High Queen Elandra's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

A wizard enters through the hall's main door without invitation or announcement. He walks with the confidence of someone who believes they own the answer to a question no one has asked aloud. His robes shimmer with starlight patterns that seem too perfect, too deliberate. Elandra does not move from her position near the divination chamber. She watches him approach, noting how he reaches into his pocket before she speaks. He produces a small marble that holds an entire galaxy within its glass — stars twinkling, nebulas swirling in vibrant colors that pulse with their own light. He extends it toward her with an open palm. "The price of the unmaking," he says. "I offer it freely. No cost to you, High Queen. No decades of waiting, no tests of worthiness. Just this — my knowledge, my power, given without condition." The marble catches the torchlight and throws miniature constellations across the stone floor. Elandra does not reach for it. She has learned that anything offered without price carries the heaviest cost of all. A wizard who claims to unmake part of themselves for nothing is either lying about the spell or lying about the sacrifice — and either way, she cannot build a child's future on that foundation. She meets his eyes and sees what she expected: eagerness, ambition, the particular hunger of someone who wants something from her more than they want to give something to her. "Leave," she says. The word is final. He blinks, confused, the marble still extended. "But I'm offering you everything you've searched for." She does not repeat herself. After a long moment, he lowers his hand and backs toward the door, the galaxy marble dimming in his grip. When he is gone, she returns to the main hall where the dying man still waits by the tomb. The wizard was a test she did not ask for, but one that clarified everything. This man has asked for nothing. He has only returned, three times, and stood in the place that matters. That is the only offer she can trust.