Chapter 200 - 199: The Kidnapping

"I saw enough," Serenya said, a small, fierce smile breaking through her tears. "I saw him become someone worth loving, even after I was gone. And now I’ve seen you both find your way to each other despite everything trying to keep you apart. That is more than I ever dared hope for, when I made that bargain all those years ago."

The white space had begun trembling again, the light flickering unsteadily at its edges.

"I have to go," Serenya said, urgency creeping back into her voice. "Please, Eleanore—be careful. The man who helped us both is not finished with what he started. Whatever debt exists between us, he intends to collect it eventually, through you. Protect that fragment. Protect yourself. Protect your children."

"Please, don’t go yet, I have so much more I need to ask you—"

"I love you," Serenya said again, the words breaking apart as the light swallowed her whole. "I have always loved you, in every world, in every life. Live well, my darling girl. Live well, and live fully."

And then the white space collapsed entirely, and Eleanore was back on the cold floor of Caelestis’s room, alone, the small box still open beside her, tears streaming endlessly down her face as the full, impossible weight of everything she’d just learned settled permanently into the shape of her heart.

The air in the room shifted, subtle at first, a faint pressure change that raised the hair on the back of Eleanore’s neck a heartbeat before the windows blew inward in a violent shatter of glass. She scrambles backward as dark, formless shapes poured through the broken windows, moving with the same unnatural, viscous speed Eleanore remembered all too well from the border attack.

Eleanore gets back on her feet, turning to the door, knowing whatever this is, it is dangerous. However, before she could something cold and solid wrapped around her from behind, a cloth pressed hard over her mouth and nose, sickly sweet chemical fumes flooding her senses.

She fought, clawing desperately at the arm restraining her, the edges of her vision already beginning to blur and darken.

The baby—

The last thing she registered before consciousness slipped away entirely was a low, familiar voice near her ear, calm and unhurried in a way that made her blood run cold even through the haze of the drug.

"There you are," the voice murmured. "Finally."

Then there was nothing at all.

Eleanore woke to the smell of dirt and pine, her head throbbing dully from whatever had been used to knock her out, and it took several disoriented seconds before her surroundings resolved into something recognizable, the same stretch of border wilderness where the black substance had first attacked her months ago, the tree line dark and unfamiliar under a moonless sky.

Beside her, Stella stirred with a small, pained groan, blinking groggily awake.

"Stella—" Eleanore’s eyes widens as she reaches for her immediately, relief flooding through her at finding her conscious and, from what she could tell in the dim light, unharmed. "How did you— Are you alright? The baby—"

"I’m fine," Stella said shakily, pressing a hand to her stomach. "Where are we? I- I- was on the way to your room when I saw, black substance enveloping you, before loosing consciousness."

"At the boarder." She answers.

"Correct," a voice said from somewhere ahead of them, smooth and unbothered. "You’re both unharmed, and you’re at the border."

Eleanore’s head snapped up. A man stood several feet away, cloaked in dark traveling attire, his posture carrying the particular ease of someone entirely confident in his own control over the situation. He looked vaguely familiar in a way she couldn’t immediately place, refined features, sharp eyes, the bearing of nobility rather than a common criminal.

"Who are you?" Eleanore demanded, pulling herself upright, positioning herself protectively between the stranger and Stella despite her still-swimming head.

"Mavros Chevalier," the man said, inclining his head slightly, as though this were a formal introduction rather than the aftermath of a kidnapping. He turned his attention to Stella first, something almost apologetic crossing his expression. "Dutchess Sinclair, I owe you a genuine apology. You were never meant to be part of this. My men were instructed to take only Eleanore, but you were with her when they arrived, and rather than risking you raising an alarm, they brought you along as well."

"You expect me to forgive you?" Stella said, voice trembling with anger despite her fear, "after drugging a pregnant woman and dragging her out into the middle of nowhere?"

"No," Mavros admitted. "I don’t expect it to matter much at all. But I offer it regardless, because it’s true, and because you’ll be released the moment this is settled. My business tonight is with her." His gaze shifted back to Eleanore, cool and assessing.

"What business?" Eleanore asked, forcing steadiness into her voice despite the fear coiling tight in her chest.

"The dark magician you’ve been searching for," Mavros said simply. "He and I have an arrangement. He wants you—or rather, wants what you carry inside you. In exchange for delivering you to him, he’s promised me the empire. Not influence over it. Not a favorable marriage or a seat at court. The entire empire, once the current line has been sufficiently dealt with."

Eleanore felt something cold settle deep in her stomach, pieces shifting rapidly into place. "You’re working with him."

"I’m working for myself," Mavros corrected smoothly. "He simply happens to offer the most direct path to what I want. Ambitious men make convenient arrangements with dangerous power when the reward is large enough, Grand Duchess. You of all people should understand that by now, given everything Lord Thornberry was willing to do for considerably less."

"Thornberry," Eleanore repeated slowly, something sick twisting through her as the full implication settled in.

We caught him. We thought we’d stopped this.

"You caught a scapegoat," Mavros said, something almost pitying in his tone now. "Thornberry was ambitious, yes, and guilty of his own crimes, the murders, certainly, the plotting against Caelestis’s family, all of that was genuinely his doing. But the larger scheme, the one actually connected to the dark magician and the fragment inside you? That was never him. He was a convenient piece, sacrificed deliberately to make you all believe the danger had passed, so you’d lower your guard precisely when it mattered most."