[POV Liselotte]

The silence that followed the mention of the Church was dense, laden with an animosity that felt almost physical. William Whirikal leaned heavily against his desk, his fingers tracing the edges of the kingdom’s map as if searching for an escape route that did not exist. After several seconds of tension, the King lifted his head and fixed his gaze on me. It was an inquisitive look, that of a man accustomed to reading between the lines and detecting hesitation in another’s soul.

“Before we immerse ourselves in the political games of the priests,” William began, his voice resonating with a metallic gravity, “I need us to speak with complete frankness about what happened in the quarry. The mages of the Tower are baffled. They say the magical circles vibrated at a frequency they had never recorded before you, Lotte, lost consciousness. Did you see anything? Did you feel anything while the rift was open that we have not discussed?”

A chill ran down my spine. Tiara’s words, her revelation about the true nature of Gaia and Liliath, and the fact that my soul belonged to an exile from another world burned in my throat. Even so, something in my instinct ordered me to remain silent. If the King knew that I was a being carrying the power of a planet inside a human shell, his perception of me would change forever. It would turn into fear, or into an ambition he would not be able to control.

I looked at Leah. She was watching me with a mixture of concern and curiosity, waiting for my answer.

“I did not see anything strange inside the rift, Your Majesty,” I lied, keeping my voice as flat and professional as possible. “I only remember an immense pressure, a noise that did not come from the ears but from the bones. My ice magic is sensitive to energy fluctuations, and I believe the forced opening simply overloaded my senses. It was like trying to hear a whisper in the middle of an explosion.”

William studied me for a long minute. His gray eyes seemed intent on piercing my skull, but in the end he sighed, appearing to accept my explanation, though not entirely convinced.

“That is unfortunate,” the King murmured. “I had hoped your natural affinity would give us a perspective that Malakor’s instruments could not capture.”

Barnaby, the butler, stepped forward from the shadows. His hands, gloved in impeccable white silk, held a sheet of parchment bearing the wax seal of the Royal Tower.

“If I may, Your Majesty, the scout in the Aether Armor did manage to bring back a record. Though his words are those of a man who has brushed the edge of madness, what he describes aligns with the darkest theories regarding the outer planes.”

Barnaby unfolded the paper and began to read in a voice devoid of emotion, which made the content all the more terrifying.

“The explorer’s report reads as follows,” Barnaby said, clearing his throat. “‘The moment I crossed the threshold, gravity ceased to exist as we know it. I found myself floating in a vast space, an amalgamation of colors that hurt the eyes. It was like being submerged in an ocean of thick, luminescent air. I looked toward the horizon, if it can even be called that, and what I saw was absolute chaos.’”

Leah leaned forward, fascinated and horrified. Chloé, beside me, let out a low growl; her animal instincts sensed the danger even in written words.

“‘To my right,’” Barnaby continued, “‘an immense glacier of black ice floated in the void, yet from its core, in an impossible way, an active volcano erupted, spewing golden lava. Fire and ice coexisted without destroying one another, as if the laws of nature had gone mad. To my left stretched a desert of white sand, but above it fell a blizzard so dense that the dunes froze at the touch. I tried to move toward the desert, hoping to find solid ground, but the moment my boots pushed off into the void, they appeared.’”

“They?” Leah whispered.

“‘Small beings made of snow and grains of sand,’” Barnaby read. “‘They had no faces, only vibrating geometric shapes. They surrounded me in seconds, attacking the armor with unheard-of ferocity. Their attacks were magical, bursts of energy that would have vaporized an ordinary knight. Thanks to the Aether Armor and its runic engravings, I was nearly immune, but the weight of the armor prevented me from counterattacking. It was like trying to swat flies while carrying a fortress.’”

I closed my eyes, visualizing the scene. It was a world of pure entropy. The world that Gaia and Liliath used as a dumping ground for failed experiments.

“‘Then I heard the call from the rift,’” Barnaby went on, “‘the signal that the ten minutes were about to expire. I turned back to return to the tunnel of light. That was when I saw them. In the distance, other beings, far larger than those of snow and sand, were watching us intently. They were colossal shadows, forms reminiscent of ancient titans, with eyes that shone like cold stars. They did not attack me, but I felt their gaze as a sentence. I escaped just before the portal collapsed.’”

Barnaby folded the parchment with meticulous precision and returned to his statue-like position behind the King.

William struck the desk with his fist, not in rage but in bitter resignation. “As you can see, it is a result the mages expected, but politically it is a disaster. What that man saw confirms that there are no ‘new lands’ to colonize and no resources to extract. There is only a nightmare realm threatening to seep into our own.”

The King stood and walked to the window, gazing toward the great cathedral rising in the distance.

“The information is scarce. Far too scarce to justify the risk and expense before the Council of Nobles. And worse still, the Church of Gaia has seized upon this report, which was leaked, of course, to claim that the explorer saw the ‘Hell of the Unbelievers.’ Silas is using these descriptions of volcanoes in glaciers to terrify the people, saying that the end times will come if we do not stop ‘disturbing the Goddess.’”

“So what will we do, Father?” Leah asked, her voice heavy with frustration. “Will we surrender?”

“For now, yes,” William declared, turning toward us with an expression of infinite weariness. “I have ordered all direct research into the rifts suspended. The quarry will be sealed, and the Tower mages will return to their laboratories. It is the only way to appease the Church and avoid a civil uprising before you are ready to enter the Academy.”

I felt a mixture of relief and anger. Relief that we would not return to that dangerous place immediately, but anger because the true culprits behind this chaos, the so-called goddesses Gaia and Liliath, were winning this round thanks to human ignorance.

“It is a tactical withdrawal, Leah,” I said, trying to calm the princess. “If we do not have enough information to win public opinion, we would only be handing Silas more ammunition.”

William nodded, giving me a look of approval. “Lotte is right. For now, we will focus on your education. The Academy will keep you out of the political eye of the storm, or at least, that is my hope. Barnaby will escort you back to your chambers. Prepare your belongings. Whirikal will enter a period of apparent calm, but do not lower your guard.”

We left the royal study under the guidance of the silent Barnaby. As we walked through the corridors, I could not stop thinking about the gigantic beings the explorer had seen at the end. Those colossal shadows… were they manifestations of Liliath’s power? Or perhaps the remnants of planetary spirits that had been consumed before Lyre was enslaved?

I looked at Leah. She walked with her head lowered, processing her father’s political defeat.

“Do not worry, Leah,” I said softly. “The Academy will be an opportunity. If the rifts pause for a while, we will have time to grow stronger.”

“I know, Lotte,” she replied, forcing a smile. “I just hate that those men in white always get the last word. But you are right. We will grow strong. So strong that the next time we open a door, there will be nothing on the other side that frightens us.”

Chloé snorted, her tail swaying. “I just hope the Academy food is better than travel rations. And that there are plenty of places to hide from boring teachers.”

We laughed softly, easing the tension a little. But inside me, Tiara’s power continued to vibrate. I knew that the King’s ‘calm’ was only the calm before the most devastating storm in Lyre’s history. And I, Liselotte, would be the ice that withstood the gale.

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