My hand moves instinctively to the medallion at my throat—and my heart sinks. The chain must have shifted when Kyrell helped me walk here. The medallion that I've kept carefully hidden beneath my dress since King Wilius gave it to me now hangs openly, visible above the neckline.
Duke Phideus stares at it like he's seeing a ghost, his face drained of all color.
I quickly tuck it back beneath the fabric, my fingers trembling. King Wilius told me to keep it hidden, to tell no one. Whatever this medallion means, it was important enough for a dying king to make me promise secrecy.
"Please, my lady..." Duke Phideus says softly, his voice shaking as he takes a careful step closer. "I must know where you obtained that medallion. King Wilius and I were the closest of friends for over forty years. If he gave that to you, there's a reason."
"Many people claim they were close to His Majesty," I say quietly, my hand still clutching the hidden medallion protectively.
Duke Phideus's expression softens with something that looks like understanding. Then a nostalgic smile crosses his face—sad and genuine and full of memories.
"Wilius had the strangest taste in food," he says, his voice distant, fond. "He would eat pickled herring with honey and crushed walnuts every morning. Insisted it was the perfect breakfast. The smell alone was enough to turn anyone's stomach, but he'd sit there with this satisfied look on his face, declaring it the finest meal in all the kingdoms."
My breath catches. I remember King Wilius at breakfast, that peculiar dish before him while courtiers wrinkled their noses and pretended not to notice. I asked him once, as a young girl, how he could possibly enjoy such a combination. He'd winked at me and said some pleasures were too refined for common understanding.
Only someone who truly knew him, who'd shared meals with him over decades, would know such a specific, absurd detail.
"He gave it to me," I whisper, pulling the medallion back out so Duke Phideus can see it properly. "On his deathbed, just before... before he died. He told me to keep it hidden, to wear it always. He said I wouldn't understand its meaning yet, but when the time came, everything would become clear."
Duke Phideus's legs seem to give way beneath him. He drops to his one knee before me. This powerful lord, this imposing man who carries himself like he could command armies… kneels at my feet.
What in gods names is happening?
"My lord, please…" I gasp, reaching toward him. "What are you doing?"
"Your Majesty," he says quietly, bowing his head and placing a palm above his heart.
The title falls from his lips like a prayer, like a sob. Like something he's been waiting twenty-four years to say. But it makes no sense.
I'm nobody important, never was. I'm Lady Rosetta, an orphan of minor nobility, the mad first wife who lost nine babies and her husband and then her mind.
"Please," I beg, my hands shaking. "My lord, why are you kneeling? Why did you call me… That title doesn't… I don't understand… I'm not—"
"May I?" Duke Phideus's hand reaches toward the medallion as he lifts his head, and when I nod mutely, he touches it with such reverence I think he might weep.
I carefully took it off from my neck and placed it in his hands. His fingers trace the inscription I've looked at without understanding, the strange symbols that mean nothing to me.
"This medallion," he says, his voice thick with emotion, "belonged to Queen Cassandra of Ziana. My closest friend's wife. It belonged to your mother."
The words don't make sense, can't make sense. "But my mother… I was told she died when I was an infant, that I was an orphan of the minor nobility of the Reaton’s court. That's why King Wilius took me in."
"King Wilius took you in," Duke Phideus agrees, "but not because you were an orphan of no consequence."
He looks up at me, and his eyes shine with unshed tears as he raises back to his legs, now towering over me again with his height.
"Let me tell you a story, my dearest lady. Let me tell you the truth that's been hidden."
Kyrell moves closer, standing behind his father's shoulder as we settle back in the chairs. His expression is fierce, protective, like he's ready to catch me if this revelation makes me fall though I’m sitting.
"Twenty-four years ago," Duke Phideus begins, "the Kingdom of Ziana was ruled by King Clement and Queen Cassandra of House Celestian—my dearest friends since we were young. They had three children: two sons and a newborn daughter when our story begins."
“The kingdom was prosperous, peaceful. Happy." His voice breaks slightly, and he pauses, lost in memory for a moment before continuing. "Then came the attack."
I can't breathe. Can't move. Can only listen as he continues.
"A rival branch of the royal family, distant cousins with weak claims but strong ambitions, led a brutal assault on the palace. King Clement was killed defending his family. Queen Cassandra and her two eldest sons were slaughtered trying to escape."
Horror washes over me. "The entire royal family..."
"Not the entire." Duke Phideus's grip on the medallion tightens. "The infant daughter, barely six months old was saved by her mother's lady-in-waiting, a woman named Lady Thalia… My wife."
His voice cracks completely at the last words and I could feel the pain behind them.
"Thalia grabbed the baby from her cradle and ran, but unfortunately the attackers’ arrow caught her at the palace gates. She was dying when I reached her, bleeding out in the dirt… But she'd hidden the baby in her cloak."
Tears stream down my face. I don't know why I'm crying for people I never knew, for a story that can't possibly be mine. Yet still…
"With my wife's blood on my hands, I promised her that I would protect the princess with my life," he continued. "King Wilius and I had been friends with King Clement since we were boys. The three of us were closer than brothers. So when I brought him the infant princess, showed him the medallion that proved her identity, we made a plan together."
"To hide me," I whisper.
"To keep you safe until you were old enough to reclaim your throne."
He releases the medallion and gives it back to me, warm from his touch.
"We created a false identity and King Wilius raised you at his court as if you were any other ward. You grew up protected, loved, and hidden in plain sight while the usurpers consolidated their stolen power in Ziana."
My head spins. "The medallion..."
"Bears the royal seal of Ziana." Duke Phideus gestured to me to turn it so I could see the symbols properly. "This inscription—it's in the old language. It says: 'The stars remember their own.'"
The stars... I think of the birthmark on my own arm, theone that looks like a four-pointed star I've carried my whole life. The same mark I saw on my son's tiny body before they tore him from my arms.
"The birthmark," I breathe. "The star-shaped one."
"Is the sign of Ziana's royal bloodline," Kyrell says softly. "Every legitimate heir bears one. It's how we would have confirmed your identity even without the medallion."
The room tilts. Everything I thought I knew about myself is crumbling, reforming into something impossible.
I'm not Lady Rosetta, a minor orphan, a failed wife, a madwoman.
I'm a…
"Princess Sybil," Duke Phideus says, as if reading my mind. "Crown Princess of Ziana. Sole surviving heir to a throne stolen by murderers. The rightful Queen."
The revelation shatters me completely. My hands shake as I touch the medallion again, this piece of my mother—a mother I never knew existed. King Wilius knew. He knew who I really was, knew I was royalty, knew I had a kingdom waiting for me.
That's why he protected me through every loss, every humiliation.
That's why he supported my marriage to Leander even when the court whispered I wasn't good enough for him, not his equal.
He knew I was more than good enough. I was a hidden queen.
"We've been waiting," Duke Phideus says, his voice steady now, purposeful. "Watching the usurpers' hold on Ziana, waiting for the right moment to act. You were too young, too vulnerable. But now..."
His eyes meet mine with fierce intensity.
"Now you're a grown woman. Strong, ready. We can restore you to your throne, Princess Sybil, reclaim what was stolen. Justice, after twenty-four years… Your father, your mother, your brothers—they can finally be avenged."
Kyrell is watching me with something that looks like awe mixed with that fierce protectiveness.
"Everything changes now," he says quietly. "You're not a runaway lady anymore. You're a Crown Princess returning to claim her birthright."
They're talking about restoration, about justice, about reclaiming a kingdom.
About armies and political alliances and the intricate dance of power, about making me a queen… But my first thought isn't of thrones or crowns or avenging long-dead parents I never knew.
My first thought is of two tiny faces. Two infant boys with my gray eyes and that star-shaped birthmark. "I'm not the only one entitled to that throne."
My voice cuts through their planning like a blade. Both men stop talking, staring at me.
I rise from my chair despite the pain still radiating through my body. Despite the weakness in my legs.
I stand, and I meet Duke Phideus's eyes with something I haven't felt in years.
Certainty, power, and righteous fury.
"I'm not the only heir," I say, my voice steady and cold. "I have sons. They're being raised by another woman. Claimed by another family. But they're mine. They're the heirs to Ziana's throne."
Kyrell's eyes widened with understanding. "The children who were taken from you..."
"Are princes of Ziana," I finish. "And I will take them back."
Duke Phideus studies me for a long moment, and then slowly a fierce smile crosses his face.
"Yes," he breathes. "Yes, Your Majesty. We will take them back."
As Princess Sybil, I'm Leander's equal now. Not his discarded wife. Not his madwoman to be banished and forgotten. Not the broken thing he humiliated before his entire court.
I’m his rightful equal. Ruler to ruler. Kingdom to kingdom.
The title still sounds foreign, impossible. But it means that I'm not powerless anymore. It means I have resources, allies. A whole kingdom to get back and rule. It means Cecily and everyone who participated in stealing my children will answer for what they've done.
And when I'll make Leander kneel before me, he will understand exactly what he's lost.
________________