Power never vanished.

It lingered.

It clung to the council chamber long after the bows were given and the murmured vows of loyalty faded into stone and dust. The air itself felt altered, heavier somehow, as though the walls remembered what had been unleashed within them. Hairline fractures still traced the marble floor, subtle reminders that authority had been taken, not granted.

The kingdom had not rejected Selene.

It had survived her.

And survival bred questions far more ...