Chapter 208 Troubled

• Ariella sat in her chamber long after the Council meeting had ended, her mind racing with the implications of the words exchanged. The tension in the air was palpable, but despite the hard stares and veiled threats, she had made it through. For now, she had earned their respect. But that was only the beginning. There was still the matter of the Drakemire legacy hanging over her head like a dark cloud.
• She couldn’t shake the weight of Lord Torian’s question: *What of the Drakemires?*
• Ariella rose from her chair, pacing the room, her hands clasped tightly behind her back. The kingdom was on the brink of war, and yet the real enemy was not the factions or the fractured politics of Ilthoria. It was the darkness buried within her own bloodline. Her father, once a symbol of power and ambition, had fallen to madness, and his legacy threatened to destroy everything.