Chapter 135: Chapter 136: Castaway

Lena’s POV

The door opened.

I did not stand. I did not move. I had been sitting on this bed for hours, days, I did not know anymore. The light through the window changed and changed again. The sounds from the city rose and fell. The guards brought food I did not eat and water I did not drink.

Elara walked in.

She was alone. No guards. No Corvus. Just her. She closed the door behind her and stood there for a moment, looking at me.

I looked back at her.

She had changed. The crown was on her head. Her dress was fine. Her face was still. But there was something different about her. Something harder. Something steadier. The woman who had left me in this room was not the woman standing in front of me now.

She sat across from me. Not on the chair. On the floor. The same floor I had been sitting on. The same floor where she used to sit with me and laugh about nothing.

“I got married to Kaelen yesterday,” she said. “Quiet. Small. Just the council and the witnesses. If the circumstances were different, you could have been my bridesmaid.”

I said nothing.

“My baby is legitimate now,” she continued. “There will be no need for an abortion. As you once suggested.”

I flinched. I could not help it. She had not forgotten. Of course she had not forgotten. I had told her to kill her child. I had told her it was the only option. I had told her she was a fool for keeping it.

“How is Kaelen?” I asked. My voice came out flat. Dead. “It has been a while since I saw him. Cannot that coward face me himself?”

“Why?”

I looked at her. “Because I deserve that at least. Before you chop off my head. I heard you chopped off Malakor’s.”

She was quiet for a moment. “Malakor was not executed. He was stoned by the people. I did not touch him. I did not have to.”

“Same difference.”

“No. It is not.” Her voice was cold. “The people chose his punishment. Not me. They threw the stones. They decided when he stopped moving. I just watched.”

I said nothing. What was there to say? She was right. She had not touched him. She had not needed to. The people had done her work for her.

“I am not going to execute you,” she said.

I looked at her.

“I am not going to exile you either.” She leaned forward. “Exile is too clean. You would go somewhere else. Start over. Meet new people. Pretend the past never happened. You would not have to look at what you did every day.”

“And?”

“I am keeping you here. In Dravara. You will be formally stripped of your position. No title. No palace access. No connection to the crown. You will live as an ordinary person. No special treatment. No protection. Just… a woman. In the city. Among the people your choices affected.”

I stared at her. “That is the punishment? To live?”

“To live knowing,” she said. “Yes.”

I was quiet for a long moment.

“You could have killed me,” I said. “You would have been within your rights.”

“I know.”

“You could have sent me away. Made me disappear. No one would have asked questions.”

“I know.”

“Why?”

She looked at me. “Because you were my friend. Because you were my best friend. Because I trusted you with everything and you broke that trust. Killing you would have been easy. Sending you away would have been easy. But you would not have learned anything. You would not have grown. You would have just… moved on.”

I looked away. My jaw was tight. My hands were shaking. She was right. She was always right.

“The information you gave Corvus,” she said. “Before everything fell apart. About Thorn’s network. About the agents. About the movement of troops.”

I said nothing.

“It will be used. Against Thorn. Against the network. Against everyone who tried to destroy my kingdom.” She paused. “The damage you helped cause may be partially undone because of what you told him.”

“That is forgiveness?”

“No.” She shook her head. “That is not forgiveness. But it is something. It is a start.”

She stood up.

I did not move.

She walked to the door. Her hand was on the handle. She stopped.

“Lena,” she said.

“Yes.”

“I hope you find something worth building.” She did not turn around. “I genuinely do.”

She opened the door. She walked out. The guards closed it behind me.

I sat for a long time after the door closed.

The room was quiet. The sun was setting. The light through the window was orange and gold. I could hear the city below. The sounds of people. The sounds of life. The sounds of something changing.

I went to the window.

The water channels being repaired. Workers in the distance, moving slowly, methodically, rebuilding what had been broken. The grain lines moving through the streets. Carts and horses and people carrying sacks to the distribution points.

The slow evidence of something changing.

I watched it for a long time.

I did not know what came next. I had no title. No position. No connection to the crown. No friends. No allies. No one to protect me.

I was starting from nothing.

But maybe that was enough. Maybe starting from nothing was where you started. Maybe the only way to build something new was to first lose everything old.

I pressed my hand against the glass. The city was below me. The people were below me. The life I had destroyed and helped rebuild was below me.

“I am sorry,” I whispered to myself because only I deserved an apology.

No one heard me. But I said it anyway.

I watched the city until the sun went down. Then I sat on the floor. And I thought about what came next.

I did not know. But I thought maybe that was enough. Maybe not knowing was where you started. Maybe starting from nothing was the only way to become something new.

I closed my eyes. The city hummed below me. The water channels flowed. The grain moved. The people lived.

Tomorrow, I would start.

Tomorrow, I would figure out who I was without the palace. Without the crown. Without the secrets and the lies and the betrayals.

Tomorrow, I would become someone new.

But tonight, I just sat on the floor and listened to the city breathe.

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