Chapter 2: The letter with no name

Lyra read the sentence again, her hands trembling.

“The crown calls to its queen. The shadows are rising.”

She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, staring at those words. It felt like time had paused, like the room itself was holding its breath. The parchment was still warm, pulsing faintly, as if touched by something alive—magic, or something darker.

“Aster, where did this come from?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Aster lingered at the threshold, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “It was on the doorstep. I opened the door to sweep and it was just… there. No name, no rider, no seal. I thought maybe it was from your mother. Or…”

Lyra shook her head before Aster could finish. “No. Not my mother.”

Her mother was gone. Had been for years. Disappeared without a trace the day after Lyra turned sixteen—the same day her dreams of fire began. No letter. No goodbye. Just a single word carved into the edge of the wooden table in their cottage.

Run.

She still remembered the way her heart had dropped when she saw it.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Aster said gently, backing away, as if sensing the storm building behind Lyra’s calm expression.

When the door clicked shut, Lyra exhaled shakily and sat on the edge of her bed. Her fingers clutched the letter tighter, knuckles white. Outside, the village stirred to life like any other day. Children’s laughter echoed past the window. A vendor shouted about honey cakes. Everything looked normal.

But nothing felt normal.

She looked down at the silver crescent on her wrist. It glowed faintly in the morning light, like it knew something she didn’t.

“I don’t want this,” she whispered to herself. “I never asked for any of it.”

All her life, she’d lived in the shadow of a curse. The stories were whispered in corners, passed around by midwives and travelers. The girl marked by moonlight. Born cursed. Fated to fall before the sun sets on her twenty-first year.

That year was here. That day was now.

Lyra had tried to believe the curse wasn’t real. That she could live quietly in the village and let time pass like everyone else. But the letter in her hands said otherwise.

It wasn’t just a warning. It was a summons.

The question was—by who?

Her thoughts churned. Was someone watching her? Had her mother sent this letter from wherever she vanished to? Or was this the beginning of something far worse?

A chill crept down her spine. The dream from the night before returned in fragments: the burning castle, the man with the black sword, the whispers in the smoke. Lyra… Crown-bearer…

She pressed the letter to her chest and closed her eyes.

“I’m not a queen,” she whispered. “I’m not anything special. Just a girl trying to survive.”

But the mark on her wrist burned with truth.

The crown was real. The shadows were coming. And whether she wanted to or not, she was part of something far bigger than herself.

Lyra stood slowly, walked to the washbasin, and splashed her face with cold water. Her reflection stared back, pale and uncertain. But her eyes—those strange violet eyes she had always hated—held something she hadn’t noticed before.

Fire.

Maybe she wasn’t ready.

But ready or not, destiny was knocking.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***