Chapter 96: Discovering the Cause
The cell door opened gently—no creak, no echo, every motion deliberate. The latch had been manually disengaged by the guard assigned to the mission, quietly neutralized for just a few minutes. A hooded figure slipped inside the darkness like a shadow blending perfectly into the prison’s gloom.
Elystria.The dragon princess of the royal bloodline. Daughter of the king, sister to the new emperor. Known for her coldness, her restraint, her clinical calm. Officially detached from blood and emotion, even in private. But tonight, she was crossing every line she had drawn for herself.
She closed the door behind her. No sound.Her eyes adjusted instantly to the darkness. She didn’t need light. Her reptilian pupils, golden and slit like a serpent’s, contracted for a brief second before locking onto the curled figure in the back of the cell.
Mordred.
Seated on the thin straw mattress, feet flat, arms limp, head slightly bowed. His back slumped, shoulders sagging. He was breathing—barely—slowly, mechanically. His gaze was empty, staring at the wall. No reaction to the intrusion. No tension. No recognition.
Elystria stood motionless for a few seconds, watching him.
— What’s happening to him? she wondered.
She was used to the Mordred who met her with a glimmer of humor, even under the weight of slavery. A Mordred with fire in his eyes. That fire was gone now.
She stepped forward slowly. Not out of fear. Not out of caution. But because everything in the air told her that even a sharp movement might shatter something fragile—something already broken. And that wasn’t why she had come.
She stopped one meter away.
Still, no reaction.