Chapter 4

I couldn't let my people suffer any longer. The Sunstone Guardians were fading, their spirits dimming with each passing day of Ethan' s torment. Their pain was my pain.

With a heart heavier than any mountain, I sent word to Ethan. I would agree to formally dissolve the pact.

We met on the blighted border of Sunstone Valley. The ancient Unity Scroll, a document that had bound our lineages for centuries, was brought forth.

"You are making the right choice, Aurora," Ethan said, his voice smug. He made no apology for the devastation he had caused.

I took the scroll. Its parchment felt ancient, sacred. With a deep breath, I channeled a spark of my diminished Sunstone fire and touched it to the edge.

The scroll caught, burning with a reluctant, sorrowful flame. As it turned to ash, a symbolic severing, Ethan smiled.

"Good," he said. "Any debt I owed your lineage for past aid is now repaid in full. By your suffering, by your humiliation."

He turned and left with Sylvie, who cast one last, triumphant look over her shoulder.

My people were safe from his direct attacks, for now. I retreated to the Solar Sanctum, a hidden, sacred peak, to begin preparations for my solitary and perilous Solar Renewal ritual. I erected powerful protective wards, woven from the last vestiges of Sunstone power and ancient lore. This ritual was my only hope, our land's only hope.

But Sylvie was terrified of what a renewed Aurora might mean. She couldn't allow it.

Days later, as my ritual was about to commence, a frantic energy beat against my wards. It was Sylvie.

She wasn't trying to break through, not truly. She was deliberately throwing herself against the protective barrier, again and again, sustaining injuries, screaming.

Then Ethan arrived, alerted by Sylvie' s staged distress. He found her bruised, weeping, at the edge of my wards.

"She attacked me!" Sylvie cried, pointing a shaking finger towards the Sanctum. "Aurora broke her word! She tried to kill me!"

Ethan' s face contorted with rage. He didn't question it for a moment. His belief in Sylvie's victimhood was absolute.