Chapter 32 - The Kingdom That LiedThe battle never began.
Instead, the soldiers lowered their weapons as the black crown's power spread across the field.
The three enemy commanders approached Rowan and knelt.
King Aldric watched in horror.
"You planned this."
Rowan looked at him.
"No. You did."
Aldric drew his sword.
"Explain yourself."
Rowan raised one hand.
A memory appeared in the air above the battlefield.
It showed Aldric as a younger man, standing in the mirror chamber.
Queen Eleanor held two newborn boys.
One was wrapped in white.
The other in black.
Aldric was crying.
A hooded figure stood beside him.
"The doorway can save only one," the stranger said.
Aldric looked from one infant to the other.
Then he made a choice.
"Take the second."
Ethan stared at the vision.
The king's face twisted in anguish.
"No," Aldric whispered. "I never did that."
Rowan's voice was cold.
"You did. And then you made yourself forget."
The memory continued.
The child wrapped in black vanished into the mirror.
The remaining infant began glowing.
Then the queen screamed.
Aldric staggered backward.
"I remember."
Ethan turned toward him.
"Which child did you send away?"
Aldric's eyes filled with tears.
"I thought I was saving the kingdom."
"Which one?"
The king could not answer.
Rowan removed the crown.
"That's the question he has feared for thirty years."
Eleanor suddenly stepped between them.
"Enough. Both boys deserve the truth."
She took Ethan's hands.
"The infant sent through the mirror wasn't you."
Ethan looked at Rowan.
The older boy lowered his eyes.
May you like
Eleanor whispered the final words.
"It was your father."
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