CHAPTER 56: QUEEN AND EMPEROR

Ah, the Emperor. The glittering jewel of Nevareth, whose icy poise had, until this very evening, been as unyielding as the frost he was born beneath. But tonight... oh, tonight, even frost learned to melt.

It began innocently enough... if such things can ever be called innocent in the court of Solmire. A constellation of women circled him like moths around a flame.

Lady Cordelia Ashvane, newly recovered from her gown catastrophe, fluttered her lashes so violently one feared she might take flight. Others drifted closer with artful "accidents"... a brush of a sleeve here, a feigned stumble there, goblets refilled with trembling hands and eager smiles.

Each question was sweetened honey: "Does the Emperor dance?" "Is it true Nevareth’s snow never melts?" "Your Majesty, do tell us... does the crown weigh much?"

He answered all with that impeccable northern courtesy... cool, charming, and utterly detached. Polite, but distant. His words were snowflakes; they sparkled, then vanished before they ever touched the ground.

Because his gaze... oh, his gaze... remained elsewhere.

Fixed, unwavering, on the throne.

On her.

Queen Eris sat like the heart of a star, unbothered by the adoration that rolled through the hall in waves. She did not move, did not need to. And when she felt his stare upon her, she turned her head, just slightly, those eyes finding him with the precision of a blade.

A single, teasing glance. A ghost of a smile.

The kind that could make a man believe she knew exactly what he was thinking and was already ten steps ahead.

Then—how cruel she was—she looked away.

The women laughed prettily around him, but Soren was already gone. Not in body, no, his posture remained perfect, his glass untouched, but gone in purpose. He murmured excuses, slipped from the circle like smoke through fingers, and began his steady, deliberate approach toward the throne.

The crowd parted for him without quite realizing it, like a sea sensing its storm.

When he reached her, he did not bow. Did not ask permission. Simply stopped beside the dais and inclined his head with the kind of arrogance only an emperor, or a man ensnared, could afford.

Eris regarded him with calm curiosity, the corner of her mouth curving upward.

"Shouldn’t you be enjoying the festivities?" she mused, voice light as silk. "I’m sure there are at least a dozen ladies who would love your company."

He smiled, a dangerous, amused smile and seated himself beside her, utterly uninvited.

"My only business here," he said softly, "is with you."

She arched a brow, amused. "Your business? You mean the peace treaty. We’ve already signed it. We’re done."

He leaned in, lowering his voice to something that lived between confession and sin.

"That’s not what I meant."

The air between them shifted... thickened, charged. Her chin tilted, sharp and regal.

"Then what do you mean, Emperor?"

Soren’s mask cracked then, just slightly. The words slipped free before he could recall them.

"I mean that every moment I’m not touching you feels like suffocation. That watching you move through this ballroom is like watching something I want to devour. I mean—"

He stopped. But too late.

The words were there... alive, electric, impossible to take back.

For a heartbeat, the entire world seemed to pause.

Eris blinked once, slowly. She wasn’t sure if she’d heard him... or if the fire, in all its mischief, had merely decided to play tricks on her. Her pulse betrayed her, quickening beneath the lace of her gown.

And before she could summon her reply... before she could decide whether to burn him for his boldness or let herself be warmed by it...

The orchestra, as if sensing the air’s new current, shifted its melody. Gone were the solemn drums of ceremony; in their place rose the lilting waltz of old Solmiran courts... graceful, sweeping, the kind of music that makes even the most guarded heart yearn for motion.

Couples began to spill across the obsidian floor, skirts brushing flame-glow, jewels catching the light like scattered embers.

And then... he stood. Slowly.

Emperor Soren Nivarre, sovereign of the north, breaker of tempests, conqueror of kingdoms, looked at the Queen of Fire as if she were the only flame in existence. He extended his gloved hand toward her, palm steady, eyes unwavering.

"May I have this dance?" he said.

Not a statement. Not a command. Something far more dangerous, a request so heavy with intent it could have melted the ice crown he wore.

The court froze. Heads turned. Whispers rippled through the crowd like sparks racing across dry wood.

Eris, poised upon her throne, did not rise. Her expression remained the same polished calm that had undone diplomats for decades.

"I’ve already fulfilled my dancing obligations for the evening," she said lightly.

A lie, of course... she’d fulfilled her duty, not her desire.

And yet, her eyes betrayed her. That single flicker, interest, amusement, something alive and unwilling to die.

Soren saw it. Oh, he saw it. And instead of retreating, he pressed forward, voice lowering into a dangerous lilt that made the firelight tremble.

"One dance," he murmured. "Just one. Unless the Queen of Fire is afraid of a little frost."

Eris’s lips curved... not quite a smile, not quite a warning. "Afraid? Of you?"

He tilted his head. "Or perhaps you’re afraid of what people will say?"

"I didn’t take you for someone who cared about gossip," she returned, the faintest spark of heat in her tone.

"Only when it concerns the woman I’m dancing with."

The air between them crackled, the same way lightning dares the horizon before it strikes. Every word chipped at her composure until—at last—she sighed. A soft, theatrical sound, the kind that hides a smile inside it.

"You’re insufferable," she said.

He grinned, the grin of a man who knew he’d won but was wise enough not to gloat.

"And yet," she continued, rising with effortless grace, placing her hand in his, "you’re persistent."

"Persistence," he murmured, bowing low, "is the only virtue frost and fire share."

"Just one dance," she warned. "And then you leave me alone."

"I’ll try," he said, though his eyes made it perfectly clear... he would do no such thing.

Ah, but when Fire and Ice decide to dance, the world itself forgets to breathe. Even the gods above leaned in to watch what would happen when winter dared to touch fire.

Soren led Eris to the heart of the ballroom, to that blazing monument of faith, he took her hand, raised it to his lips, and pressed a kiss upon her knuckles... lingering, deliberate, an act that belonged less to politics and more to poetry.

Eris’s breath stuttered.... quiet, involuntary, treacherous. Oh, how she despised that reaction. Yet the sound never reached her lips.

They turned toward one another, his palm finding her waist, her hand settling upon his shoulder, their other hands joined in the space between them. The orchestra’s waltz found them like a heartbeat, steady, slow, then rising and together they began to move.

He was precision, each step a soldier’s discipline disguised in power and grace.

She was instinct... every motion a ripple of flame, alive and unpredictable.

Together, they were something the world had not seen in centuries.

The crowd fell silent. One by one, the dancers around them slowed, faltered, stopped entirely, as though the very air had commanded stillness. Words died on tongues. Goblets stilled halfway to lips. Every gaze, from the highest noble to the humblest servant, turned toward the pyre.

And there, bathed in red and silver light, two monarchs moved as one.

Fire and Ice.

Queen and Emperor.

Crimson and Silver.

Each orbiting the other, as though the gods themselves had choreographed their reunion.

Whispers broke like embers on the wind.

"Look at them..."

"Fire and ice shouldn’t work together, and yet..."

"They’re beautiful."

"Like the old stories... when Pyronox and Aenithra still loved each other."

"This... is this what unity looks like?"

Some watched in awe. Others shifted uneasily, feeling they were intruding upon something too intimate, too divine.

Because in that moment, the dance was no mere display of alliance... it was a story retold through motion. The story of two gods torn apart by pride, and two seemingly mortals now daring to bridge the same chasm.

The Eternal Pyre itself seemed to bow to them.. its flames no longer rising upward, but reaching toward the dancers, as if the fire wished to join their waltz.

And somewhere deep in the marrow of the world, the old gods surely stirred... wondering if, just this once, love might outshine destiny.

Ah, but jealousy... what a curious perfume it is. Invisible, intoxicating, and sharp enough to slice through silk. It drifted now through the glittering air of the ballroom, sweeter than wine and twice as dangerous.

The women of Solmire, painted, perfumed, and poised like predators watched from their little clusters of gold and envy.

They had spent the evening preening for the Emperor of Ice, fluttering lashes, brushing fingers against sleeves, laughing too loudly at jokes that did not deserve it. Yet all of that carefully crafted allure crumbled the moment he stepped onto the floor with her.

Her. The fire-born Queen. The woman who made men flinch and kingdoms bow.

And gods, how their whispers hissed.

"Of course he’d choose her. She’s the Queen."

"Probably using her witch’s fire to seduce him."

"She’ll destroy him, you’ll see... she destroys everything she touches."

"Poor Emperor, he doesn’t know what he’s getting into."

"Burn him alive, that’s what she’ll do. It’s what monsters do."

Lady Cordelia, whose neckline had nearly reached scandal earlier that night, looked close to tears. "It’s not fair," she breathed. "The queen already has a husband."

Even when the said husband had his own lover?

Around her, mothers clutched their daughters closer, as though the sight of Eris’s beauty might infect them with defiance. "See, my dear," one whispered, "what happens when you let monsters wear crowns?"

Envy was the oldest hymn of court women. None sing it quite as bitterly as those who wanted to be adored.

Across the floor, in the shadow of all that radiance, another pair danced.

Caelen and Ophelia... gold and white, grace and restraint. They moved as they always did, perfectly synchronized, the picture of devotion painted for the watching eyes of court and clergy alike. Yet something in the brush of their steps faltered, something delicate and strained.

Because Caelen’s gaze, though his body belonged to his wife, kept wandering... to her.

To the Queen he swore he despised.

To the woman whose name burned at the edge of every breath he took.

His jaw worked, the muscle ticking like a heartbeat gone wrong. His grip on Ophelia’s waist tightened unconsciously, not in affection but in frustration... perhaps anger at himself, perhaps at the sight before him.

And Ophelia, ever gentle, ever perceptive, noticed. She always noticed.

Her voice, when it came, was a breath drowned beneath violins. "She’s very beautiful tonight, isn’t she?"

No accusation. Only the truth... soft, quiet, devastating.

Caelen’s reply was too quick, too sharp. "That’s not what I was thinking about."

"Isn’t it?" she asked, eyes still on him, not on the Queen.

"No." His tone was firm, but his pulse betrayed him... the same pulse she had felt racing when he danced with Eris earlier, the same one that told her lies were easier than honesty.

So she said nothing more.

And they kept moving, step after perfect step, a picture of love painted in the colors of heartbreak. And as the crowd watched the Emperor and the Queen blaze like celestial bodies at the center of the ballroom, Ophelia quietly wondered when she had become the moon... shining only by the reflection of another woman’s fire.