The Triangle had awakened, but awakening was not the same as rising. In the chill dawn that followed Seina’s oath, the air over Ghallan’s Gate tasted of smoke and blood.
She stood at the highest balcony of the keep, looking over the ruins of her city. Fires still burned in the merchant quarters. Soldiers—her soldiers now—patrolled the streets below. The people whispered her name like a curse and a prayer: Seina. Scarlet. Veil.
Kaydence approached, cloaked in black.
 “The council wants you to speak. The city’s divided. Half still think Annora wears the crown.”
Seina didn’t turn. “She never wore it. She bled it dry.”
He stepped closer. “We need allies. You can’t fight her alone.”
She smirked faintly. “That’s why the Triangle rises. The crown she stole? I’ll melt it. The throne she desecrated? I’ll burn it. We won’t play her game—we’ll end it.”
Infiltration and Ink
That night, Seina infiltrated the Hall of Records, where the royal bloodlines were etched in gold ink on obsidian slabs. With Miro’s help, she rewrote her mother’s name into the royal register, exposing the lie of Annora’s claim.
But it came at a cost.
Two of her men died in the escape. Miro took a blade to the shoulder. Seina didn’t flinch when she cauterized the wound herself.
“Remind me never to cross you,” Miro groaned, half-conscious.
“You already did,” she whispered. “And you’re still breathing.”
At dawn, black banners were seen on the horizon. Annora’s forces were marching—not to negotiate, but to annihilate.
With them came a new weapon: A man wrapped in chains of dusk-metal, his eyes hollow, his veins laced with ember.
“Who is he?” Kaydence asked.
Seina stared at the distant figure. “A wraith. One of the Bone Crown’s loyal. He was once the High Paladin of my house. Annora turned him.”
“He’ll kill anything in his path.”
“Then we’ll stop him.”
“How?”
Seina met Kaydence’s gaze, eyes hard as flint. “By reminding him who he used to protect.”
Seina climbed the broken spire where her mother once prayed, the ancient crown hidden beneath the altar. The Crown of Smoke—blackened silver, laced with serpent bone.
She held it up, and the room trembled.
“This was never about power,” she whispered. “It was about truth. About reclaiming what was stolen.”
Kaydence stepped forward. “Then wear it. Let them see who you are.”
She placed the crown on her head.
A pulse tore through the air.
All across the land, those branded with the Triangle felt it: the heir had returned. The war wasn’t over. It was beginning.
Lightning split the sky as Seina stood before the ancient gates of Ravenwatch Keep, where Annora had made her fortress. Wind howled around her, lifting her cloak like a banner of war. Behind her, the Triangle stood ready—fewer than a hundred warriors, but bound by blood, fire, and purpose.
She drew her sword, its edge catching the flash of thunder. “We do not beg for justice,” she said. “We take it.”
Miro raised the banner—black with a crimson triangle at its heart. “For Scarlet. For truth.”
Kaydence’s voice was low beside her. “This is where it ends.”
“No,” Seina said. “This is where it begins again.”
As the Triangle advanced, a traitor emerged. One of their own, lured by promises of survival and silver. The ambush nearly shattered their line. Arrows rained like hail, and fire bloomed across the western flank.
Seina fought through smoke and screams. She found the traitor—a boy she once saved—and ended him with a whisper. “You chose her lies over my truth.”
His blood stained her hands. She didn’t flinch.
Annora’s Wrath
At the highest tower of Ravenwatch, Annora waited, draped in velvet and bone. She watched the chaos unfold below.
“They will come for me,” she said to the wraith. “Let them. I have buried empires with less.”
The wraith didn’t speak. His eyes burned like dying stars.
By nightfall, Seina reached the gates. With Kaydence at her side, she breached the inner court. Flames danced along the walls. The final fight had begun.
Seina shouted through the smoke, “ANNORA!”
And from the shadows, the reply came.
“I never needed a crown to be your better.”
Swords clashed. The storm screamed.
The Scarlet heir had come to reclaim what was hers.