“Ugh... Aaagh...!”
“Ashbal!”
Naila’s screams echoed in the air. Claudia, perched on the railing of the watchtower, let out a breath as she observed the unfolding chaos.
Things have mostly proceeded according to plan.
Noah stood before Claudia, his sword drawn and ready. Before him, Ashbal’s trembling body had begun to transform. From his back sprouted golden wings—not made of the soft feathers of a bird but an array of golden bows sprouting from his back. They overlapped in the shape of outstretched wings.
Samira never bore the king a child, Claudia thought. The reason she used her status as a gifted conjurer to place a powerful barrier on the harem must have been to bolster her claims that the child she was carrying was the king’s and not born from infidelity.
Instead, after her encounter with the king, Samira had used the necklace she brought from her homeland to create a cursed artifact that took the form of a human child.
A tool to destroy the Golden Falcon, not a child. Ashbal always knew what he was.
But the plan had gone awry.
“You were created to destroy the Golden Falcon,” Claudia said. “Yet you failed and instead, you fused with it.”
Naila’s eyes widened in horror.
“The Ashbal you see now is the Golden Falcon,” Claudia continued, “its final, twisted incarnation.”
“Guh...! Aaaagh!”
Ashbal writhed as golden light surged from his wings, which grew larger with each passing second. The light was slowly transforming him.
“Perhaps the transformation began with the Golden Falcon after your father’s death,” Claudia continued, watching Ashbal. “Or perhaps the transformation was triggered by a change in Ashbal after his mother’s passing.”
Or perhaps, it was both. What mattered now was that Ashbal and the Golden Falcon had merged into a new monstrous form.
“B-But, Lady Dia!” Naila stammered. “Ashbal was perfectly normal until just moments ago! Now, he’s—”
“Curses are born from human desire,” Claudia said. “And thus, they are shaped by the will of their creator.”
She glanced at Naila, who flinched, her moon-shaped earrings swaying from her sharp, sudden movement.
“In this kingdom, the sun represents the king, and the moon his consort. For Samira, who endured that fateful lunar eclipse on her wedding night, the moon became a symbol of her suffering.”
“So that’s why...the sun and moon...” Faraz murmured. He turned to Naila. “Lady Samira’s stabilizing influence on Ashbal probably strengthens while the sun is out...and her magic intensifies when the moonlight is at its strongest. Even though King Ashbal, being king, is the sun himself, the moon represents Lady Samira.”
Presumably, Ashbal’s power was stable only while exposed to sunlight or moonlight. Without them, his transformation became uncontrollable.