Attained the right age. To be slaughtered

The years passed...seasons change...Nyx grew up

Dahlia grew up into a fine young lady...She is now 15 years old.

She was distant from people

Cold. Blunt. Difficult to approach.

She was no longer the muddy child wandering barefoot through palace gardens.

Now she moved like shadowed moonlight through the halls - quiet, unreadable, cold-eyed.

Servants lowered their gazes when she passed. Young knights stumbled over their words around her. Nobles whispered that the princess had inherited Noctara's silence too deeply.

Dahlia couldn't care less.

The palace still felt too large. Too polished. Too empty.

So she spent most of her time beyond its walls.

In the forests. On cliff edges. Among creatures that asked nothing from her except honesty.

Nyx, now fully grown, walked beside her like a living nightmare carved from darkness itself. His massive black form prowled silently through the throne chamber doors as Dahlia entered without permission.

The council meeting halted immediately.

Her mother looked seconds away from losing patience already.

"Dahlia," the Empress said sharply, "must that beast enter every room with you?"

Nyx growled low.

"He hates your advisors," Dahlia answered flatly.

Several advisors visibly stiffened.

"Charming," her mother muttered.

Her father, seated beside the Empress, sighed softly into his tea.

Unlike the Empress's razor-sharp authority, the Emperor carried calmness like a shield. Warm where she was severe.

"Sit down, Dahlia," he said gently.

"I'd rather stand."

"I didn't give you a choice"

After a long stare, she finally dropped into the chair carelessly, one leg thrown over the armrest with deliberate disrespect.

The Empress inhaled slowly.

"Do not start."

"You summoned me."

"We summoned you," her father corrected carefully, "because your academy departure is in three days."

Silence.

Then......

"No."

The room froze.

The Empress blinked once in disbelief.

"...Excuse me?"

"I'm not going."

"You do realize students across entire kingdoms beg for acceptance into the Astravelle

Academy?"

Dahlia shrugged.

"They can have my place then."

The Empress's expression darkened immediately.

"Dahlia."

"I already learned everything here."

"That is objectively false."

"I have Master Cael."

"For private tutoring."

"And the forest."

"The forest," her mother repeated dangerously.

"Yes."

Her father intervened before the Empress exploded.

"Dahlia," he said patiently, "the academy is not only about education. It is where you refine your abilities. Where you meet others of the Houses. Where future alliances are built."

"I don't care about alliances."

"You should."

"I don't."

The Empress finally slammed a hand against the throne armrest.

"For once in your life stop behaving like the world bends around your moods!"

Nyx immediately rose with a low snarl.

Every guard tensed.

Dahlia's silver eyes sharpened instantly.

"Don't yell at him," she said coldly.

"I was yelling at you!!"

"Same difference."

"Dahlia!" her father warned.

She stood abruptly, frustration finally cracking through her usual detached calm.

"Why should I go to some stupid academy?" she snapped. "Everything I care about is here."

"Name one thing," the Empress challenged immediately.

Dahlia glared at her.

"...Nyx."

The panther's tail flicked.

"And Tiara," she continued more quietly.

At the mention of the dragon's name, several advisors exchanged alarmed looks.

"Absolutely not," the Empress said immediately.

"She's barely fully grown."

"She is a wild drake, Dahlia, not a pet."

"She's smarter than half your council."

One advisor coughed violently.

Her father hid a smile behind his hand.

The Empress looked moments away from committing treason against her own bloodline.

"And the wolves," Dahlia continued stubbornly. "And the wyverns near the northern cliffs and..."

"This," the Empress interrupted furiously, "is exactly why we are sending you to the academy."

Dahlia went still.

"You are fifteen years old," her mother continued sharply. "You disappear into forests for days. You speak to beasts more than people. You ignore diplomacy, tradition, court responsibilities-"

"Because people are exhausting."

"No!! You are exhausting and you refuse to behave like an princess and you insukt everyone around you treat others like they are beneath you like they are worthless of your time

I feel fking embarrassed to call you my child!!"

The room fell silent.

Even Nyx stopped growling.

For a moment something flickered across the Empress's face beneath the anger.

Not hatred.

Fear.

"You cannot live separated from the world forever," she said quietly.

Dahlia looked away first.

The Emperor spoke carefully.

"The academy may not be what you expect."

"I know exactly what it is."

"Do you?"

"A cage."

Silence.

Then the Empress stood.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop instantly.

"You are going."

Dahlia crossed her arms.

"No."

"You are the heir to this empire."

"I never asked to be."

"You do not get to choose that."

"And you don't get to choose what I want."

The Empress stepped down from the throne slowly.

"You mistake stubbornness for independence."

"And you mistake control for love."

The words hit the room like shattered glass.

Her father closed his eyes briefly.

The Empress stared at Dahlia in stunned silence.

Then anger returned colder than before.

"You leave in three days," she said icily. "No further arguments."

"I'm not going."

"You will"

" Then I want Nyx with me"

"Are you out of your mind?" the Empress snapped. "Absolutely not."

"Then I'm not going."

"You are not bringing a shadow panther into the most prestigious academy in the continent."

Nyx, seated beside Dahlia like a dark statue, let out a low offended growl.

Dahlia scratched behind his ear absentmindedly.

"They won't accept a beast inside a school," the Empress continued.

"It's your school."

“Our academy,” her mother corrected sharply.

“Same thing.”

“People will run away seeing that creature. Are you planning to parade him into classes like a common house cat?”

“He technically is.”

A strangled laugh escaped the Emperor before he could stop it.

The Empress slowly turned toward her husband with a look of absolute betrayal.

He cleared his throat, trying and failing to appear serious.

“Well… she is not entirely wrong.”

Nyx looked quite smug.

The Empress looked one inconvenience away from assassination.

Dahlia took advantage immediately.

“Separate room for me,” she said calmly, already negotiating. “Nyx stays there only.”

“No.”

“I won’t bring him to classes.”

“No.”

“He’ll shift before people see him.”

Silence.

The Empress narrowed her eyes.

“…Shift?”

Nyx stretched lazily before, in one fluid ripple of shadow, his massive form collapsed inward.

Dark mist curled across the floor.

A second later, an ordinary black cat sat where the monstrous panther had been.

The council erupted instantly.

“What”

“Since when could it do that?!”

“That is highly illegal”

The tiny black cat yawned.

Dahlia looked bored.

“He does it when he wants attention.”

The Emperor stared in fascination.

“Well.”

The Empress looked horrified.

“That does not make this situation better.”

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