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“Every piece of Seelie intelligence that built POD came from their reports,” Davis continues ruthlessly. “When Graves inherited the operation, he had them executed as promised. You’ve spent three centuries honoring the memory of traitors who enabled everything you’re fighting against.”

My knees buckle as three centuries of carefully constructed beliefs collapse with devastating finality. Every choice I made in their honor, every principle I defended—all of it built on lies.

Everything I believed about my family. Everything I built my life around. Every motivation that drove me to preserve Seelie knowledge and honor their sacrifice.

All of it lies.

“Look at what we’ve all become,” Davis says softly. “You, torturing prisoners for information. Me, betraying the woman I love to save her from what I think you’ll do to her. Ash, transforming into something that makes us both question who she really is.”

“We’re trying to help her?—”

“Are you?” His voice carries genuine anguish. “Or are you destroying the woman you claim to love in favor of some idealized version you’ve constructed? When was the last time any of you asked her what her favorite color was? What she dreams about? What she was like before magic started changing her?”

The questions hit like physical blows because I don’t have answers. I don’t know these simple, human details about the woman I claim to love.

“She was going to be an art teacher,” Davis whispers. “Before she enlisted. She wanted to work with kids, help them express themselves through creativity. Did you know that? Did any of you bother to ask about the dreams she gave up?”

My hands shake as I rise on unsteady legs, gathering my materials with fingers that feel numb.

“Where are you going?” he calls after me.

I pause in the doorway, honey-colored light flickering around my fingertips as control fractures completely.

“To decide whether I’m protecting her,” I whisper, voice breaking, “or completing her destruction.”

The walk back to my quarters feels like moving through molasses. Every step carries the weight of revelation, of truths that gnaw at certainties I’ve built my entire identity around.

When I reach my chambers, I sink into my reading chair and stare at the materials I gathered for tonight’s trial.

All of it suddenly feels like weapons aimed at the heart of someone I claim to love.

But I have new information now. Crucial intelligence about tonight’s threats:

Someone in the tribunal is feeding questions to exploit her vulnerabilities Military operation planned during trial as distraction Divine protection arrangement intercepted by human military Her entire placement orchestrated for military advantage

And the devastating truth: We don’t actually know her. Not the real her. Not the woman who wanted to teach art to children, who sang off-key in showers, who made terrible jokes to comfort her squad.

We know the magical princess we’ve helped create. But the woman underneath—the one Davis genuinely loves—remains a mystery.

My hands shake as I reach for parchment, preparing to write intelligence reports for each court. But the words won’t come.

How do I protect someone I’m not sure I actually know? How do I save a woman who might not need saving from transformation, but from the people orchestrating it?

And what if I’m one of them?

What if my love—so careful, so curated—has only taught her to be what I need, not who she is?

The truth will tear us both open.

But I’d rather face that than live another day pretending I haven’t already lost the real her beneath the version we helped build.

Outside my window, twilight deepens toward the Trial of Truth that will determine everything. In less than an hour, Ash will face questions designed to strip away every pretense, every defense, every comfortable lie.

Including, possibly, the lie that we’re helping her become who she’s meant to be instead of destroying who she actually is.

The question hangs in my chambers like incense, thick and choking: Are we the heroes in her story, or the villains who convinced ourselves we were saving her while we completed her destruction?

Either way, tonight she faces a trial that could kill her, break her bonds, or transform her beyond recognition. And I have one hour to decide whether to protect that transformation...