Shadows of the Fallen Crown

The throne room lay in ruins, its once-golden pillars now blackened by dragonfire. Aria Nightshade stood amidst the destruction, her shadow-touched hands still trembling from the power she had unleashed.

"You shouldn't have come back," a voice echoed from the darkness. Kael Stormwind emerged from behind a fallen column, his silver armor dulled by ash and blood.

Aria turned to face him, her violet eyes glowing with an otherworldly light. "The crown chose me, knight. I didn't have a choice."

"There's always a choice." Kael's hand moved to his sword hilt, but he didn't draw. "The Aria I knew would have found another way."

She laughed, and it was a bitter sound that echoed off the broken walls. "The Aria you knew died the night they burned her family. What stands before you now is something else entirely."

The shadows around her feet began to writhe, reaching toward Kael like hungry serpents. He stood his ground, even as the darkness licked at his boots.

"Then prove me wrong," he said quietly. "Show me that the woman who saved my life three winters ago still exists somewhere beneath all that darkness."

For a moment, the shadows hesitated. And in that moment, Aria remembered.