A single petal brushed against Noah’s skin.
Then, petal by petal, the lilies darkened, as if dyed in black. Soon, her loyal servant was surrounded by a field of black flowers.
“I hereby break the curse of domination.”
The words weren’t meant for Noah.
The black mist that had once clung to his throat had vanished, and Noah stood.
Sieghart’s face twisted. “Why you, Leonhard?!” There was a fury in his rasping voice. “Everything I’ve ever wanted has belonged to you. The rightful throne, the place as Anna Marie’s elder brother, the ability to command magic at the highest level...”
Noah didn’t react, not even to his sister’s name.
“Even Adelheid is yours. Everything falls into your hands alone!”
“Sieghart,” Claudia murmured, plucking a black lily from the nearby bloom and lifting it gently to her lips. “Just as I thought, you are under Reinard’s control, aren’t you?”
“What are you...?”
The lily in Claudia’s hand was the same color as the eyes that stared up at her.
“You were never truly this kind of boy, were you?”
Sieghart looked taken aback.
From what Sieghart had once told her in her dream, Claudia could piece together the truth.
“You never truly desired the throne. And I know you must have grieved when you learned that it was Noah who was Anna Marie’s true brother.”
“What are you talking about...?”
“You’re the kind of boy who would step aside for Leonhard but would also steel himself to stand as his enemy if you needed to for the sake of the people. The true Sieghart is wise and noble.”
For the first time, Sieghart seemed to be truly looking at Claudia. “Enough, Adelheid...”
“Reinard has taken that from you. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say he has overwritten your true self and replaced your thoughts with his own.”
“Enough!!!” he cried as he clutched his head.
The surrounding black lilies seemed to billow as his shout echoed within the chapel.
“You desire me only at Reinard’s behest,” Claudia said.
“You’re wrong,” he insisted.
Noah caught Claudia’s eye. She gave him a subtle nod before she looked back at Sieghart and continued, “I’m not. Deep down, you’ve already realized it, haven’t you?”
Sieghart’s eyes widened.
“You’re fully aware that, even if you defeat Noah and claim me, the world that follows will not be shaped by your will. Reinard would strip everything from you, this time complete—”
“Hold your tongue!”
As he shouted, he let out a burst of flame directed at Claudia.
Raising the black lily in her hand as though it were a staff, she held it between herself and the flames. Though the flames seemed certain to consume it, the flower withstood it with ease. Its magic had dispelled the fire.
“It seems you are not yet ready to listen.” With a faint trace of disappointment in her voice, Claudia turned to her waiting servant. “Noah.”
“At the ready.”
Noah began summoning his magic. Sieghart tensed, raising his sword defensively toward his cousin, but when the object materialized, he furrowed his brow in suspicion. Noah’s conjured weapon, a small dagger, was clearly unfit for any serious combat against Sieghart’s sword.
“What could you possibly intend to do with that?” Sieghart asked.
“Sieghart, I actually agree with you,” Noah said calmly in his deep voice. When his cousin was too confused to respond, Noah continued. “I should have been in your place. I should have been the one sitting on that throne, bound by Reinard’s curse, never allowed to do as I wished.”
“Say no more.”
“You’ve never felt whole, have you? You’ve always felt a hole within you that you desperately wished to fill,” Noah said before touching his throat with his free hand. “You believed that you could fill that hole by claiming Adelheid. You could not help but fight.”
“Don’t you dare say another word!!!”
Claudia had intently listened to Noah, thinking, I’m sure that Leonhard felt the same...
The dream she had seen must have been the convergence of several futures once glimpsed by her mother’s magic. The boy she had met there had always resembled a starving beast, desperate to satiate some need, restrained only by the thin veneer of reason.
“That’s why I must sever what binds you,” Noah said.
Sieghart gaped in shock as Noah pointed the gleaming dagger in his hand not at Sieghart but at his own chest.
“What are you planning to do?” Sieghart asked, wary.
“There is no need to dirty the princess’s hands with this.”
Noah had seen this magic only once—ten years ago—but Claudia knew that he could easily recreate it. She offered him no aid.
My role is to bind Sieghart’s movements, if only for a moment, she thought. Beyond that, she knew she needed to trust her servant.
“Bear with it a moment,” Noah said quietly, “and I shall cut those wretched chains.”
He plunged the dagger into his left breast.
A wave of magic, mixed between his and Claudia’s, swelled and broke forth.
Drops of crimson blood fell on the surrounding black lilies. The blood shimmered faintly with a golden light, and the blade of the dagger in Noah’s grasp began to shine with that same hue.
The structure of the curse’s spell formula is clear to me.
It was information that Claudia had been able to gain through Noah allowing himself to suffer earlier.
Her magic was connected to Noah’s through their acolyte contract. And through it, Noah would understand what she understood.
Ten years ago, I could not break the curse that afflicted Noah. That is why the contract between us came to be.
It was all Claudia, newly awakened, could do at the time.
But now, Claudia knew that exploiting Reinard’s curse had been a part of her mother’s plans too. Her mother had known what choice her daughter would make when confronted with the young, suffering Noah.
Reinard, your curse upon Noah was the very thing that I will use to unravel your plans.
Claudia smiled at the irony. “Try not to flail, no matter how scary it might get, Sieghart.”
Noah drew the dagger from his chest, and the blade began to change. Wreathed in golden blood, it grew into a longsword. He turned it toward Sieghart.
“Leonhard!!!”
Sieghart’s fury broke through Claudia’s restraints, and the men’s blades clashed once more.
Although their swords and spells collided with violent force, the rhythm of their duel resembled a form of dance. Noah’s movements were precise and pure as he pressed Sieghart back.
By contrast, Sieghart displayed no such control.
His strikes were heavy with rage, his technique driven more by emotion than discipline. Claudia remembered how, as a boy, his swordplay had been far more refined.