Palace life was a beast with many eyes, and Elara felt them all even when her back was turned.
The servants whispered behind her, their voices low and tinged with nervous curiosity.
The nobles watched with sharp, calculating gazes that weighed her like a problem to be solved or a secret to be exploited. And somewhere in the middle of it all, Elara was both shadow and spectacle an invisible figure draped in silks, who suddenly bore the weight of impossible expectation.
They gave her a chamber too large and too cold, its walls echoing with silence. The scent of lavender was overlaid with dust and the faintest trace of old magic. Her new gowns arrived heavy brocades embroidered with threads of silver and gold. They shone under the palace's glittering chandeliers, but she wore them like armor, not celebration.
"You are the Chosen now," the chambermaid said one morning, her voice trembling between awe and fear. "The stone chose you, and that means everything will change."
Elara didn't speak. She only nodded and pulled the hood of her cloak tighter around her face.
But inside, she stayed the same. She braided her hair herself, rough fingers working the strands into neat plaits. She memorized every corridor, every hidden staircase, every loose stone that could lead to freedom if she ever needed it.
Every day was a battle of silence and observation. The nobles smiled thinly, their eyes sharp with unspoken questions. The servants cast sideways glances, unsure whether to offer kindness or keep distance.
At night, Elara wrote letters she never sent, tucking them into the cold ashes of her fireplace. Words spilled onto brittle parchment questions, doubts, dreams but no names. She was sending these words into the dark, hoping someone, somewhere, might hear.
Then, one night, there was an answer. A note slipped beneath her door, delicate as a whisper.
"They fear what they don't control. But you were never meant to be controlled. – M."
Elara folded the note carefully, a smile creeping onto her lips for the first time since the stone's glow had chosen her.
The game was beginning.