked down at her from the high dais, his hand resting possessively on the waist of a girl who looked like sunlight captured in silk.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTGBr6eYwKi
The Saintess. The "pure" one. The one who hadn't had to claw through political mud to keep the kingdom solvent while the Prince played at war.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDckuZWvF0p
"You are charged with the attempted poisoning of the Holy Maiden," Alaric declared. His eyes, once warm, were now shards of blue ice. "Do you have any final words before your exile to the Dead Lands?"21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0qFKk7Ms9O
Elara looked up. She didn't cry. Her tear ducts had dried up three days ago when her own father had signed the decree disowning her. She looked at the crowd—the people she had fed during the famine, the nobles whose secrets she had kept to protect the crown. They were throwing stones. One caught her on the temple, a warm trickle of red blurring her vision.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI9nnHLxpUA
In that moment, something clicked. The "Good Elara"—the one who swallowed her pride, the one who smiled through insults, the one who lived for duty—died.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRMW3yGQfwa
She didn't feel sadness. She felt a terrifying, crystalline clarity.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3rSXQHexjA
"I didn't poison her," Elara whispered, her voice carrying through the sudden hush of the wind. She leaned forward, a jagged, terrifying smile breaking across her face. "But Alaric? If I ever come back, I’ll make sure you wish I had."21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0wHWlnui40
The crowd gasped. The Prince recoiled.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFgJTYHX1uT
Elara Vance wasn't born with a heart of stone. It had been carved out of her, piece by piece, by the very people she tried to save. If they wanted a villainess, she decided, she would finally give them one worth fearing.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvN7uU4asBM
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