Episode: THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT

The rain hit the windows like claws.

Lisa wiped down Table 7 for the fourth time. Her shift started at 5am. It was 9pm now. Two jobs. Four hours of sleep. And the sky had been screaming since noon.

She hated days like this.

On days like this, the lights flickered. The air felt too heavy. Like something was watching.

“Lisa! Table 4! Now!” Mr. Dane barked from the counter.

She grabbed the tray. Black coffee. No sugar. Two pastries.

Her hands were shaking. She told herself it was just exhaustion.

Then she saw them.

_Satin._

Tailored suit. Wedding band. Hair cut the way he used to wear it when he was 17 and promised her the world.

Next to him — _Eva._

Same sharp jaw as their father. Same smile that never reached the eyes. Half-sister. Replacement.

Lisa froze. Coffee sloshed over the rim.

Eva looked up first. Her eyes narrowed. “Well.”

Satin turned. His little magic prickled under his skin — barely a spark. He didn’t know why his chest hurt.

“L-Lisa,” he said.

“Don’t,” Lisa whispered.

Eva stood up too fast. She reached across the table and grabbed Lisa’s wrist. Hard. Nails digging in. “Still working here? After everything Dad did for you? Pathetic.”

The second her fingers touched Lisa’s skin —

_CRACK._

Lightning split the sky outside and slammed into the roof.

Every light in the café exploded. Glass rained down. Pipes in the walls burst and water flooded the floor. The espresso machine screamed and shot fire from the sides.

Chairs flew back. People screamed.

Eva was thrown across the room and hit the wall. Her wrist was red, burned.

Satin shielded her without thinking.

Lisa stumbled back, on her knees in the water. “I didn’t— I didn’t do anything—”

Her hands were shaking. Not from fear. From _it_.

From the thing inside her that came out when people tried to hurt her.

She didn’t know why.

She didn’t know what she was.

She only knew that when someone touched her with hate, the world fought back.

The café went black. Only the emergency exit sign glowed red.

Then the front doors blew open.

Not with wind. With _heat._

Everyone still on the floor bowed immediately.

_Arnold Valerius._

Black funeral coat. Wet hair. Eyes hollow from no sleep. A thin gold circlet on his head. Not a crown yet. Not officially.

His father’s funeral had been three hours ago.

He was _Emperor_ now.

His guards stayed outside. He didn’t want them.

His own fire jumped to his hands the second he stepped in. Without permission. Without thought.

He looked at the wreckage. At Eva on the floor. At Satin.

Then at Lisa. On her knees in the water, shielding her face, terrified of herself.

His fire dimmed. And bowed.

_Fire was the 2nd most powerful power in the kingdom._

And it knew who was in front of it.

The room was dead silent except for dripping water.

Arnold Valerius walked through the glass. He didn’t look at anyone else.

He stopped in front of Lisa.

“You,” he said. His voice was low. Emperor voice. Not the Crown Prince who used to sneak out to train.

“My father died this morning. Heart attack.” He said it flat. Like he hadn’t cried in the carriage on the way here.

“His last order. His _only_ order.” He crouched, so he wasn’t towering over her.

“Marry the Hart girl. Lisa. Keep her safe. She’s... important.”

Lisa looked up. Rain on her face. Or tears. She couldn’t tell.

“I don’t know you,” she whispered.

“Good,” Arnold Valerius said. “I don’t know you either.”

He glanced at Eva’s burned wrist. At the shattered café.

“Your power just leveled a building because she grabbed you. Do you know what that means?”

Lisa shook her head.

“It means if I don’t put a ring on your finger tonight, every king, every duke, every lab in this country will try to cage you. Or dissect you.”

He stood. Fire flickered at his fingertips again, then went out.

“I swore to a dead man. So congratulations. You’re engaged. To the Emperor.”

Lisa stared. “I can’t— I have jobs—”

“You don’t anymore.”

He turned to his captain at the door. “Royal guards. She comes with us. Now.”

Satin finally found his voice. “You can’t just—”

Arnold Valerius’s look shut him up. “I can. I just did.”

He held out his hand to Lisa. Not kindly. Like it was an order.

Lisa looked at it. At her burned, wet uniform. At Eva crying on the floor.

She thought of her father. *Richard Hart.* The way he looked at her like she was a mistake the day Serena died. The way he gave her to her aunt and never looked back.

She thought of the lights that always flickered around her.

Slowly, she put her hand in his.

His skin was warm. His fire didn’t burn her.

Outside, the rain was still falling. But the lightning had stopped.

As they walked to the black carriage, a man stood across the street.

*Richard Hart.* Old imperial guard coat. Face 20 years older.

He touched his ear.

“She’s awake,” he whispered. “And he claimed her.”

Inside the carriage, Arnold Valerius didn’t speak. He just stared at his own hands.

Fire. The 2nd strongest power.

And it had bowed to a Hart.

Lisa stared out the window.

Her father threw her away.

Her ex-fiancé married her sister.

And the new Emperor just told her she belonged to him.

The lights of the city never came back on that night.

*END EP 1*

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