61 Reconnection

¬ FASHIRE

"I have already decided. I will be taking the throne… and the life of your sister soon."

Effer Leth, the older sister of Draconia's King, Maybelle's mother, and my aunt halted on the winding path of obsidian stone that wound through the serene garden. Her sightless, ink-black eyes shifted to me. 

She stood tall, a touch taller than I was. Her chin remained perpetually elevated, the well-defined contours of her jaw and high cheekbones adding to the regal demeanour she always carried about. 

Wrinkles, however, crinkled at the corners of her eyes, betraying the age most beings assume upon first meeting her. Regardless of all that, she still looked nothing like a woman who had lived for close to two millennia.

"Your mother?" she asked, but it sounded more like a statement than a question.