The ancient texts lay scattered around me, their yellowed pages illuminated by candlelight in my study. For three days, I'd barely slept, poring over every mention of the "Heart-Offering" in our family records. My eyes burned from exhaustion, but determination kept me alert.
"Lady Elara, you should rest," my cousin James said, placing a steaming cup of tea beside me. As the current Duke, he'd been surprisingly supportive of my research.
"The equinox is tomorrow," I replied, not looking up from the faded journal of Elara II Thorne. "I can rest when the land is healed."
James sighed and sat across from me. "What have you found?"
I pushed several open books toward him. "The ritual isn't complicated in its actions, but it requires genuine emotional connection. That's why it couldn't be delegated to servants or hired mages. The Thornes themselves had to perform it—a direct offering of their life energy and love for the land."
