The morning after completing my chronicle, I found myself drawn back to the archives. There was something satisfying about having pieced together the remarkable story of Duke Alaric I and his Masked Wife Isabella, yet I couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing—a piece of the puzzle I had yet to discover.
"Back so soon?" Gerald raised an eyebrow as I entered. "I thought you'd be celebrating the completion of your manuscript."
I smiled, running my fingers along a shelf of leather-bound records. "There's still one figure I feel I haven't fully understood. The Dowager Duchess Annelise Thorne."
Gerald nodded thoughtfully. "Alaric's grandmother. Formidable woman, by all accounts."
"Yes, but beyond her role in the main events, I know little of her legacy. She appears in fragments throughout the records—strong-willed, sometimes harsh, yet deeply protective of the family line."
