LOGINSAGEFighting against black magic was… draining. The realization hit me dimly as I lay sprawled against the scorched earth, my vision swimming, the world tilting in and out of focus. The taste of iron filled my mouth and my limbs felt heavy—too heavy—like something unseen was steadily siphoning strength straight from my bones. Shapes blurred above me and voices echoed like they were underwater. "Yes," El’s voice came tightly. "It is draining you. That strike was meant to leech your power." I forced air into my lungs as she continued, "You must attack her at full force. If you allow her to keep pressing like this, she will bleed you dry… and then she will kill you."A cold clarity cut through the haze; I nodded weakly and pushed myself upright just as the Queen’s amplified voice rang across the arena. “Is this the leader you want?” she mocked the crowd. “This… fragile thing?” Laughter rippled from her side of the field, but I didn’t answer and I didn’t waste breath. Instead, I le
SAGESilence fell across the field the moment the six men stepped into the arena.I saw relief flood Adam’s face so openly it made something deep in my chest soften. The tight coil of tension I had been carrying since dawn loosened in one sharp pull.I didn’t think about my next act. I only moved. Fast. Closing the distance between us in hurried strides until I finally crashed into him, my lips wide in a smile.His arms came around me instantly, tightly, desperately. Like he had been holding himself together by sheer force of will and could finally let go.And gods, I felt it. That quiet, bone-deep rightness. That sense of coming home. Of being whole, complete.I breathed him in, steadying myself, and for a brief moment the world outside his arms simply… faded.When I finally pulled back, it was slow, reluctant. “Why are you here early?” I asked, though my voice carried warmth.I quickly exchanged brief pleasantries with Feliq and his two warriors, then Adam’s brothers, offering each
SAGEThe hall did not fall silent after the memory play. Not this time. The people were far too restless for silence—too angry, too shaken, too awake.Voices erupted everywhere at once, crashing into each other like storm waves against jagged rocks. The air thickened with outrage, disbelief, and the electric crackle of betrayed trust finally snapping.“She lied to us!”“Monster!”“All this time, she has been the rot in the community!”“We trusted her!”“Is this what she has been doing in the shadows?”“The blood—gods, the blood…”My gaze moved slowly across the crowd, taking in the way their fury rolled and built. This was a people on the brink. They won’t be manipulated again.The Queen tried to quell the noise. “Silence!” she thundered.Magic rode her voice again, but it did not land the same way this time. The authority that once made backs straighten and mouths shut now met resistance… friction… disbelief.Her eyes flashed toward me.“What this girl has shown you is fake!” she sho
SAGEThick silence fell over the hall after my narration.It was not the restless, breathing quiet of a crowd waiting for the next spectacle. No. This silence was dense. Heavy. It pressed against my skin like cold water, like the moment before a storm finally broke.No murmur. No shuffle of feet. No cough. Nothing. Everyone was staring at me.I felt their gazes move over me slowly, carefully, almost greedily—as if they were trying to peel me apart layer by layer. They were measuring the slope of my shoulders, the glow that still clung faintly to my skin, the unmistakable celestial weight of the power I now carried. They were comparing the girl they remembered… to the being standing before them. They were comparing Dora to Sage. Their eyes narrowed. Widened. Flickered with doubt, with awe, with fear. And then—The murmurs began.Soft at first. A ripple. A crack in the glass. Then the hall filled with whispers.“She… she does look different…”“But the aura—did you feel that?”“No one
SAGEThe hall was filled to the brim.Bodies pressed shoulder to shoulder, breath to breath, the air thick with anticipation and the restless heat of a crowd already half-whipped into frenzy. The great hall of Zophar had always been impressive, but today it felt… swollen. Overburdened. Like the very walls were straining under the weight of what was about to unfold.High arched ceilings stretched overhead, etched with ancient runes that pulsed faintly in the torchlight. Long banners hung between the stone pillars—deep crimson, forest green, midnight blue—each bearing the sigils of the surrounding communities.And at the far end was the platform. It was raised high and so looked commanding. The queen stood there mid-speech. Her jaw slackened as she took note of my presence.For half a heartbeat, the entire hall froze in a suspended moment of disbelief. For diverse reasons, especially different from the Queen.Then my gaze sharpened as I saw them. The rulers of the three neighboring com
SAGEMy real self was… breathtaking.The thought didn’t come from vanity so much as quiet disbelief as I stared into the tall mirror—the same mirror I had stood before countless times while wearing Dora’s face, Dora’s skin, Dora’s careful lies. I stepped closer slowly, almost cautiously, as if the woman in the glass might vanish if I moved too fast. She didn’t.White silk hair cascaded down my back in a luminous fall, soft as moonlight, threaded through with fine strands of molten gold that shone under light. It flowed past my shoulders, past my waist, a living river of pale fire that no illusion could ever truly contain. I lifted a hand, letting the strands slip through my fingers. They felt like home. Like truth.My eyes were worse.Or better.Pure gold stared back at me, but not the flat, simple gold most people expected. Mine were alive with depth as it had been before… but now it was flecked with shifting colors that I didn’t even understand. Indigo glimmered near the outer ri







