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Sylvanna

U nfortunately, we have to get through an uncomfortable State Dinner before Alaric and I can put our plans into action.

It’s held in the Main Banqueting Hall and we’re seated at a table long enough to hold a hundred guests.

Most of the Court is there and Kraven has somehow contrived to have us seated so that I’m directly across from him.

The Queen, the Glass of Distraction still clutched in her bony hand, is seated at the head of the table, of course.

She barely picks at her food, spending much more time peering at her “stories” than eating any of the delicious dishes that appear before us and then are whisked away by magic.

I can see why she’s gotten so thin—emaciated enough that her once-lovely face looks like a skull.

I’ll free you of this addiction, my Queen!

I promise her silently as I watch her from my seat at her left hand.

The Heart of the Eclipse is strong enough to nullify the power of any other magical object or artifact.

Once I get it and find the way to activate it, I’ll strip away the Glass of Distraction’s power and influence completely and set my friend free again.

The only problem is, I’m still not quite sure how to activate it. I went to great lengths to get it in the first place, in order to free my own mother of her magical addiction to the Mask of Many Faces…only to be unable to get it to work before she plunged from the top of the tower to her death.

But I’m not giving up. I’ll find a way once I get it in my hand—I know I will.

During all of dinner, Alaric stands behind my chair, gripping the back of it and glaring at Kraven.

Now that he knows what my ex-Blood-partner did to me, he hates him even more.

I can feel that the Holy Fire is dangerously high within him.

Indeed, if it wasn’t for the Collar I put on him and all the training I put him through, we’d have an explosion and a two-meter-wide hole right here in the middle of the Banqueting Hall!

Kraven, for his part, doesn’t seem outwardly bothered by my Paladin’s glaring. He ignores him and makes small talk with the Queen, which is like talking to himself, since she barely answers.

The rest of the Court dines in uneasy silence.

It’s clear they see what’s going on—how one man has taken over the whole country and is ruining it and running it into the ground.

Yet they all lack the backbone to stand up to him—to stop the evil acts he is committing so shamelessly right in front of them.

Cowards! I have a moment of pure disdain for all of them. But can I really blame them when I also ran away? I don’t know—I only know that tonight, when everyone else is in bed, I’ll be holding The Heart of the Eclipse in my hand and doing my best to right these wrongs before it’s too late.

And then Kraven will pay and pay again for the evil acts he’s committed. I swear it!