ARIA POINT OF VIEW

The work did not stop, not after the grass or the stables.

Not after the endless trips carrying water across the training grounds while the sun climbed higher and higher above Moonfang’s walls.

Each task bled into the next without pause, without mercy. The guards did not even pretend to consider my condition. To them, I was not a prisoner to be watched—I was an animal to be worked until I broke.

And they seemed determined to see how long that would take.

By the time ...