Chapter72: The Original Queen

*Seraphira* The battlefield trembles beneath my feet, each pulse of the earth echoing like a heartbeat I can no longer ignore. Smoke coils in the air, thick with ash and blood and the remnants of what we’ve already lost. The cries of my people fade into the background as I stand at the center of it all, where past, present, and future converge. This is the war I was born into, but it will not be the war I die in. I close my eyes. Let the wind wrap around me, cool against the heat of my skin, let the magic beneath the surface of the land hum in my bones, let the voices of the fallen guide me. My Four stand around me. They are my soul, my heart, and my strength. Valen, with fire always burning behind his dark eyes, his passion wild and consuming, gives me courage like I’ve never known. Orienne, fierce and agile, the wind at his back, his breath tethered to every current that shifts the tides of battle, instills in me a sense of power. Thalos, unmoving as stone, his connection to the eart