The flight back to Oephidia was quiet. Their negotiation with King Eothis had succeeded — the Garuda army would stand down — but an unspoken unease had settled over all four of them. Something felt wrong, though none of them could name it.
They landed in the palace courtyard and knew immediately that their instincts had been right.
The usual sounds of the palace — guards at their posts, servants moving through the corridors, the low hum of a kingdom going about its business — were gone. In their place was silence. The kind of silence that meant something irreversible had happened.
Veridian met them at the entrance to the central chamber. His face was a mask of grief barely held together. Injury marks crossed his chest, and he had the look of a man who had only recently found his feet again.
"Veridian," Kael said. "What happened?"
Veridian's eyes were heavy. "Queen Melinoe is gone. The palace was attacked while you were away."
The words fell into the silence like stones.
Mieza went very still. Zym's hands curled into fists at his sides. Kael felt the colour drain from his face — and then the slow, rising heat of anger as his eyes shifted from blue to a deep, burning red.
"How?" he said, his voice quiet and dangerous.
Veridian's shoulders sagged under the weight of it. "The Naja came in force. They struck in coordinated waves, organised and relentless, bypassing our defenses with a precision that could only mean someone inside the palace fed them information. The guards fought hard. Some died. Others were badly wounded. I tried to hold them off but there were too many — I was struck down before I could reach her." He paused, the pause of a man who had been replaying the moment ever since. "By the time I came back to myself, it was over."
"Those Naja," Zym said, his voice low and stripped of everything except fury. "They will answer for this."
Mieza placed a hand on Kael's arm, then turned to Zym. "They will. But not in anger, and not without a plan." Her voice was steady, though her eyes glistened. "We should not have left her. But that is done, and it cannot be undone. What we do now is what matters."
Kael breathed through it, forcing the grief and rage to settle into something he could use. He turned back to Veridian. "Tell us everything. Every detail."
Veridian nodded slowly. "The Naja knew exactly where to strike and when. They had intelligence from inside these walls — I am certain of it. Someone in this palace wanted the Queen dead, and they opened the door for it. There is a traitor among us, Kael. Someone who wants the throne."
The words landed with the weight of a second blow. Kael's jaw tightened. Melinoe had been more than a queen he was duty-bound to protect. She had been a friend from his boyhood, a woman of rare grace and strength. Her death was a wound that went deep. "We will find who did this," he said. "The mastermind has grown bolder — they are moving from manipulation into open action now. That means they are close to whatever it is they are truly after."
Veridian straightened, despite the pain it clearly cost him. "Before the end, the Queen made me promise that if anything should happen to her, Oephidia would not fall into the hands of whoever sought to take it. She knew the danger. She died knowing it."
"Then we honour that promise," Zola said quietly.
"The Naja will come for the throne next," Veridian continued. "They will not wait. We need to strengthen the palace defenses, find the traitor, and rally whatever allies remain loyal — before they make their next move."
Mieza's eyes hardened with resolve. "With the war between the Garudas and the Nagas averted, we have time that we did not have before. We use it."
Kael looked at each of them in turn — Zym, Zola, Mieza, Veridian. "Then we plan carefully and we move quickly. No more losses."
-----
The sun was setting over Oephidia as the preparations for Queen Melinoe's last rites were completed. The palace and the streets beyond were draped in emerald and silver. The entire subterranean realm seemed to have drawn a long, collective breath and held it. Aethon's golden light cast long shadows across the crystal towers, and for the first time since any of them could remember, Oephidia was truly still.
The funeral procession moved through the central square in silence. Kael, Zym, Zola, and Mieza walked at the forefront, dressed in ceremonial attire bearing the symbols of the Naga queen's reign. Around them, the people of Oephidia — all walks of the kingdom, scales of every colour, faces carrying every shade of grief — gathered with their heads bowed.
Veridian, injuries and all, led the procession. When he reached the grand pedestal where the funeral pyre had been erected — adorned with flowers and precious stones, a last tribute to the queen who had ruled with both iron will and rare compassion — he turned to face the assembled crowd. His voice, though rough with sorrow, carried clearly across the square.
"Today, we mourn our beloved Queen Melinoe. She was a beacon of wisdom, courage, and justice. Her spirit will remain woven into the fabric of Oephidia for as long as these walls stand."
Kael stepped forward when Veridian fell silent, his gaze moving across the sea of grieving faces. "Queen Melinoe was not only a ruler. She was a friend, a mentor, and a woman of profound honour. Her legacy does not die with her — it lives in what we choose to do next, and in the kind of kingdom we fight to preserve."
Mieza approached the pyre, her voice steady despite the tears she did not try to hide. "In her memory, we must stay united. Those responsible for this will be brought to justice. That is the promise we make to her today."
Zym and Zola moved to the pyre's edge together, each carrying a torch. They held them for a moment — long enough for the weight of it to be felt — and then, together, they lit the pyre.
The flames took hold slowly, then grew, climbing upward through the night air and throwing light across the silent assembly. The crackling of the fire was the only sound in the square.
Veridian leaned close to Kael and spoke quietly. "This is not the end. We will find those responsible, and we will answer for Melinoe."
"We will," Kael said. "For her. For Oephidia. For all of it."
Mieza took his hand in the dark, her grip firm. "We will see this through."
Kael held her hand and kept his eyes on the fire. Around them, the kingdom mourned. But beneath the grief, something else was taking shape — a quiet, unbreakable resolve, shared by the handful of people standing together in the flickering light.
They would find the mastermind. They would expose the traitor. And they would not let Melinoe's death be the thing that broke Oephidia.
They would make it the thing that saved it.