Humiliation is a fire. It can consume you, leaving nothing but ash, or it can forge you into something harder, something stronger.

I walked from the throne room with my spine straight and my chin high, a princess in all but name. The king’s decree of disinheritance was a gaping wound where my future used to be. They see me as useless now, a failure. It’s perfect. Let them think me a broken doll, tossed aside and forgotten. No one watches what they believe is already broken. In the shadows they cast, I will be free.

My heels clicked on the marble until they met the heavy oak door of the dungeons. The world above is a gilded cage of light and lies; down here is all darkness and truth. I descended the winding stone staircase, each footstep a lonely drumbeat in the oppressive silence. At the bottom, a guard slouched on a wooden stool, the same one as before.

He offered a greasy smirk. “Didn’t expect you back so soon, Princess. At least, not willingly.”

His insolence was a gift. It meant the news hadn’t trickled down this far yet. I still had a sliver of power left, and I would spend it all.

“As Crown Princess,” I said, pitching my voice with the cold, inherited authority of a thousand monarchs, “you will take me to the prisoner, Cassius. Now.”

The color fled his face. “Of-of course, Your Highness,” he stammered, fumbling with a ring of iron keys. He unlocked the first gate, and I swept past him into the damp, narrow corridor. We stopped before a cell reinforced with five separate locks. Grossly excessive, even for Cassius. The guard’s hands trembled as he worked each lock, the metallic clicks echoing unnaturally in the gloom.

He swung the heavy door inward. As I stepped across the threshold, I glanced back at him.

“You may close it,” I said, my voice a low, steady command. “Do not lock it.”

He nodded, his eyes wide, and the door thudded shut, sealing me inside.

The cell was lit by the faint, golden pulse of ancient words etched into obsidian chains. Cassius was exactly as I had left him, a silhouette against the magical glow. His gaze remained fixed on the stone floor before lifting slowly to meet mine. His eyes, though shadowed with exhaustion, were still a magnificent, piercing blue. Surprise, then disbelief, flickered across his features.

“Thalia?” His voice was a raw, disused whisper.

“It’s me.” I moved closer, my shoes silent on the dusty floor. “I gave you my word. I’m here to get you out.”

“I can’t believe you came back,” he murmured, his eyes searching mine. “After everything… are you alright?”

“I’ve been better,” I admitted, the understatement hanging in the air between us. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters is this cage. I struck a bargain with my father. Your freedom is the price.”

“I see,” he said, the light in his eyes dimming as he understood the implication.

I sank to the floor before him, mirroring the countless nights we had spent talking in secret. “Tell me about these restraints. What are they? How do they work? I need every detail.”

He closed his eyes, his brow furrowing in concentration. “Obsidian, forged and quenched in a mage’s own blood. There are suppression seals on every single link. I cannot wield mana. It’s like being a ghost in my own body.”

“So many seals,” I murmured, tracing one with my eyes. “It’s not just excessive. It’s fearful.”

A faint, humorless smile touched his lips. “You would think.”

“Is there any way to learn more?” I pressed.

“Perhaps,” he conceded. “I can teach you to probe the seals with your own mana, but listen to me, Thalia. It’s dangerous. Interacting with unknown enchantments can create a violent backlash. A sudden, uncontrolled burst of your own power.” He shifted, the movement causing a cascade of dark hair to fall over his arm.

“I’ll be careful,” I vowed, my jaw set.

“Alright,” he said, his gaze intensifying. “First, let me see it. Your mana. Both hands.”

I rose and took a step back. Reaching inside myself, I called upon my power. Twin flames of pure, lavander and pink energy ignited in my palms, burning with a quiet, confident strength that did not flicker or fade.

A flicker of pride, fierce and warm, lit his weary eyes. “Perfect.”

With a thought, I commanded the light to die, clenching my fists until only the darkness remained.

“Closer,” he urged, his voice quiet. He strained to look up at me from the floor. “Do it again, just one hand.”

I knelt before him, so close I could feel the faint, oppressive chill of the obsidian. I summoned a small flame into my palm.

“Good,” he breathed. “Now, close your eyes. Don’t see your power as a flame. See it as a tendril of light, an extension of your will. Picture it reaching out, touching the chain.”

I did as he said. A sliver of my power stretched out, coiling around the nearest obsidian link like a curious serpent. I could feel the seals now—dozens of them, humming with a dissonant, malevolent energy. They whispered into my mind, a hypnotic invitation to understand their dark design.

The whispers became a roar. A violent eruption of golden energy—the seal’s, not mine—slammed into me with the force of a battering ram. I was hurled across the cell, my head cracking against the far wall. The air left my lungs in a strangled gasp, and I crumpled to the cold stone, spots dancing in my vision.

“Thalia!” Cassius’s voice was sharp with a desperate concern that rattled his chains.

My whole body was a single, throbbing ache. I pushed myself into a sitting position. “I’m okay,” I rasped, my throat raw. “I take it that was the backlash.”

He nodded, his own expression pained. “I could feel it,” he said, his voice heavy with guilt. “That pulse… the seals don’t just defend. They attack. Thalia, I’m sorry. I never should have—”

“You couldn’t have known,” I cut in, forcing myself to stand and brush the grime from my clothes. I moved back towards him, ready to try again. An idea, born of desperation, sparked in my mind. “Is it safe to search the rest of the room? With my mana? There might be something else.”

He nodded, though his gaze remained troubled. “It should be. Just… stay away from the chains. Please. I can’t stand seeing you hurt because of me.”

“I will.”

Closing my eyes, I sent my power outward again, this time not as a tendril, but as a gentle, sweeping wave. I let it wash over the cold stone of the floor and walls. I navigated around the angry, buzzing hornet’s nest of the chains.

And then I felt it. A flicker of something else on the wall directly behind Cassius. It wasn’t the hot, malicious energy of the locks. This was a cool, silver logic. An answer. It was a schematic drawn in magic, a blueprint that flooded my mind with an intuitive understanding of how to shape my power not into a probe, but a key.

My heart hammered. I walked to the wall and placed my hand on the stone, tracing the pattern of the hidden seal with my own mana. A soft, golden light bloomed under my fingertips, forming a complex magic circle. Following the mental instructions, I pressed my palm flat against its center and poured my energy into it. The circle flared, drinking in my power until it pulsed with an almost unbearable light, and then it vanished.

SNAP.

The sound was sharp and resonant. I spun around. One of the heavy obsidian chains lay limp and broken on the floor. A real, triumphant smile broke across my face. “It worked.”

“You did it,” he breathed, astonishment warring with hope on his face. He tested the new slack in his restraints. “Only three more.”

One by one, I found the seals etched into the forgotten corners of the cell. Each time, I traced the silver key, felt the drain on my power, and heard that glorious, resonant snap. Finally, the last chain fell away, landing with a heavy clatter that echoed like a proclamation. He was free.

With a groan, Cassius pushed himself up. His muscles, atrophied from disuse, trembled violently. His legs gave out, and he collapsed back to the stone with a heavy thud, gasping for breath.

“I can’t believe it,” he whispered, staring up at the oppressive stone ceiling as if it were a new sky. He let out a shaky, shuddering breath. “Just… give me a moment. My mind is ready to leave this place, but my body seems to have forgotten how.”