Chapter 106 — Chains of Memory
The return from the northern border was marked by silence and blood.
The war party rode back under a bruised sky, carrying their dead on makeshift biers. Cairis led from the front, his armor still streaked with black ichor and enemy blood. He had not spoken a single word to Liora since the night in his command tent — the night he had almost kissed her, the night his walls had cracked before the curse slammed them shut again.
Liora rode near the center of the column, wrists and ankles still bound by the enchanted chains. Every jolt of the shadow steed sent fresh pain through the suppression runes. Yet her mind was sharp. She was learning the new rhythm of this broken relationship: push gently, trigger memories carefully, endure the mockery, and wait for the next fracture.
Upon their return to the Obsidian Throne, the court was waiting like hungry wolves.
