Lord of the realm

All eyes turned to Odessa.

She was a woman who drew attention wherever she went, though she rarely sought it.

Her skin was smooth and unmarked, but her eyes held the weight of centuries.

Odessa was dressed simply in a long grey robe. Around her wrist, she wore a single silver bracelet, plain and unadorned, but those who knew of such things would recognize it as a focus for power that few could hope to master.

Cornelia stared at the black-haired woman with a frown creasing her brow.

There was something familiar about Odessa's face, something that tickled at the edge of memory. Where had she seen her before? When had their paths crossed?

Odessa looked at the Siren Queen with amusement dancing in her eyes.

A soft chuckle escaped her lips, a sound like wind through dry leaves.

"Ashen?" she repeated, as if the word were some jest she didn't quite understand.

"Who, me?"

The laugh that followed was warm and rich, filling the great hall with its music.

But there was something beneath the laughter, something sharp and dangerous that made the other witches step back unconsciously.

"But tell me this," Odessa continued, her voice taking on an edge that could cut glass.

"Are you the one who took my boy and chained him in your dungeon?"

The question hung in the air like a blade waiting to fall.

"Yes," Cornelia said, her voice steady despite the confusion about the woman. She could tell that she was far stronger and more skilled just by a glance at her.

The single word fell into the silence of the hall like a stone into still water.

The ripples of tension spread outward, touching everyone present.

Odessa's Origin energy suddenly starts to boil around her, increasing the pressure in the hall.

Delia felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as Origin energy began to crackle through the air. Beside her, Ember's hands began to glow with inner fire, ready to defend herself if needed. The other witches murmured among themselves, sensing that they stood on the edge of something momentous.

Even the Siren Queen, who had seen empires rise and fall, took a careful step backwards. Her oceanic eyes darted between the two women, reading the currents of power that flowed between them like a scholar reading an ancient text.

She knew Cornelia was powerful, but Odessa was a surprise to her. Her aura had instantly changed, and she seemed more terrifying than Cornelia now.

Odessa's expression didn't change, but the temperature in the great hall seemed to drop by several degrees. Frost began to form on the stone walls, and the flames in the fireplace flickered as if a cold wind had suddenly blown through the room.

"I see," Odessa said, her voice now carrying the chill of winter itself.

"And where is he now, I wonder?"

As if in answer to her question, a pulse of energy swept through the castle like a wave.

It started from somewhere deep below and rose upward, passing through stone and timber as if they were made of air.

Every person in the hall felt it—a surge of power so vast and ancient that it made their very souls tremble.

The torches on the walls flared brighter. The wine in the goblets began to bubble. The great tapestries that hung from the walls rippled as if moved by an unfelt wind.

And through it all, Odessa smiled.

It was not a pleasant smile.

It was the smile of a predator who had just caught the scent of its prey. It was the smile of a storm about to break. It was the smile of someone afraid to take action.

"He's free, isn't he?" She whispered, but her voice carried clearly to every corner of the hall. "My beautiful boy has found the stone."

Cornelia frowned as she didn't understand what she was saying, but there was a vague feeling at the back of her mind that these energy ripples were somehow related to Jaenor.

The two powerful women faced each other across the great hall, and the very air between them began to crack and spark with opposing forces.

Odessa's black hair whipped around her face as cold winds began to swirl through the room. Cornelia raised her hands, and dark purple energy gathered around her fingers like living shadows.

When their powers finally clashed, it was like watching two storms collide.

A wave of force exploded outward from where they stood.

The great stone pillars groaned and cracked. Windows shattered, sending glass cascading to the floor like deadly rain. The witches threw themselves flat against the ground, pressing their faces to the cold stone as the violent energies raged above their heads.

Delia felt as if invisible hands were trying to tear her from the ground itself. She dug her fingers into the cracks between the stones, fighting to stay grounded as the opposing forces battled for control of the very air around them. Beside her, Ember's red hair was streaming upward as if she were underwater, and sparks flew from her skin in desperate response to the chaos.

Even the Siren Queen, ancient and powerful as she was, dropped to one knee and braced herself against a pillar. Her ocean-deep eyes were wide with something that might have been fear or perhaps simply awe at witnessing such raw power unleashed.

-

Meanwhile, deep beneath the castle in its most secret depths, Earl Grimwald had finally reached his destination.

The Earl was not what he appeared to be in the light of day. In his true form, revealed now in the privacy of the ancient passages, he was something far stranger than any lord. His skin was a mottled green-brown, damp and glistening in the torchlight. His eyes were large and round, protruding slightly from a face that was more amphibious than man. When he moved, it was with the peculiar grace of a creature equally at home on land or in water.