Aelara NightwingShelly's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Aelara unlocked the back door of the old pawn shop and stepped inside. The barred windows threw stripes across the floor. She had bought the place cheap and made it her base. From here, she meant to take back the throne of Owl Shift, the kingdom her bloodline lost generations ago. She set the owl-headed ring on the counter. It was her only proof, and it was not enough. A silver bird on a worn leather band could not shout down a usurper's army. She pulled a weathered wooden sign from a crate. Faded red runes circled a sharp owl carved into the boards. Her grandmother had sworn it once hung above a royal gate. A buyer arrived at midday, a quiet woman from a farmhouse out past the fields. She studied the sign, then the ring. "Pretty," she said. "But pretty is not proof." A pink butterfly drifted through the open door and landed on the wood. The woman laughed and walked out. Aelara stood alone with her relics. She had laid out everything she owned, and the world had called it decoration. Words would never be enough. Heirlooms would never be enough. She locked the ring inside the counter and bolted the door. If no one would accept her blood as proof, she would have to find someone who remembered the kingdom itself. Tomorrow she would start hunting witnesses.