My Dearest Gabrijela,
Your words broke through the estate's walls, lifting darkness for a brief moment. I pressed your letter to my chest, breathing in your ink. For that instant, I was only a man longing for you. Your safety with your aunt brings peace, but this distance is cruel.
They think that by sending you away, they can starve our love. They do not understand that my love for you is not a spark to be snuffed out by winter; it is a fire that consumes everything I am.
My mother looks at me with pity now, and my father looks at me with caution, but there is a fracture in their armour, Gabrijela. I have forced them to see you through my eyes, not through the blood-soaked history of our surnames. The House of von Rosenberg is willing to bend. They are willing to open our gates to you, to let peace wash away decades of bitter feuds.
Yet, my heart breaks as I write this next truth.
The hand that holds us back now is your own father's. The Count refuses every subtle gesture of truce we offer. He wraps his pride around your family like armour, choosing old hatreds over your happiness, over our future. It is a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that the greatest wall between us is built by the very blood that gave you life.
Do not despair, my beautiful star. Let them wage their silent wars. They have the power to command armies and exile us to different corners of the realm, but they cannot command the beating of our hearts. We have hope, and as long as we breathe, we have a future.
Wear the silver ring I gave you beneath your silks. Wait for me. I am rewriting our destiny, and no Count or Baron will stand in my way.
With every breath I possess,
Maximilian
Tears traced silent, burning paths down Grabrijela's pale cheeks. She pressed the fragile parchment to her lips, drawing comfort from the faint scent of ink, before clutching it tightly against her heart as if it were a shield against the world.
"Maximilian," she whispered into the empty room, her chest aching with a hollow longing. "I miss you so terribly much."
Suddenly, muted voices drifted through the heavy oak door.
"Your Ladyship, Lady Grabrijela claims she is quite unwell and begs for privacy," the maid's voice trembled, strained with anxiety. "She... she explicitly requested not to be disturbed."
"How dare a common servant attempt to bar me from a room in my own estate!" Jovana's voice cut through the wood like a sharpened blade, dripping with aristocratic venom.
"Out of my sight, before I have you thrown into the streets!"
A succession of harsh, demanding blows rattled the door on its hinges.
BAM! BAM!
"Grabrijela, open this door this instant!" Jovana demanded from the hallway.
Panic seized Grabrijela, ice flooding her veins. Her frantic eyes darted around the room until they landed on the hearth, where the roaring fire crackled and spat orange sparks. With trembling fingers, she ruthlessly crumpled Maximilian's precious words into a tight ball and flung them toward the consuming flames.
She was a fraction of a second too slow, and before the parchment could touch the fire, a shadow leapt into the room through the window, and in a seamless, terrifyingly silent motion, intercepted the letter, snatching it from the air.
He didn't even look at Grabrijela, but instead, he calmly smoothed his coat, strode to the door, and unlocked it just as Baroness Jovana swept into the chamber with a terrifying, regal grace.
Jovana's cold eyes scanned the room before settling on her accomplice. "Excellent work, Vuković."
Vuković executed a flawless, low bow, extending his hand to present the crumpled prize. "This servant lives only to merit your grace's praise, my lady."
Jovana snatched the letter, her dark eyes scanning the elegant script. Grabrijela felt her heart hammering frantically against her ribs like a trapped bird. She watched in sheer terror as her aunt's face morphed from cold arrogance into a mask of pure, twisting rage.When Jovana spoke, she did not yell. Her voice dropped to a venomous, deathly whisper that was infinitely worse than any scream."The sheer audacity. The absolute, unmitigated brazenness," Jovana hissed, her gaze snapping to her niece.
"I have never witnessed such disgraceful rebellion. After everything your father has sacrificed to secure your future, you choose to throw his benevolence back in his face? You insult his bloodline so casually? Tell me, girl, does a father's love mean absolutely nothing to you?"
Grabrijela stood trembling, her vision blurring with fresh tears, but she forced her chin up. "I love him," she sobbed, the confession tearing from her throat.
"Love?" Jovana sneered, the word twisting into a grotesque caricature on her lips. She stepped closer, her expression hardening with an ancient, deeply rooted malice. "You could have given your heart to any wretched soul in the entire empire, Grabrijela, but a Rosenberg?"
She spat the rival family's name as if it were poison on her tongue, her voice dripping with pure loathing."
Why do you insist on dragging a dead feud from an ancient era into the present?" Grabrijela cried out, her voice cracking under the weight of her frustration. "Let it die with your generation! Just let me live in peace!"
"A dead feud?!" Jovana's voice finally broke its cold restraint, rising to a sharp, dangerous crescendo.
"That dead feud claimed your grandparents, your uncle, and even your own mother!"
"Lies! My mother died of an illness!" Grabrijela shot back, desperation making her reckless. "And as for my uncle, he was a bumbling oaf who died by his own clumsy tripping! My grandparents only perished because they weren't strong enough to withstand simple bandi—"
Grabrijela's words dissolved into a choked gasp, as with blinding speed, Jovana lunged forward, her fingers wrapping around Grabrijela's throat like iron bands. She lifted the girl completely off her feet. Jovana's eyes burned with a terrifying, borderline insane rage as she stared into her niece's suffocating face.
"Your mother was poisoned," Jovana hissed, her face inches from Grabrijela's. "My brother fell in battle because the very family you so blindly worship intentionally delayed their reinforcements. And your grandparents did not die at the hands of mere bandits—they fell to trained soldiers disguised as scum, taking hundreds of the bastards down with them! Yet look at you... a snivelling, pathetic smear on our family bloodline."
Vuković's hand shot out, firmly gripping Jovana's wrist before she could do permanent damage. "Your Ladyship," he intervened hastily, his voice a tense, urgent whisper. "You promised your brother, the Count, that you would keep her safe."
With a look of profound disgust, Jovana released her grip. Grabrijela crashed hard onto the floor, clutching her neck and drawing in ragged, desperate gulps of air.
"If the choice were mine, I would have slaughtered you where you stand," Jovana spat, looking down at her. "My older brother is a fool to keep such a stain on his honour alive."
Jovana turned on her heel to storm out, Vuković falling into step right behind her, but Grabrijela, driven by agonising heartbreak and physical pain, fired off one last parting shot.
"You cannot change the truth, Jovana!" she screamed, tears blurring her vision. "No matter how much you rage and cry, it remains the truth! You know it! You are nothing but a failure of a barbaric woman who could never even find love!"
The air in the room instantly turned to ice, and a crushing, suffocating wave of pure killing intent fell upon Grabrijela, freezing her tongue in her mouth.Jovana slowly turned back. Her voice was deadly quiet again, hollow and cold. "The only reason you are alive and drawing breath today is that I sacrificed my own hand to save yours when you were a child, and every single day, I regret it."
She snapped her gaze to Vuković, issuing her new decrees like an executioner. "Grabrijela is never to step foot out of this room again. Only our most trusted maids will deliver her food, and she is to have absolutely zero contact with the outside world. Furthermore, Vuković—find me the scoundrels who are helping her smuggle these pathetic love letters. I want them dealt with."
With a harsh flick of her wrist, Jovana tore Maximilian's letter into shreds and flung the pieces into the roaring fireplace.
As Jovana strode out of the chamber, Grabrijela scrambled frantically across the floor on her hands and knees. Ignoring the blistering heat, she reached directly toward the crackling embers, desperately praying to salvage even the tiniest fragment of her lover's words.
Meanwhile, in a wreckage of a home in the Ironsworth village, Vera suddenly let out a sharp sneeze.
"Bless you," Adrien said in a teasing, sing-song tone.
Vera rubbed her nose, huffing lightly. "Hmph. Someone must be thinking about me."
"You actually believe in those old superstitions, Vera?" Adrien laughed, but his focus quickly shifted back to the muddy path beneath his boots. "But look, more importantly... these tracks on the ground. I don't remember seeing anything even remotely similar to this in the bestiary encyclopedia."
Vera knelt, examining the deep, jagged impressions in the earth. "Since none of the local animals in this region has footprints like these, do you think it's an invasive species?"
"Maybe," Adrien mused, checking his user interface menu. "After all, we still don't know what kind of rare creatures are present in the game world."
"True enough," Vera muttered, her expression turning grim. "But it's that trail of blood and the bits of flesh we found earlier that's really bugging me."
"Me too," Adrien agreed.
"Excuse me, my fellow players. Might I borrow a moment of your time?"
An unfamiliar voice cut through, instantly drawing the duo's attention.