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[center][sub]Mentions: Elara [@Qia][/sub][/center]

[color=lightgray][i][color=19CACA]Forgive me, your highness, if I don’t find comfort in the echo of Aurelian steel…[/color][/i] The words repeated themselves in her head, their sentiment as sharp as broken glass. It had felt like the right thing to say in the moment. There was not a shred of dishonesty among them.

But as the silence between them settled and the Prince and Princess departed, an all-too familiar feeling of nausea grew in her head.

She stood still. To those around her, Katherine’s composure remained unwaveringly calm. Her thoughts, however, began to fray at the edges. A string of uncertainty and doubt began to weave its way through her chest--not about what she’d said, but why it had been [i]so easy to say.[/i]

The anger and conviction were real, they always had been.

But they also weren't [i]entirely hers.[/i]

[color=19CACA][i]Why does this feel louder… more present than it should?[/i][/color]

It was as if someone had slowly fed the dormant beast all of these years, shaping it into something [i]just a little bit sharper[/i] than before. Over and over. Now that beast was awake, roaring from the shadows, powerful enough to push her out of her comfort zone and coax her into saying things that would have normally been held back.

[i]You.[/i] She practically growled within her mind, beginning to pace towards her chambers. Katherine stared blankly ahead, completely taken by her thoughts. She didn’t acknowledge, or even notice as Elara gave her a nod.

[color=19CACA][i]This isn’t yours. I know what’s mine. Get out of my head.[/i][/color]

But even as she clung to that thought, there was still doubt. Wasn’t the bitterness always there? Hadn’t she earned it? She remembered the stories of the war, the grief in the eyes of her instructor who had fought in it. The cold looks given to her by captured Aurelian spies, the hatred that they spewed towards her people.

It was real, [i]it had to be.[/i]

And yet something far more venomous bubbled just beneath the surface. A low, quiet chuckle echoed in her mind as she closed the door behind her. Not a sound, but a sensation. A very ripple in her blood.

[color=9e0b0f][i]I only helped you see clearly, Sorrowind. Focused you on the truth and removed all of the rest. You were already broken in all of the right places.[/i]

[i]I simply filled in the cracks.[/i][/color]

Katherine clenched her jaw tightly, her vision darkening at its edges as rage boiled in her chest. She rested the basket of food on the floor with a shaky hand, a result of the little remaining control she held. The shadows of the room pulsed before her, growing deeper and deeper as she tightened her hands into fists.

[color=19CACA][i]Get out of my head, [/i][/color]she hissed, darkness snuffing out the candles that had illuminated the room only a moment before. Her carefully constructed mask had fallen now that she was out of view of the others.

But the presence didn’t back down. It never did. It only coiled tighter in absolute silence. 

Katherine’s entire body shook as she slowly sat down on the edge of her bed. Her eyes lowered to her open, trembling hands before she caught a glance of herself in the mirror that sat across the room. Her reflection looked back from its surface, but something about it was off. It wasn’t her. [i]Not quite.[/i]

Its eyes were too dark. Too shadowed and malicious to be her own.

[color=19CACA][i]“You don’t belong here.” [/i][/color]Her words escaped her lips despite her intent of keeping them within. The figure that looked back from the mirror became ever unrecognizable with every passing minute until nothing was left but pure shadow.

[color=9e0b0f][i]Oh but I do. Why fight it, little shadow? This is exactly why you were made.[/i][/color]

A flutter of movement to the side—her cloak shifting on the wall—made her flinch. Her breath caught as shadows stretched unnaturally across the floor, reaching, curling. She blinked, and they were still again, but the air remained thick. Suffocating.

[color=19CACA][i]“You're unraveling.”[/i][/color] something inside her hummed, and her voice echoed in tune. Not with malice. With certainty.

And maybe she was. Katherine felt hollow, completely emptied of anything real. Thoughts and words jumbled themselves in her mind, mismatched fragments of both memory and rage now so tightly intertwined that she couldn’t differentiate them.

She pressed her hands to her temples, but the storm didn’t quiet.

She couldn’t tell where [i]her[/i] [i]voice [/i]ended and [i]its voice[/i] began.

[color=19CACA][i]“Leave… me… alone…” [/i][/color]Both her own voice and the one from within rang in unison.

Katherine sank to the floor, knees tucked to her chest as she dragged the blanket from her bed over top of herself. Whether it was the fabric or her own shadows, she welcomed the darkness that wrapped around her. It had always calmed her. It had always cradled her and protected her.

And though the silence finally came and she finally stopped trembling, Katherine knew that this was far from over. It still murmured in her thoughts, still drew breath. 

It still watched from within.[/color]