The garden at Thorne Estate blooms with night cereus under a blanket of stars, their white petals luminous against the darkness. I pause amid the flowers, watching them sway in the gentle evening breeze. How many generations of Thornes have tended these gardens? How many have stood where I stand now, gazing at the same constellations?
I am Elara Thorne, named for a great-aunt who was renowned for her brilliance, a woman who helped decode ancient texts that saved our realm centuries ago. Tonight marks the two-hundred-year anniversary of Duke Alaric I and Duchess Isabella's triumph against the Serpent Below.
My fingers instinctively reach for the wire ring hanging from a silver chain around my neck. Simple, unadorned—nothing like the priceless jewels in our family vault. Yet this makeshift ring, fashioned by my ancestor Duke Alaric I for his beloved Isabella before they had wealth or titles, is our family's most treasured heirloom.
