Lucia woke with a gasp.
Her heart pounded against her ribs as she shot upright, struggling to catch her breath.
"...Mother?"
Silence answered.
The dungeon...
The screams...
The stranger with crimson eyes...
The portal...
Every memory flashed before her, leaving her trembling.
She looked around.
This wasn't the prison.
Soft morning light spilled through tall windows draped with white curtains. The room smelled of lavender instead of damp stone, and polished wooden furniture replaced the cold walls she had known all her life.
Everything felt... unfamiliar.
"Where am I?" she whispered.
She threw the blanket aside and hurried toward the door, only to stop halfway.
Something rested on the bedside table.
A small wooden box.
It hadn't been there before.
Drawn by an instinct she couldn't explain, Lucia slowly approached it.
The lid bore a single engraved symbol.
A blue butterfly.
Her breath caught.
She had seen that symbol before.
On her mother's bracelet.
With trembling fingers, she lifted the lid.
Inside lay the silver bracelet.
Untouched.
As though it had been waiting for her.
Beneath it rested a neatly folded letter, tied with a faded blue ribbon.
The handwriting on the front made her knees weaken.
To My Kind Princess, Lucia
Tears blurred her vision before she even unfolded it.
She already knew whose handwriting it was.
"...Mother."
She carefully untied the ribbon.
A faint warmth spread through her fingertips the moment she touched the paper, as though the letter still carried the last traces of Vanteen's magic.
She began to read.
My dearest Lucia,
If these words have reached you, then I could no longer keep my promise of staying by your side.
For that...
I am deeply sorry.
I wanted to watch you grow.
I wanted to celebrate your first smile, your first laugh, your first step.
Instead, all I can leave behind are my memories.
Before you judge me...
Before you judge the woman the world calls a villain...
I need you to know the truth.
Everything they told you about me is only half of the story.
And half a truth is often the greatest lie.
You deserve to know who your mother truly was.
Not the Queen of Darkness.
Not the villain history remembers.
Simply...
Vanteen.
Your mother.
Lucia's hands trembled.
She had imagined this moment countless times.
She had dreamed that one day her mother would explain everything herself.
Instead...
She was listening to the voice of someone who was no longer there.
A tear slipped down her cheek and landed on the page.
As it touched the ink, the bracelet beside her suddenly glowed with a gentle blue light.
The room filled with tiny shimmering particles, dancing through the air like living stars.
Lucia instinctively reached for the bracelet.
The moment it touched her wrist...
A soft feminine voice echoed inside her mind.
"Do not be afraid, my little light."
Lucia froze.
"...Mother?"
No answer came.
Only silence.
But somehow...
For the first time since she had lost her...
Lucia no longer felt completely alone.
She took a deep breath.
Wiped the tears from her face.
Then turned to the next page.
Lucia stared at the next page for what felt like an eternity.
The handwriting was familiar.
Her mother's handwriting.
Yet every word felt like it belonged to someone she had never known.
A queen.
A prisoner.
A villain.
A mother.
She took a deep breath and continued reading.
My dearest Lucia,
Before I tell you about the mistakes I made, I want you to understand one thing.
You were never a mistake.
Lucia froze.
Her fingers tightened around the letter.
A small tear escaped her eye.
She had spent her entire life wondering why she was born into darkness.
Why she had to inherit a name that everyone feared.
Why her existence was connected to a woman the world hated.
But those words...
Those simple words...
Made something inside her break.
When I was born, everyone believed my destiny was already decided.
I was the daughter of the Dark King, the future heir of the dark forces.
They expected me to become cruel. They expected me to rule through fear.
But I never understood why power had to mean suffering.
A crown does not make someone a ruler. A throne does not make someone worthy.
The choices they make do.
Lucia looked up from the letter.
A strange feeling filled her chest.
Her mother...
The woman everyone called evil...
Had believed in kindness.
My father wanted a daughter who would make the world tremble.
Instead, he had a daughter who wanted the world to heal.
I believed that immortals and mortals could live together. That good and darkness did not have to destroy each other.
I believed everyone deserved the chance to choose who they became.
A bitter smile appeared on Lucia's face.
"Then why did they hate you?"
The empty room offered no answer.
Only the gentle glow of the bracelet around her wrist.
My beliefs made me different.
Some called me weak. Others called me foolish.
But one person told me something I never forgot.
Lucia turned the page.
The next sentence was written differently.
Softer.
Almost as if her mother had smiled while writing it.
"The strongest people are not those who can destroy everything. They are those who have the power to destroy... and choose not to."
Lucia stopped.
Those words felt strangely familiar.
Like something she had heard before.
That person was my mentor.
He taught me that the world was not divided into good and evil. It was divided by choices.
I believed him.
And that belief led me to your father.
Lucia's expression changed.
Her father.
A person she knew only through silence.
A person who had disappeared before she could ever meet him.
She continued reading.
His name was Jaden.
He was the prince of the Virtue Kingdom.
Lucia's breath caught.
The Virtue Kingdom.
The kingdom that had defeated her mother.
The kingdom that had imprisoned her.
At first, I did not know who he truly was.
I only knew him as a young man who dreamed of ending the war between our worlds.
He believed that darkness and light were not enemies.
He believed peace was possible.
And I wanted to believe him.
The room suddenly felt colder.
Because Lucia already knew the ending.
A man who wanted peace.
A woman who trusted him.
A betrayal.
She touched the page carefully.
Almost afraid of what she would find next.
Lucia, if you remember anything from my story, remember this:
The greatest wounds do not come from enemies.
They come from the people we believed would never hurt us.
The blue bracelet flickered.
And for a brief moment...
Lucia saw something.
A woman with silver hair standing beneath a field of flowers.
A young man beside her.
Both smiling.
Both happy.
Before the vision disappeared.
Lucia pulled her hand away.
Her heart raced.
The bracelet was not only carrying a letter.
It was carrying memories.
And for the first time...
Lucia wondered if discovering the truth would hurt more than living with the lie.
the truth that had been hidden from the world.