Chương 221: Chapter 78: I Will Wait for Her No Matter How Long

Thus, four long months passed among the roads and the inns. The landscape changed from the wild plains of the border to the more traveled roads, then to the wooded hills surrounding Kaelburg. They arrived at the university city in the middle of autumn, an especially gray and oppressive autumn that made the cobblestones glisten, filled the air with the smell of the wind, of changing leaves, and of the muffled murmur of urban life.

Selena remained the same, encapsulated in her reflective silence, until, upon arriving at the royal university, she was handed a letter that had been waiting for her. She recognized the handwriting immediately: neat, elegant, with a touch of fluidity that spoke of hours spent among manuscripts. It was from Samira. Without saying a word, Selena headed straight to her old rooms in the cloister. The space was at once familiar and strange to her, like a refuge from a life that already felt distant.

Under the twilight light filtering through the window, she broke the seal and read. The letter was of a deliberate simplicity, just as she had demanded of the scholar librarian when she entrusted her with the dangerous mission of investigating the Omnipresent Shadow.

"My Lady Selena, The work at the great library of Al'Miraj has led me to sinister answers. As you asked of me, I will bring you the answers. I will wait for you where no Solendra noblewoman would run any danger. That place is the ducal capital: Lumenburg. I will wait for you, no matter how long it takes you to return. My loyalty remains intact and so does my gratitude. Yours, Samira Al-Husani" Selena left the letter on the table. Lumenburg, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Solendra.

The heart of her "family's" house, the place where Valerius ruled and where the young heiress, her niece, was growing up. A place so foreign to herself, a falsity that already choked her sadly and where all the affection of that family tasted like ashes to her. It was a place of power, of noble intrigues, but also, according to Samira, a refuge where a Solendra would run no danger.

Where a free scholar could deliver into her hands the "sinister answers" she had unearthed in the forbidden archives of the second largest library after the royal one. She sighed deeply, so long that it seemed to end something she had silenced for months. A certainty finally came to her: she had something concrete. A next step. It was not the end of the road, but it was a direction.

Selena looked up and stared through the window toward the cloister gardens, where the brief songs of night birds were beginning to reign. The silence inside her broke, not with words, but with a new purpose. Introspection could wait. Now there was a place to go to, another truth to claim, and a former servant, now a friend and free agent, who awaited her with unwavering loyalty. —Fjora —she said, her voice sounding strangely clear after so much time disused— Prepare the trip. We are going to Lumenburg.

The Khelganor warrior smiled; after so many months, something inside her rejoiced at her lady's words. A few days later, when everything was ready for the trip to the ducal capital, a light and familiar presence seeped among the preparations. Selena felt a gentle touch on her shoulder and upon turning around, met Maya's lively eyes full of reproach. The young healer, now with an aura of greater confidence, looked at her with a mixture of affection and playful disappointment.

—You are so elusive, and you write nothing —said the alchemist, crossing her arms in feigned anger— The last time you came to Kaelburg I tried to find you, but all I learned was that you were with an Arts track student… Meilan, I think she was called. She made a gesture of searching her memory, her eyes going up and to the right and a hand resting on her chin. —Do you not love me anymore?

—she asked, putting on the eyes of a scolded little anurhy that broke Selena's heart— Do you not remember the promise of together? While she spoke, she took her hand gently, until holding it firmly between her own. —You do not even remember this little healer anymore. Selena sighed, and her face, which had maintained strict control for months, cracked for an instant. A deep, accumulated sadness showed in her eyes, making them glassy.

Her voice, little used in those weeks of silence, sounded broken as she forced herself to speak. —Maya… yes, together —she said, squeezing her friend's hand tightly, as if anchoring herself to that lost normality— But for now I cannot include you in this. If I want, you to remain safe… If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. She left the sentence in the air, heavy with a weight that Maya understood instantly, her expression shifting to concern.

—I love you as always —Selena added. She hugged her with an urgency that surprised them both. Maya, after the initial shock, smiled like a fool, touched by the gesture. —But I must leave. I have a mission from the crown, one of the truths I once told you I wished to seek —continued Selena, stepping back a bit— I swear that later, when all this passes, I will invite you for a drink. Not just you, also Ren and Meilan, so you can meet her.

—So then, my lady marchioness —said Maya, with obvious but affectionate sarcasm— political duty calls you to your lands. The healer could hold it in no longer and let out a soft laugh, her shoulders moving along with the involuntary laughter. —Forget that. I only wish you the best in everything you set out to do. After all, that is what friends do, right? She kept silent for a second, a touch of discomfort reflected on her face, but then added with a gleam of pride in her look.

—By the way, I am now a conscious resonant. You should no longer worry so much about me. And I accept your invitation for a drink but let it be a party with Anurhy decorations; do not forget it. Ah… The expression came out involuntarily as if she had forgotten something crucial. —Ren did not make it. This year he is still in the same grade.

A soft giggle, loaded with complicity and nostalgia, was her farewell as she walked away waving her hands, leaving Selena with the echo of a university life that seemed to belong to another century. Once in the wagon heading to Lumenburg, the trip unfolded long but not grueling. Three full months to the east, following the Sun Road at its autumn height.

The grand duchy of Solendra revealed itself in all its natural opulence: immense and well-tended forests, a green so intense it seemed painted, in other stretches chestnut leaves painted the landscape up to red, vast deep blue skies, pure valleys crisscrossed by crystal-clear streams, and, on the horizon, the rounded silhouettes of small volcanoes dormant for centuries, geological reminders of a tamed telluric power. The towns they crossed were prosperous, clean, with noble wood houses and tiled roofs.

The highway, the very same artery used by the wealthiest merchants, was in an impeccable state of maintenance. The Sun Route was not just a road; it was the nerve center of all trade in the kingdom, and more than half of its stretch ran through Solendra lands.

The inns did not resemble those she had frequented up to the duchy of Thyll; here they were almost luxurious establishments: clean wool beds, without the slightest trace of straw; orderly stables free of stench; in some, the height of ostentation for a traveler: private bathrooms with wooden tubs. That routine opulence was shocking when recalling miserable Terracanto, the poorest town in the richest duchy, where Selena had awakened in this world.

The comparison was now obvious, painfully clear: Terracanto lived off tannery, a trade on the lowest social rung, whereas here even the innkeepers looked like well-to-do bourgeois. Until one day, Lumenburg took shape on the horizon. The first thing that caught one's attention was the great Ilys River, a scar of silver water dividing the city into two halves.

It was so wide and deep that river navigation was a spectacle in itself: dark wood cargo barges, agile sailboats, and huge pontoons that looked like floating castles, giving the river a maritime air of an inexhaustible port. The surrounding fields, meticulously cultivated, displayed an impressive variety: rice paddies, wheat, berries, and seasonal fruit trees. But what dominated the landscape were immense buildings of an intense brick red, which from afar looked like colossal granaries.

Selena learned later that they were the Aracnex breeding farms, the source of the finest silk in the kingdom. There, in the heart of Solendra, was concentrated the monopoly of a luxury that dressed the nobility of half the world. The city walls were a statement of power: fifteen meters high, and as they crossed the main gate, Selena could appreciate their seven meters of thickness, made of a hard, gray stone that spoke of centuries of bought security. Inside, the city was stratified.

The outer district, the humblest, bustled with polished wood houses, others of adobe, painted in whites, reds, oranges, and light blues, a vital and colorful chaos. Then, a second wall, lower but equally solid, separated the old city from the new. Here, stone and noble wood prevailed, with tiled roofs and cobbled streets. They crossed the Fabric Market Square, an immense expanse where a single street flanked on both sides by stalls and establishments repeated over and over on its signs: "Wholesale."

Some tall buildings were still under construction, their height imposing, and she noted with astonishment how wheel cranes raised materials to the top, two workers walking on them to raise the pulley. The traffic was a human and wheeled river orderly directed by guards; well-marked streets guided the flow of wagons and carts with an efficiency that spoke of a competent and wealthy administration. They crossed one of the majestic suspension bridges linking the two halves of the city over the Ilys.

From above, the view was breathtaking: ships gliding beneath their feet, the city extending along both banks, every detail proclaiming why the Duchy of Solendra was, in tangible wealth, even superior to the royal crown. Selena felt a tug at her heart as she remembered the words about visiting one of these bridges together with Kaela.

During the three months of travel, Selena had debated between two options: staying at the Solendra Manor, her family's ancient residence, more akin to a great temple than a castle, and with good reason, as it had been the main sanctuary of Solendri for millennia before Erabergh existed or seeking a discreet inn fitting her rank. In Lumenburg, however, discretion was an elusive concept for someone with her titles. Here she was not just Selena de Solendra; she was a node of political, military, and arcane power.

Her triple condition, Lady of the Circle of Wisdom, Protector of Ancient Artifacts, Protector of the Realm's Health, turned her into a figure of monumental influence a reality she preferred to ignore, but which the city's stones seemed to whisper in her ear. Finally, with a sigh that was at once resignation and acceptance of her own weight in the world, she made the decision. She would stay at Solendra Castle. It was time to face the legacy, both of stone and of blood, that she bore in her name and in her soul.